As a child, I had heard of Uncle Harry's glamorous years in the Foreign Service, but when occasionally something was mentioned about his position in Marseilles, my Aunt Rose's face would cloud over and she would put an end to any discussion by saying rather forcefully, "Your Uncle Harry never did anything illegal." (¶ 3-42) Lucretia Bingham "Uncle Harry's Secret"

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On May 14, 2000, Lucretia Bingham, a nice of Hiram Bingham IV published an article in The Hartford Courant newspaper of Connecticut, USA entitled "Uncle Harry's Secret" (Exhibit 1) where, in a masterfully literary display, a fictional account of Bingham IV's purported "heroic" deeds is being presented such as:

• that "according to documents, Consul Bingham acted independently in his rescue efforts on behalf of refugees. He often acted against the explicit instructions and policies of the U.S. Consul General in Marseilles in violation of State Department regulations and counter to U.S. immigration policies. " (see, Exhibit 1, p. 2, ¶ 2-21).
  
  
  • No such document or evidence can be found to support any of these claims. In fact, if anything, all the existing evidence point exactly into the opposite direction and namely,
    
    
    • that Bingham IV never acted "independently" but always in concert with his colleague, the vice-consul Miles Standishl, and with Varian Fry of the Emergency Rescue Committee (ERC);
      
      
    • that Bingham IV always acted within the boundaries of the American Laws as revealed from the people that knew him the most (Varian Fry: "He [Bingham IV] does everything he can to help us, within American law ... , op. cit., and Rose, Bingham IV's wife, who, as Lucretia Bingham recalls, repeatedly heard her saying that "Uncle Harry never did anything illegal." (Exhibit 1, p. 3, ¶ 3-42. In addition, see also, p. 6, ¶ 6-92 where John, one of Bingham IV's sons is quoted as follows: "Mother was adamant that he [Bingham IV] had not disobeyed orders or broken the law.")
      
      

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      However, there is no question in our mind, that Bingham IV stretched those existing United States Immigration laws to the limit in favor of the strangled refugees and that is indeed a most commendable act on Bingham IV's part, but that can never ever be confused or substituted with an heroic act which clearly was not. Harry undoubtedly was a distinguished diplomat and a good and compassionate man, but no hero by any stretch of imagination.

      
      
• that "as far as is known, Harry may have been the only American diplomat to help in this area." (see, Exhibit 1, p. 4, ¶ 4-50).
  
  
  • This simply is not true as aside from Bingham IV, another American Vice-Consul in Marseille in charge of passports and visas, in that same period, was Miles Standish (see, The International Raoul Wallenberg Foundation, Exhibit 2). Also, in the corrupt Vichy government of Marseille, the black market was in full swing and many were able to find their way out without legal exit visas. That was a very lucrative business at that time responsible for saving many thousand of lives.

    
    

• that Bingham IV played an instrumental role in saving Lion Feuchtwanger's life. (see, the photos with the captions of pp. 1 and 5, as well as ¶¶ 5-57 to 5-60 that are all fiction, Exhibit 1).
  
  
  • According to The International Raoul Wallenberg Foundation, the instrumental role was played by Bingham IV's colleague , the Vice-Consul Miles Standish. Also, this very point is re-emphasized by Donna F. Ryan in her book The Holocaust and the Jews of Marseille (1966, p. 144, University of Illinois Press) where it is stated, inter alia, that Lion Feuchtwanger, in fact, was not able to get a legal exit visa and that he took charge, so to speak, of his own destiny in a rather blunt and misguided way:
    
    • "Without legal exit visas, Lion Feuchtwanger, Heinrich and Nelly Mann, Golo Mann, and Franz and Alma Mahler Werfel escaped to New York via Spain and Lisbon with ERC help. [Editor's note: The ERC, the "Emergency Rescue Committee" of New York was embodied in Marseille by Varian Fry and nobody else.] Unfortunately, Feuchtwanger, eager to exaggerate his own courageous participation in these events, gave away the details of his escape, including his rescue from the camp at Saint Nicolas with the help of Miles Standish, the U.S. Vice-Consul ..."

    
    

• that "during the space of one year, Harry had helped save more than 2,500 lives." (see, Exhibit 1. p. 5, ¶ 5-77).
  
  
  • Well, again there is nothing, but absolutely nothing, in the existing body of evidence that can lead a rational person to the conclusion that Bingham IV saved even one single life much less the preposterous figure indicated! All this claim is pure fantasy and noting else with no meaning or substance behind.
    
    
• that because of Bingham IV's heroic deeds, he paid dearly being forced to submit his "'humiliating' resignation from the foreign service" (see, Exhibit 1, p. 1, ¶ 1-11). And at p. 5, ¶ 5-74, we have:

  • "Harry was clearly exceeding his authority. He was doing what he thought was the right thing to do. The loss of his career and the approval of his family would be the resulting punishment for listening to his conscience."

  And finally, at p. 6, ¶ 6-89, we have this account from Lucretia Bingham:

  • "He insisted that the state department reassign him to Washington and put him in charge of investigating Nazi infiltration of Argentina. Not only was this request denied, but in return he was offered a humiliating lower post in Havana, a backwater at that time."

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  .	Hiram Bingham IV with wife Rose and children (c. 1946)
  	Photo Credit: pages.cthome.net/WWIIHERO/

  Well, the truth of the matter is a little bit different. Having 11 children, created an enormous burden for accepting overseas assignments and thus, at his own initiative, Bingham IV asked the State Department to assign him, if possible, to a position in his home State Connecticut or in Washington, DC. Because of his skills as a diplomat, the State Department, to the contrary, considered him much too valuable and assigned him to Havana, Cuba --a post that eventually became one of the most important post-war posts because of the United States phobia with the Communism and its proliferation. Faced with this new assignment, Bingham IV, of his free will, chose to resign.
  
  This extremely well documented chain of events is in fact encapsulated as follows in the official State Department biographical sketch:
  • "Having 11 children of his own increasingly complicated Bingham's ability to accept overseas assignments, and he resigned from the service in 1946."

Lucretia Bingham's fictional account of her Uncle's experience as a purported hero is rich in accolades and imaginary details that sometimes are being carried to incredible heights, such as the one that describes Harry's exact attire in one of his purported "rescue" operations (Exhibit 1. p. 5, ¶ 5-60):

"One day when Feuchtwanger was out walking in the far reaches of the camp, Harry arrived in a fancy car, wearing a smartly tailored white suit and knit gloves." [sic!]

or the one involving an experience "in a train" that have consumed Bingham IV and his wife Rose for the rest of their lives as revealed in our next section.

 

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