Diplomats Who Aided or Saved Jews in Southern France

“Visas! We began to live visas day and night. When we were awake, we were obsessed by visas. We talked about them all the time. Exit visas. Transit visas. Entrance visas. Where could we go? During the day we tried to get the proper documents, approvals, stamps. At night, in bed, we tossed about and dreamed about long lines, officials, visas. Visas.”

-An Austrian survivor who went to South America

“Failure to secure the right visas at the right time could mean death in an extermination camp in Poland. Frustration followed frustration: refugees suffered nervous collapse, unable to endure the tension.”

- The Hunted Children, Donald A. Lowrie (1963), p. 174

“For many of these hunted people the expiration date of a visa was almost like a date for execution. Some years after the war, in New York, I met an ex-refugee who greeted me with ‘You saved my life.’ I had no recollection of the case, but this man explained: ‘I was in the army and could not reach Marseilles before my American visa expired. The American consulate was refusing to receive people like me, but you gave me a note to the consul and I was able to take a ship for New York.’”

- The Hunted Children, Donald A. Lowrie (1963), p. 180

Helen's [Lowrie] report to America said: "When the first father came to our office and left his ten-year-old daughter in our hands, suddenly it came to us what America meant to the distracted people of this old world. Here were we, perfect strangers, having put in our charge the dearest thing a mother and father own, just because we represented that country which has always stood for liberty and the rights of the individual; which in the past has shown how big its heart was by sending help to sufferers thousands of miles away; and which now was opening its homes as haven for the coming generation of Europe. As one would-be emigrant said to one of our consuls: 'For you we are just numbers, but for us you are the god who has the right to open the gates of the promised land or keep shut that door and condemn us to despair.' You would have to be here to understand all that American generosity can mean in times like these."

- The Hunted Children, Donald A. Lowrie (1963), pp. 101-102

The best way for a Jewish refugee to avoid arrest and deportation by the Nazi’s was to emigrate from Nazi controlled areas. Leaving Europe and Nazi occupied territories was possible between 1933 and the latter part of 1941.

In fact, Nazi policy was devised to force Jews to emigrate. This was done by denying them their civil rights, removing their ability to earn a living, and appropriating their property and funds.

After 1938, thousands of Jewish community leaders were sent to German concentration camps in an effort to get them to leave Germany and Austria.

Between 1938 and 1940 thousands of Jews and other refugees were able to be released from the Nazi concentration camps on the strength of holding a transit visa or destination visa.

Vice Consul Hiram Bingham, IV, and Vice Consul Myles Standish, at the American consulate in Marseille, were able to have Jews released from French concentration camps on the strength of their visas or affidavits in lieu of passport.

A refugee could either leave by legal means or by extralegal methods. Leaving Nazi areas by “legal” emigration was an extraordinarily complex and difficult procedure. The refugee was required to run a gauntlet of endless bureaucratic procedures. The process ultimately required the refugee to obtain at least four documents. First and foremost, the refugee needed a passport. (When a passport was unavailable, an affidavit in lieu of passport might be obtained.) Further, a refugee needed an entry visa for the country to which the refugee was fleeing; an exit visa from the country where the refugee was trapped; and transit visas for crossing through countries and across international borders through Europe.

Unfortunately, many refugees were forced to flee their home countries without proper documentation and were thus considered “stateless.” This was particularly true of German, Austrian, Romanian or Hungarian Jewish refugees who had fled to France. In addition, many refugees possessed documents that were marked with a large red letter J, which signaled border patrolmen that the holder of the passport was Jewish.

Even for refugees with valid passports, obtaining the life-saving visas took enormous amounts of energy and time. Conflicting foreign ministry regulations and changing rules further confused the frustrating process. Many frustrated refugees committed suicide in desperation during this process.

Some sympathetic diplomats and foreign service officials would issue these stateless refugees passports, affidavits in lieu of passport, visas, identification papers and safe conduct passes, often against the policies and regulations of their foreign ministries.

