Varian Fry | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | Varian Mackey Fry October 15, 1907 New York City, New York, U.S. |
| Died | September 13, 1967 (aged 59) Redding, Connecticut, U.S. |
| Resting place | Green-Wood Cemetery, Brooklyn, New York[1] 40°39′23.35″N 73°59′41.67″W / 40.6564861°N 73.9949083°W |
| Alma mater | Harvard University |
| Occupation | Journalist |
| Known for | Emergency Rescue Committee |
Varian Mackey Fry (October 15, 1907 – September 13, 1967) was an American journalist. Fry ran a rescue network in Vichy France from August 1940 to September 1941 that helped 2,000 anti-Nazi and Jewish refugees, mostly artists and intellectuals, escape from persecution by Nazi Germany during World War II.[2]
Fry spent "thirteen months directing a bold, high-risk, and much celebrated refugee-smuggling operation in the south of France that included an all-star cast of Kulturträgers [culture carriers], among them artists Marc Chagall and Max Ernst, and writer André Breton and philosopher Hannah Arendt."[3] His activities, illegal under the laws of Vichy France, contrary to the policies of the United States government, and opposed by many of the other refugee relief organizations in France resulted in his expulsion and the severing of ties with him by his organization, the Emergency Rescue Committee.
He was the first of five Americans to be recognized as "Righteous Among the Nations", an honorific given by the State of Israel to non-Jews who saved the lives of many Jews and anti-Nazi refugees during World War II.
- ^ "Burial search on Varian Fry." Archived February 14, 2014, at the Wayback Machine Greenwood Cemetery, Brooklyn, New York. Retrieved: February 9, 2014.
- ^ Wilson, Matthew (April 3, 2023). "The man behind a covert WW2 operation". BBC Culture. Archived from the original on April 8, 2023. Retrieved April 7, 2023.
- ^ Joukowsky, Artemis (2016). Defying the Nazis:The Sharps War. Boston: Beacon Press. p. 141. ISBN 9780807071830.