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[The United States Secretary Colin] Powell
praised a special constructive dissent award that went
posthumously to Hiram Bingham IV, who defied State
Department policy during World War II by surreptitiously
issuing more than 2,500 visas to Jews desperate to flee
Nazism. In some cases, Bingham hid Jews in his villa in
Marseilles, France, or provided disguises and arranged
travel.
Bingham created an escape route to the United States
for such artists and literary figures as Marc Chagall,
Max Ernst and Lion Feuchtwanger. He lost his post as a
result, after then-Secretary of State Cordell Hull
instructed the consulate that it risked offending the
puppet French government. Bingham was transferred and
soon made unwelcome in the foreign service.
Powell called Bingham a diplomat "who risked his life
and his career" to do the right thing. Thomas Pickering,
a seven-time ambassador who received an award yesterday
for contributions to U.S. diplomacy, paid homage to
Bingham's "creative integrity."
Bingham's story is little-known. He was the son of a
U.S. senator and adventurer who rediscovered the Inca
city of Macchu Picchu. After leaving the foreign service
in the 1940s, he lived out his life in Salem, Conn.
Following Bingham's death, his children discovered a
hidden closet behind a fireplace. In the small room, they
found Bingham's descriptions of the Marseilles events and
diplomatic correspondence. They knew he had saved Jews --
Chagall sent holiday cards each year -- but he had never
been volunteered the rest of the story.
Bingham's actions "went against the policy of the
time, but my father put humanity above career," said
Robert "Kim" Bingham, a Justice Department lawyer. "The
lesson is that in the worst of times you can have
heroes."