There were other barriers to “legal” emigration as well. In Germany and Austria, refugees were required to register with the Gestapo and turn over most of their money and assets. Most were left destitute. Their financial state made it virtually impossible for the refugee to obtain an entry visa to the desired country.

In addition, a refugee was required to have a large amount of cash, usually in dollars. Many refugees had fled carrying almost no possessions. Jewish refugee and relief agencies could sometimes provide cash to refugees.

The Nazi police and SS also required proof of holding a ticket for a ship or train with a departure date.

More than a million Jewish refugees left Nazi occupied Europe between 1933 and the end of 1941, when the Nazis made emigration illegal.

Fry describes, in an unpublished draft of his manuscript, Surrender on Demand, the process of obtaining visas and other documents for refugees:

“We took a tally of our work today. It is quite impressive. In less than eight months, over 15,000 people have come to us or written to us, and we have had to consider every one of their cases and take a decision on it. We have decided that some 1,800 of the cases fell within the scope of our activities: in other words, that they were genuine cases of intellectual or political refugees with a good chance of emigrating soon. In these 1,800 cases, which represent, in all, some 4,000 human beings, we have had to make all kinds of efforts. We have had to help some people be liberated from the camps, others transferred from the camps where they were to the embarkation camp at Les Milles. We have had to get ‘certificats d’hébergement’ and doctors’ certificates. We have had to write letters to prefects and mayors asking for saufs conduits and permis de séjour. We have had to get some people out of prison, intervene for others when they were on the point of being expelled from Marseille, the Bouches du Rhône, even France itself (with no place to go except a concentration camp). We have had to keep up relations with the police and local officials. We have had to help our clients obtain all kinds of immigration and visitors’ visas, United States, Mexican, Brazilian, Venezuelan, Colombian, Cuban, Santo Domingan, etc. We have had to know the immigration laws and regulations of each of these countries and to maintain constant and friendly relations with their consulates and legations. We have had to arrange for the transatlantic passages of hundreds and hundreds of people. We have had to help get Portuguese and Spanish transit visas and French exit visas. We have had to maintain relations with the Spanish and Portuguese consulates and legations and keep a man stationed permanently at Vichy to take up difficult exit visa cases with the proper authorities there.” (Dated “Later May 7 [1941].” Varian Fry, unpublished manuscript for Surrender on Demand, p. 548, Varian Fry Papers, Butler Library, Columbia University, New York)

Danny Bénédite described working with members of the diplomatic corps in his report of November 6, 1941:

“At first, aid in obtaining visas was limited to exchanges of cables and letters between ourselves and the Emergency Rescue Committee in New York. Later our connections with the Museum of Modern Art, the New School for Social Research, the International Relief Association and the New World Resettlement Fund became direct sources of valuable aid.

“Firm and satisfactory relationships with the American Consul in Marseille and with the consuls in Lyon and Nice provided us with information concerning the issuance of visas and correct procedures. We also kept in touch with clients in other parts of France and in concentration camps, and set up systematic plans for providing them with funds, clothes and parcels of food. We established relations with the embassies, legations and consulates of South American countries, in order to obtain visas for certain people who, because of their political past or their special abilities, had better prospects of emigration to those countries than to the United Sates. Thus we were in direct contact with the Brazilian Embassy, the Mexican Legation and Consulates, and the diplomatic representatives of Cuba, Chile, San Domingo, Venezuela, Panama and Columbia.” (Danny Bénédite, Marseille, November 6, 1941, Administrative Report: The Stages of the Committee’s Development [draft], Emergency Rescue Committee, p. 3) [Note: strikethrough text appears in original.]

