Varian Fry Saved 2,000 From The Holocaust—

Connecticut Hero A Passion For Newtown Resident

By Nancy K. Crevier

Newtown resident and artist Rita Frost is passionate about many things — art, photography, poetry, friends, and family. She is also passionate about the subject of Varian Fry, a Connecticut resident who died in 1967. Ms Frost is aghast that his name is not a household word, and is doing her part to see that the oversight is remedied, through word of mouth, letters to museums, and an upcoming Hadassah-sponsored program at which she will speak, at the C.H. Booth Library, Tuesday, June 15, at 7:15 pm.

“Varian Fry is the American Oskar Schindler, and was responsible for saving over 2,000 very important people from the Holocaust,” said Ms Frost. “He lived in Ridgefield, taught at Joel Barlow High School in Redding, and died here in Connecticut, but no one has heard of him. He was a very humble man, but he did great things and should be recognized,” she said.

Varian 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.

Working for The Living Age journal, Mr Fry witnessed incredibly brutal treatment of the Jews while on assignment to Berlin in 1935. Angered at this, he returned to America and joined the Emergency Rescue Committee. He was assigned to Marseille to assist a small list of refugees, many prominent artists, intellectuals, and scientists under threat of arrest by the Gestapo, to escape France. What was originally a one-month assignment, said Ms Frost, stretched out over 13 months as hundreds more refugees approached Mr Fry and his assistants for help.

Among the notables that escaped Nazi-occupied France due to Mr Fry’s efforts were philosopher Hannah Arendt, French writer André Breton, sculptor Jacques Lipchitz, author Heinrich Mann, and the source of Ms Frost’s own artistic inspiration, Surrealist artist Marc Chagall.

“Marc Chagall is one of my favorite artists and one of the 20th Century’s greatest artists. He influenced many other great artists,” said Ms Frost. Had Chagall perished at the hands of the Nazis, “I think it would have made a huge difference in this world,” she said. “Marc Chagall’s most prolific period had not yet even begun then,” pointed out Ms Frost.

Without the efforts of Varian Fry to save those artists and intellectuals, said Ms Frost, “a little piece of life and discovery would have been scraped out of the world.”

Ms Frost had never heard of Varian Fry until 1996 when she read about an exhibition on the man in New York City. “I thought, ‘He’s amazing. Why haven’t we heard of him?’” said Ms Frost. She later attended a talk about Varian Fry at his former Ridgefield home, and left still wondering why his name was so unknown. She read the book authored by Mr Fry, Surrender on Demand, and continued to marvel at the story. “I was so moved by him. What got me, was here he lived in Ridgefield and taught in Connecticut and nothing has been done to honor him.”

Wanting to visit his grave site, Ms Frost was surprised to find that it was not in Connecticut where he had died, but rather at the historic Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn. She was equally surprised to find out that while other graves of prominent people were part of the tour, Varian Fry’s grave was overlooked. Through letters she sent and conversations with Green-Wood personnel, she said, she has encouraged guides to recognize the grave of Varian Fry.

With Ms Frost at the June 15 program will be a Ridgefield resident, Gies Landberger, who will share her story of her escape from France through the Pyrenees Mountains into Spain. Ms Landberger’s father-in-law was a newspaper editor from Berlin who had been helped by Varian Fry. Had Ms Landberger’s in-laws not been spared, it is doubtful, said Ms Frost, that Ms Landberger and her husband would have lived through the war. “Varian Fry saved over 2,000 people directly, and probably many more, like Gies, indirectly,” said Ms Frost.

Varian Fry was awarded the Legion of Honor by France shortly before his death in 1967, and streets in France and Germany have been named after him, Ms Frost said. In Ridgewood, N.J., where he was raised, Varian Fry Way honors him. “He is the only US citizen who has been designated as ‘Righteous Among the Nations’ at the Yad Vashem Holocaust Museum in Israel,” she said.

In 1991, he was honored posthumously by the United States Holocaust Memorial Council with the Eisenhower Liberation Medal. But locally, lamented Ms Frost, there is no recognition for Varian Fry.

“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,” said Ms Frost. “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.”

Registration for the June 15 program is requested by calling Ms Frost at 203-426-8787, or the C.H. Booth Library at 203-426-4533. A suggested donation of $5 at the door will go to Hadassah group, to support various charitable causes.