I wrote my undergraduate thesis on Varian Fry. In the late summer of 1940, Fry went to France to rescue people subjected to Article 19 of the French Armistice treaty, also known as the “Surrender on Demand” clause. Certain political dissidents, writers, degenerate artists, prominent anti-Nazis, were (of course) wanted by the Nazi authorities. The Vichy government promised to find these people in southern France and turn them over to the Germans. Andre Breton, Heinrich Mann, Lion Feuchtwanger, Franz Werfel–these were the sorts of people Fry was trying to help–either by getting them on boats from Marseilles, or (more frequently) get them over the Pyrenees, through Spain, to Lisbon, and eventually to the US.
Fry is kicked out of France in the late summer of 1941, narrowly escaping arrest and internment. On his return to the US, he joined leftist organizations, befriended Charles Joy and the Unitarians (who were also interested in the “important” refugees) and desperately wanted to get an official role within the US government.
Ira Hirschmann didn’t really have to worry. Fry was definitely known to the WRB, but there was no way he would ever have been selected as one of their representatives.