“Credit must be given to the intelligent and understanding cooperation of the American consular officials in Marseille, notably Hiram Bingham and Myles Standish. Without their aid we could not have been so successful at this time. They minimized formalities instead of creating barriers to the departure of refugees, and did everything in their power to help those ready to go in general showed a sympathetic attitude toward candidates for immigration. […]

“The United States Consul continued to cooperate with us in minimizing delays in issuing visas and in arranging necessary interviews well in advance, so that prospective passengers could leave by the first available vessel.” (Danny Bénédite, Marseille, November 6, 1941, Administrative Report: The Stages of the Committee’s Development [draft], Emergency Rescue Committee, p. 7) [Note: strikethrough text appears in original.]

Visas often had to be supplied at the last minute, and under difficult circumstances. Danny Bénédite describes the American consular offices issuing visas on extremely short notice:

“These tasks had to be carried out very quickly, since, in the interests of safety, the shipping companies revealed the dates of sailings only four or five days in advance and part of the work had to be done within those days. Many of our protégés who lacked American visas, exit visas, tickets and funds on days when sailings were announced, were nevertheless able to go. Some received their American visas an hour before sailing time and were given their tickets on the dock.” (Danny Bénédite, Marseille, November 6, 1941, Administrative Report: The Stages of the Committee’s Development [draft], Emergency Rescue Committee, p. 8) [Note: strikethrough text appears in original.]

In addition to obtaining travel documents, Fry talks about maintaining the refugees:

“We have had to pay some 560 people weekly living allowances. We have had to find doctors and dentists who would treat our protégés free of charge, or for ‘nominal’ fees. We have had to extend numerous loans and grants for travel expenses. And we have had to coordinate all our efforts with the efforts of the other relief organizations in France and keep in constant touch with all of them to avoid duplication and waste of effort and money.

“An impressive list. And if you add to it all the illegal things we have had to do to save people’s lives…” (Dated “Later May 7 [1941].” Varian Fry, unpublished manuscript for Surrender on Demand, pp. 548-549, Varian Fry Papers, Butler Library, Columbia University, New York)

Diplomats, in alphabetical order:

Francisco Aguilar, Mexican Consul General in France, 1940-1941?

Francisco Aguilar was the Mexican Consul General in France, 1940-1941. He worked with Gilberto Bosques in aiding Jews to escape France.

[Rodríguez, Luis I. Misión de Luis I. Rodríguez en Francia: La protección de los refugiados españoles, Julio a diciembre de 1940. (México: El Colegio de México, Secretaría de Relaciones Exteriores, Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnología, 2000), pp. 561, 569-570, 573.]

Hiram Bingham IV, † US Vice Consul in Marseilles, France, 1940-1941

Hiram Bingham was the American Vice Consul in charge of visas, stationed in Marseilles, France, in 1940-1941. Shortly after the fall of France, Bingham, against the orders and policy of his superiors, issued visas, safe passes, and letters of transit to Jewish refugees. Many visas were falsified in order to protect the refugees from internment. Bingham helped set up the contacts and issued visas for the Emergency Rescue Committee, headed by Varian Fry. Bingham also worked with other rescue operations in Marseilles, including the American Friends’ Service Committee (Quakers), the American Red Cross, the Unitarian Service Committee, the Mennonite Committee, and Jewish relief organizations. Bingham also worked with the Nîmes (Camps) Committee. He was, in part, responsible for saving several thousand Jews. Among them were many anti-Nazi activists, labor leaders, and Communists. He also rescued Jewish artists, intellectuals, writers and scientists, such as Marc Chagall, Max Ernst, André Breton, Heinrich Mann, and Jewish Nobel Prize winners. Bingham visited the concentration camps and facilitated issuing visas to Jews trapped in the Les Milles French concentration camp. In May 1941, Bingham helped the Quakers, the Nîmes Committee and the OSE rescue several hundred Jewish children by issuing US visas. These children left France in June 1941. In 1942, Bingham was transferred to the US embassy in Buenos Aires, Argentina. At the end of the war, he reported on the immigration of Nazi war criminals to Buenos Aires. He wrote numerous reports and encouraged his supervisors to report these activities to the State Department. His superiors did nothing and he resigned from the Foreign Service in protest. In 2000, Bingham was presented the American Foreign Service Association Constructive Dissent award by the US Secretary of State. In 2005, Hiram Bingham was given a letter of commendation from Israel’s Holocaust Museum. In 2006, a US commemorative postage stamp was issued in his honor.

