By Joel A. Moskowitz, M.D

LA JOLLA, Calif—Do you know these names?  Franz Werfel, Hans Habe, Marc Chagall, Max
Ernst, Hannah Ahrendt, Varian Fry,  Fritz Kahn,   Jacques Hadamard,  Alfredo Mendizabel,
James Lipchitz, Wanda Landowska,  Otto Meyerhoff,  Dr. Albert O. Hirschman ("Beamish"), Bill Freier, Miriam Ebel?

All were marked by the Nazis for destruction. Werfel and Habe were celebrated authors.  Max Ernst and Marc Chagall acclaimed painters.  Hannah Ahrendt a political writer.  Fritz Kahn -
medical authority.  Jacques Hadamard - dubbed the "Einstein of France".  Alfredo Mendizabel - Spain's leading Catholic authority.  Otto Meyerhoff - Nobel Prize winner in biochemistry.  James Lipchitz - reknown sculptor. Wanda Landowska - harpsichordist.

Varian Fry, perhaps the least famous of all,  was designated by a private group, the European Rescue Committee,  to try to get as many intellectuals and academics as possible away from Hitler. In Marseilles, he found:  Bill Freier - extraordinarily talented cartoonist and forger of documents; Beamish - German Refugee and Fry's specialist on illegal matters; Miriam Ebel - a
colleague of Fry's helping in the secret evacuation.
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How these persons came to be associated is one of the best examples of the aphorism "In total darkness, even one candle sheds light".  The story is of one American whose voluntary actions exemplify the loftiest principles of personal bravery, a singular determination to save life from tyranny, to fight persecution.  This hero has only belatedly been recognized.  An exhibit showing through June 4  at the Lawrence Family Jewish Community Center in the La Jolla neighborhood of San Diego is dedicated to this man.

Truth is not only stranger than fiction, it teaches us more.  The value of remembering the story of Varian Fry centers on his successful achievement in having rescued between 2,000-4,000 intellectuals, academics, artists, Nobel Prize winners, trade unionists and just plain good people— all in a clandestine effort to escape the nazi "Surrender on Demand" edict. Hitler
aimed to block those few who were transiting France en route to freedom.  A privately funded group with Fry as the reluctant volunteer aimed to help these refugees dodge Hitler's snare. America's non-interference policy sought to thwart Fry and his European Rescue Committee.

After France's ignoble collapse, Article 19 of the Franco-German Armistice
required the puppet Vichy government to turn back to the Nazi's any "German political exiles attempting to escape Europe via France."

In 1935, journalist Varian Fry,  untrained in spy craft, mild in manner and unaware of his own potential for courage, saw the threat. Despite opposition from his own government, he was determined to rescue as many refugees from almost certain death at the hands of the Nazis.

It was not much before December 1941 and Pearl Harbor that most Americans awoke to the perils of fascism.  Fry, in a period of slightly more than a year, assembled thousands of refugees, mainly through illegal means, under threat of arrest.  At one point he  was detained, and the United States refused to renew his passport.  Nevertheless,  Fry persevered in his determination to aid refugees   In his memoirs, Fry said were it not for the United States' passivity and active opposition, he could have helped even more refugees than he did.

Over 13 months, Fry continuously  risked  possible arrest to get as many famous people out as he could.   Unfortunately, there were many who could not be saved.

The exhibit on Fry is sponsored by  Holocaust Education Programs  in collaboration with
the International Rescue Committee—which evolved from the European Rescue Committee that had sponsored Fry. "Assignment Rescue" "The Story of Varian Fry and the Emergency Rescue Committee" has its official opening on Wednesday, May 17, but many people who attended a May 15 concert by violinist Zina Schiff and a May 16 panel discussion featuring two survivors of Terezin have already previewed the story of the man who some people call the American Schindler.

The three components of  the exhibit, on loan from the National Holocaust Memorial Museum, are posters reproducing documents and photographs from Columbia University collection of Fry's papers; a collection of artworks on Flight  by Marc Chagall, Joan Miro and ten other artists whom Fry commissioned  in  the 1960's, and testimonies by 16 refugees who today call San Diego home.

The only official recognition Fry received in his lifetime and shortly before his death (1967) was the French Legion of Honor.  His memoir: Assignment Rescue was published posthumously.  In 1991, the United States Holocaust Memorial Council awarded the Eisenhower Liberation
Medal in his honor.  In 1996, he was designated as the first American among the "Righteous Among the Nations"  by Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial and Museum in Jerusalem.

The work of the European Rescue Committee has been continued under the newer title The International Rescue Committee. (www.theirc.org/sandiego) This organization with  branches in 24 cities throughout the U.S., is  funded both by the State Department and private sources, and has 40 employees in the San Diego office alone.  Sharon Darrough, of the San Diego office explained that the focus currently is on relocating refugees from world trouble spots including Somalia,  the Sudan, Afghanistan and even Vietnam.

A U.S. government immigration official interviews applicants in their home country to ascertain whether they have a legitimate fear of persecution.  If approved there is a further medical and security screening.  Then through a collaboration with the Office of Refugee Resettlement, assistance is provided the refugees to relocate to the United States where homes, employment, and acculturation assistance are provided.

The individuals relocated to the United States are offered the opportunity, after five years,  of becoming U.S. citizens.  Thus the United States of America continues to be a place where the oppressed can find shelter and renewed hope.  Varian Fry symbolizes this American  tradition.