Holocaust Survivors and Remembrance Project: "Forget You Not"™

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preserving the past to protect the future ...
 

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Varian Fry
(1907 - 1967)
"In all we saved some two thousand human beings.
We ought to have saved many times that number.
But we did what we could."
  Varian Fry

  

An American Hero:
The Varian Fry Drive for a
United States Commemorative Stamp

 

 

InMemoriam

1. Who was Varian Fry?

              A Hero
2. Varian Fry Book Exhibit

The United States Secretary of State Warren Christopher plants a tree in honor of Varian Fry at Yad Vashem on February 4, 1996.
Photo Credit:
Courtesy of Yad Vashem, The Holocaust Martyrs' and Heroes' Remembrance Authority,
Jerusalem, Israel.


Varian Fry Exhibit
"Remember yesterday, educate today,
preserve tomorrow, for our children"

3. A Selected Photo Gallery with Varian Fry
"He didn't have to go to France; everybody else was trying to get the hell out, but he went there..."
Mark Kritz, Chairman of the Varian Fry exhibit at the Albert L. Schultz Jewish Community Center in Palo Alto, USA.

At Villa Air Bel on the outskirts of Marseilles, France

4. Commercial Videos and Movie on Varian Fry

5. Varian Fry Exhibits:

6. The Most Recent Honor Bestowed to Varian Fry by the United States:

  • The American Consulate General in Marseille, France, one of the United State's oldest overseas posts, on October 2000 --the birthday month of Varian Fry, honors him by naming the plaza in front of the consulate the "Varian Fray Plaza" :
       F R O M :
    US Consulate, Marseille

    The Consulate's workload was stretched to the limit shortly before the Second World War as a result of the massive influx into Marseille of refugees from all over Europe fleeing Nazi persecution. Perhaps tens of thousands (exact numbers are not known) of them came to the Consulate General seeking asylum in the United States; the consulate was forced to move its visa operations to larger facilities in a nearby suburb. The consulate's current address is "Place Varian Fry" in honor of the American citizen who lived in Marseille from 1940-1941, saving hundreds of refugees from the gas chambers. Many famous Europeans, including Hannah Arendt, Max Ernst, Marc Chagall, André Breton, Heinrich Mann and Nobel Prize winner Otto Meyerhof, lived in Marseille while Fry, a discreet intellectual sometimes referred to as "the American Oskar Schindler," helped with lodging and arranged for exit visas, transit visas and visas to the United States. Fry complained that consulate officials at the time did not do enough to help these refugees. In October 2000, the small plaza in front of the consulate was named for Fry in recognition of his heroic efforts.
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7. Notable Readings:

 


"... an American had arrived, like an angel from heaven,
with his pocket full of passports ..."
[Isenberg, Sheila. A Hero of Our Own. New York, NY: Random House Inc, 2001; p.17]

 

Fry

T h e   V a r i a n   F r y   S t a m p   C a m p a i g n

I. "An American Hero of our Times" Petition
before the Citizens' Stamp Advisory Committee of the United States Postal Service
for the issuance of a Centennial Commemorative Stamp
for our National Hero, the late Varian Fry,
recognized worldwide for his World War II humanitarian deeds.
 

II. How Can You Help with the Varian Fry Stamp Campaign:

1. Read the Petition submitted before the Citizens' Stamp Advisory Committee of the United States Postal Service in Washington DC, and then

2. Write your Letter of Support for the Petition to the above stated postal Committee as exemplified herein.

3. Let other people know about this campaign in progress.

Thank you for supporting the cause in honoring our National Hero, the late Varian Fry.

   

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Suggestions for further material to be included in here are welcome.

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