Varian Fry called the American Vice-Consul, Harry Bingham, at the U.S. Consulate in Marseilles his “partner in the crime of saving lives.” Fry extensively mentioned Bingham helping him obtain visas and affidavits in lieu of passport for refugees. Bingham also hid refugees in his home.

Fry worked closely with Dr. Frank Bohn of the American Federation of Labor, who was operating a rescue network in Marseilles. During an initial meeting, Fry inquired about the cooperation of the American consulate in Marseilles:

“‘How do you find the [American] Consulate?’ I asked. ‘Have they co-operated?’

“‘Splendidly!’ Bohn Said. ‘Splendidly! Don’t you worry. If anything should happen to us, the Consulate and the Embassy would back us up to the hilt.’” (Varian Fry, Surrender on Demand, p. 10)

“…Harry Bingham was out. He’s the Vice-Consul in charge of visas, and the son of the late Senator from Connecticut. I believe his brother’s the editor of Common Sense. Anyway, he has a heart of gold. He does everything he can to help us, within American law.” (Varian Fry, Surrender on Demand, p. 10)

“‘By the way, have you any idea what’s become of [Lion] Feuchtwanger…?’

“[Heine said,] ‘…I haven’t heard what’s become of Feuchtwanger. Some say he’s in Switzerland. He was interned in the camp of St. Nicolas last spring, but after the armistice he escaped, and nobody’s heard of him since.’

“‘Huh-hmm,’ Bohn said, clearing his throat. ‘Perhaps you and I had better talk privately about this, old man.’

“He got up and led me into the bathroom.

“‘I’ve promised Harry Bingham not to breathe a word of this to anybody,’ he said, after he had closed the door, ‘but I’m sure he wouldn’t mind my telling you. It was Harry who got Feuchtwanger out of that camp. He arranged it all with Mrs. Feuchtwanger in advance, and she got word of their plans to her husband. Luckily she wasn’t interned, you see.’” (Varian Fry, Surrender on Demand, p. 11)

Bingham issued numerous affidavits in lieu of passport:

“Luckily, when an American visa had been authorized for an apatride, or man without a country, the American Consulate usually gave him a paper called an ‘affidavit in lieu of passport.’ For a while this worked, provided the man was willing to take the chance of going through Spain under his own name. In fact, many minor French and Spanish officials obviously took the bearers of such documents for American citizens, and treated them with the special deference European under-officials somehow almost always reserve for Americans—or used to. I was not inclined to correct the false impression.” (Varian Fry, Surrender on Demand, pp. 17-18)

“The Consul-General kept telling me I’d be expelled any day if I were lucky enough not to be arrested and held on charges. But there were four friends of Paul Hagen’s in the camp at Vernet he had asked me particularly to help, and I didn’t want to go until I had gotten them out of France.

“The first step, obviously, was to get them out of Vernet. We had sent letters to the commandant in the name of the committee, and Bingham had sent him letters and telegrams in the name of the Consulate—all to no avail.” (Varian Fry, Surrender on Demand, pp. 86-87)

“The four men came to Marseille, went to the American Consulate, and got their American visas the same day, thanks to Harry Bingham.” (Varian Fry, Surrender on Demand, pp. 87-88)

“Just before the Bouline left, Harry Bingham invited me to dinner at his villa, to meet Captain Dubois. Captain Dubois was a member of the Marseille staff of the Sûreté Nationale. Though a Vichy policeman, he was friendly to England and America, and Harry thought it would be useful for me to know him.

