Fry, Varian

Birth Name Fry, Varian
Gender male

Events

Event Date Place Description Notes Sources
Birth      

 
Occupation     Varian Fry was an American journalist

 
Military Action June, 1940   Varian Fry was sent to France by the Emergency Rescue Committee, to help get Jews and non-Jews who were threatened by the Gestapo out of the country

Event Note

In August, 1940,Varian Fry arrived in Marseille, with a list of 200 important refugees, and remained in France for 13 months,and was at risk of being arrested, by the Gestapo and by the police of the Vichy government. Under constant surveillance ,he was held and interrogated on more than one occasion, but managed to create an organization for the assistance of refugees which served as a cover for his real objective, that of getting people in danger out of the country.
He used secret crossings in the mountains, and created false papers, to get more than 2,000 people out of France, to the United States via Portugal or Martinique, amongst whom we find a number of artists and intellectuals, Max Ernst, Marc Chagall, Hannah Arendt, Andre Breton and Marcel Duchamp.

Event Note

In September 1941, Varian Fry was expelled from France.

 
Honor      

Event Note

Varian Fry was made knight of the Legion d'honeur in France.
In 1995, almost thirty years after his death, he received the title of Righteous among Nations, from Yad Vashem.

 

Pedigree

    1. Fry, Varian