Varian Fry – The Story of a Selfless Man
Varian Fry helped thousands of people in the period of WW2. He helped these people get out of France as Hitler was destroying it. This is the story of what he did, and how he was recognised to be one of the Righteous Among the Nations, a very high title given to Gentiles who compassionately helped Jews.
Also Fry did not nominate himself for the award, but someone else did. In fact, he probably did not even know about the award, because the foundation was started only 4 years before his death. We know about his work from the memoirs of the people he worked with, including Miriam Davenport Ebel, and by some people he saved. Miriam wrote about Fry As it turned out, a better man could not have been chosen for the job. Committed, self-righteous, and publicly imperturbable, Also photos were taken of him doing the work and many talked about his work. There is strong evidence of Varian Fry’s kindness.
Varian Fry truly deserved his title of Righteous. He was a Gentile, he saved over 4000 Jews, he knew his life was a risk, he accepted no reward, and there is so much proof.
Although Varian Fry was dead when he was awarded Righteous, he received the official certificate with his name he also received the medal. A tree was planted in his honor by his son in 1996 and his name was inscribed in the official memorial garden. Warren Christopher, a U.S state secretary, posthumously apologized to Fry about the American’s bad treatment towards him at the ceremony. He was the first American to ever be awarded Righteous among the Nations. 3 Americans have been honoured (Martha & Waitsill Sharp were the others.) 21,000 have so far been awarded.
As well as this, he was awarded the Chevalier of Legion de’ honour by the French Government soon before he died.
He saved over 4000 people for absolutely no reward at all, and those people would have had children and grandchildren. He is an absolutely amazing, exceptional and compassionate man.
These are the sources I used to get the information I needed to write this:
Varian Fry Foundation, 1997, Varian Fry, Last viewed 28th April 2010, http://www.almondseed.com/vfry/
Varian Fry Institute, 2009, Last viewed 27th April 2010, http://www.varianfry.org/
Yad Vashem, 2010, An American in Marseille, last viewed 28th April 2010,
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