“It was. Dubois was the first French official I had met who was familiar with my case and willing to talk about it. When I asked him what the police had against me, he said, with a sly smile I couldn’t quite fathom, ‘Smuggling people out of the country.’

“‘Anything else?’ I asked.

“‘Yes, trading in foreign exchange.’” (Varian Fry, Surrender on Demand, pp. 89-90)

“A cabin boy came in and announced that Monsieur le Consul des Etats-Unis was waiting below. Much impressed, the captain instructed the boy to bring the Consul up at once.

“When Harry Bingham walked through the door and shook hands with us, whatever doubts the captain may previously have had about us were immediately dissipated. His manner became perceptibly more cordial. He took out a key ring from his trousers’ pocket and unlocked a cupboard revealing a large collection of half-filled bottles. He selected a bottle of cognac and took down four small glasses.

“’Voilà, messieurs, dame,’ he said, pouring us glasses of the brandy. ‘A votre santè.’

“As we drank, Harry told us that he had called up the Prefecture several times to find out why we were being held and for how long. But all the high officials were out with the Marshal, or busy protecting him, and he hadn’t been able to get any information. He hoped to do better tomorrow, when the Marshal would be on his way back to Vichy and thins would be returning to normal in Marseille. A great many people had been arrested in honor of the Marshal’s visit, he said, at least seven thousand, and most of them would probably be released in a few days. Whether we would be released or not he couldn’t say, but he would do his best to see that we were.” (Varian Fry, Surrender on Demand, p. 147)

“In the course of time we learned that some of the refugees on my list had already escaped from France without our help. But the great majority were stuck, and wouldn’t have been able to get out at all if it hadn’t been for us. With the help of the American affidavits and the Czech passports, we were able to get quite a lot of them out of France in those first weeks. Besides Paul’s underground-worker friends, they included among many others, Hans Natonek, a Czech humorist; Hertha Pauli, an Austrian journalist; Professor E.S. Gumbel, a German refugee scholar on the faculty of the University of Lyon; Leonard Frank, a German novelist and poet; Heinrich Ehrmann, a young German economist; Friedrich Stampfer, a German trade union leader and the former editor of the Berlin Vorwaerts; Dr. Otto Meyerhoff, a Czech physicist and Nobel Prize winner; Alfred Polgar, German novelist; and Conrad Heiden, the biographer of Hitler.” (Varian Fry, Surrender on Demand, p. 32)

“Paul’s friends were Franz Boegler, Hans Tittel, Fritz Lamm and Siegfried Pfeffer. There were visas for all of them at the Consulate. Harry Bingham sent letters and telegrams to the army officer in charge of the camp asking him to let them come to Marseille to get their visas, but it didn’t work. He just didn’t get an answer.” (Varian Fry, unpublished manuscript, p. 115, Box 14, Folder 1, Varian Fry Papers, Butler Library, Columbia University, New York)

“They [Mr. and Mrs. Victor] watched the autobus which meets the Barcelona train at Figueras go out without them. Then they crossed back into France, and Berger drove them back to Perpignan. From Perpignan they returned to Marseille, and at Marseille they came straight to me and told me their story. Since their Luxembourg refugee passports weren’t recognized in Spain, the only thing to do was to get them American affidavits in lieu of passports. Many American consuls would have refused to give an affidavit in lieu of passport to a refugee who already had a passport, on the grounds that the man had a passport and it was no business of the American Consulate whether the passport was valid in Spain or not. But Harry Bingham wasn’t a run-of-the-mill Consul. He mad out the affidavits without any hesitation at all and transferred the visas to them. Then, since the Victors had spent all their money by this time, I advanced them some and they set out for the frontier again. This time they didn’t come back.” (Varian Fry, unpublished manuscript, pp. 117-118, Box 14, Folder 1, Varian Fry Papers, Butler Library, Columbia University, New York)

“The Museum of Modern Art asked the State Department to grant him [Marc Chagall] an ‘emergency’ visa last November. Not knowing this, I took him to the Marseille Consulate in January and got him an immigration visa with no affidavits at all. In fact, all he had in his dossier was a letter from me guaranteeing him politically. It was not until February 10 that the Consulate received the Department’s authorization to grant Chagall a visa. Meanwhile, he had already had his visa a full month.

