(PDF) (DOC) (JPG)September 1, 2010

(MAHWAH, NJ) – A traveling exhibition from the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, “Varian Fry, Assignment: Rescue, 1940-1941,” was on display at Ramapo College from September 1 through October 8 in the Pascal Gallery, Berrie Center for Performing and Visual Arts.

The exhibition is sponsored by Ramapo College’s Gross Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies in cooperation with the Berrie Center Art Galleries and the Committee to Honor Varian Fry (Ridgewood). The exhibition and all events associated with it were free and open to the public. Bringing “Assignment Rescue” to Ramapo was made possible thanks to a generous donation from Lauren Gross, Vice Chair of the Gross Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies Advisory Board.

“Varian Fry, Assignment: Rescue, 1940-1941″through text and photographs related the story of an unlikely hero from Ridgewood, New Jersey who became the first American, and one of only three, to be designated “Righteous Among the Nations,” an award from Yad Vashem, Israel’s national Holocaust memorial, that honors non-Jews who risked their lives during the Holocaust to save Jews from extermination by the Nazis.

Fry was instrumental in rescuing some 2,000 persons from Nazi oppression. Although Fry’s original assignment on behalf of the Emergency Rescue Committee (now the International Rescue Committee) was to bring a group of 200 refugee artists and intellectuals out of Nazi-controlled Europe, he unilaterally widened his mission upon his arrival in Marseilles when he recognized how many more people needed his help. As a result, he was responsible for saving not only the likes of Marc Chagall, Marcel Duchamp, Andre Breton, Max Ernst, and Hannah Arendt, but also a large number of ordinary Jews who were in immediate danger of Nazi persecution.

Fry ignored repeated entreaties from the American government to return to the United States. In September 1941, the Vichy French government finally ousted him for “protecting Jews and anti-Nazis.” Although most of the recognition Fry received was posthumous, shortly before his premature death in 1967 he was inducted into France’s Legion of Honor.

Born in New York City on October 15, 1907, Fry was raised as the only child of Arthur and Lillian Mackey Fry in Ridgewood, New Jersey. His father worked on Wall Street; his mother had been a public school teacher. His parents sent him to the Hotchkiss School, though he was not happy there and completed his secondary education at the Riverdale Country School in the Bronx. He attended Harvard University, from which he graduated during the depths of the Great Depression.

Attended by more than 70 guests, a reception for “Varian Fry, Assignment: Rescue, 1940-1941″was held on the evening of September 15. The principal speaker was Dr. Mordecai Paldiel, former director of Yad Vashem’s Department of the Righteous, who elaborated on Fry’s humanitarian mission, especially how bucked authority and consistently displayed courage and intelligence in the face of seemingly insurmountable obstacles. Preceding Paldiel was Catherine Taub, chair of the Committee to Honor Varian Fry (Ridgewood), who spoke about her organization’s efforts to recognize Fry’s achievements in his own country. She introduced the audience to Ms. Jeanette Berman of Saddle River, who as a young girl and with her family was saved by Fry.

Several additional programs were scheduled in conjunction with the exhibition. On September 27, Rosemary Sullivan, professor of English at University of Toronto and Fellow, Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation, gave a talk with title, “Lives on the Line: Varian Fry and the Artists He Saved at the Villa Air-Bel” and on October 4, 7:15 p.m.-Sheila Isenberg, author and professor of English at Marist College, Poughkeepsie, New York, spoke on “The Intellectual as Hero: Varian Fry and his Feat of Rescue.”

Like Paldiel, both speakers emphasized Fry defiant and upstanding nature. They also stressed how the time spent in France carrying out his difficult mission of rescue was probably the most meaningful part of his life. A brilliant organizer and a talented writer who had a wide understanding of the arts and international affairs who was also by nature outspoken, he was never subsequently able to put his ample gifts to good use.

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