Reintroducing Varian Fry, A Connecticut Hero

DANBURY — A talk and film on Varian Fry will be presented in the Program Room at Danbury Library on Monday, October 18, at 1 pm.

Varian Fry, a Connecticut hero, saved more than 2,000 refugees during the early years of World War II, but he has yet to be recognized by the State of Connecticut.

Mr Fry was an American journalist who operated a rescue program in Marseille, France, beginning in 1940, to smuggle anti-Nazi and Jewish refugees out of the country following the occupation of France by Nazi Germany. He rescued some of the most creative and intellectual minds of the 20th Century, including the philosopher Hannah Arendt, French writer André Breton, sculptor Jacques Lipchitz, author Heinrich Mann, and Surrealist artist Marc Chagall.

The late Easton resident was educated at Hotchkiss, Taft, and later Fairfield University. He taught Latin and Greek at Ridgefield and Wilton High Schools and Greenwich Academy, and briefly taught at Joel Barlow High School in Redding. He had lived in Ridgefield before moving to Easton, where he stayed until his death in 1967. He is interred at Green-Wood Historical Cemetery in Brooklyn.

Six months after he died, Varian Fry was posthumously honored with France’s highest honor, the Croix de Chevalier de la Legion d’Honneur. Since then many streets and schools in France have been named in his honor, and in 1996 Yad Vashem in Jerusalem named Mr Fry the first American “as Righteous Among the Nations.”

A 26-minute film, Assignment Rescue, narrated by Meryl Streep, will be screened Monday afternoon. Following that, Newtown resident and photographer Rita Frost will give a presentation and talk about a small committee that has been trying to get Mr Fry honored by his former home state. Mrs Frost has been interested in Mr Fry’s story for more than 13 years.

“I feel that the State of Connecticut should do something to honor this man, and I hope that my talk will make his name more well-known,” Mrs Frost told The Bee in June, prior to a similar program she presented at Booth Library. “He is one of thousands who helped Jews escape from the Nazis during the war, but he is one of very few who did it on this scale and of this importance.”

Mrs Frost is worried that honoring Varian Fry not only needs to be done, but must be done sooner rather than later, before more of those he rescued die.

“Varian Fry was a complex journalist whose courage to stand up to the Nazis ultimately left us with a legacy of culture for he saved some of the most important and creative minds of the 20th Century,” said Mrs Frost. “His compelling story of man’s inhumanity to man, and his passion for freedom, is incredible.”

The Learning Exchange is sponsoring the event. Cost is $8, which then allows entry to all lectures by the Annex.

Reservations are suggested and can be made by calling 203-743-2690 or by inquiring at the library.