“In other words, it took the Department three months to grant him an “emergency” visa, whereas the Consulate only required a day or so to give him an ordinary immigration visa.” (Varian Fry, unpublished manuscript, p. 462, Box 14, Folder 1, Varian Fry Papers, Butler Library, Columbia University, New York)

“In fact, so far as I know, the Marseille consulate is the only on in France where the German-Austrian and Polish quotas are open. But we are lucky to have at that American consulate here one or two thoroughly decent and hardworking consuls who do their utmost within the laws of the United States to help rather than hinder the refugees.

“The truth is that some of our consuls have been away from Washington so long that they have forgotten they are public servants and have assumed the attitude of rich private citizens living abroad who do not care to be disturbed.

“I am going to disturb them. I am going to write them letters and find out why those quotas are still closed.” (Varian Fry, unpublished manuscript, Box 14, Folder 2, Varian Fry Papers, Butler Library, Columbia University, New York)

“Johannes Schnek’s dossier has at last arrived from Paris, but the affidavits are too old to be any good. Nevertheless Harry Bingham has agreed to give him a visa if I can get the man who originally gave the affidavits to cable the Consulate that they are still valid. I am cabling New York via Switzerland.

“The Consulate got some more German quota numbers today.” (Varian Fry, unpublished manuscript, p. 553, Box 14, Folder 3, Varian Fry Papers, Butler Library, Columbia University, New York)

“Stephen Hessel is also leaving soon. He has his American visa, and he thinks his commanding officer in the Deuxième Bureau will give him a passport and exit visa.” Dated “Villa Air-Bel, Sunday, February 9 [1941], Morning.” (Varian Fry, unpublished manuscript for Surrender on Demand, p. 421, Box 14, Folder 1, Varian Fry Papers, Butler Library, Columbia University, New York)

“Another friend, Hans Sahl, the German poet, who has been my adviser on German writers, artists and musicians from the very beginning, is hoping to get his exit visa and his Spanish transit visa next week: if he does, he’ll leave too.” Dated “Villa Air-Bel, Sunday, February 9 [1941], Morning.” (Varian Fry, unpublished manuscript for Surrender on Demand, p. 421, Box 14, Folder 1, Varian Fry Papers, Butler Library, Columbia University, New York)

“The entire Consular corps of Marseille, headed by Hugh Fullerton, the American Consul-General, went to the prefecture today to protest against Vochoc’s arrest. Getting no satisfaction there, Fullerton sent Hiram Bingham to Vichy to ask Admiral Leahy to intervene. Apparently the American authorities can be militant enough when the rights and safety of consuls are concerned, even when the consuls are ‘aliens.’ Too bad they can’t be equally militant in defense of a simple American citizen like me, or the poor devils of refugees who have spent the last eight years fighting Hitler, and now seem likely to pay with their lives for it.” (Dated “Wednesday, March 19 [1941].” Varian Fry, unpublished manuscript for Surrender on Demand, p. 483, Varian Fry Papers, Butler Library, Columbia University, New York)

“Credit must be given to the intelligent and understanding cooperation of the American consular officials in Marseille, notably Hiram Bingham and Myles Standish. Without their aid we could not have been so successful at this time. They minimized formalities instead of creating barriers to the departure of refugees, and did everything in their power to help those ready to go in general showed a sympathetic attitude toward candidates for immigration. […]

[Fry, Varian. Assignment Rescue. (New York: Scholastic, 1997). Fry, Varian. Surrender on Demand. (New York: Random House, 1945), pp. 10-12, 14, 17-18, 32-33, 49, 56-57, 69-70, 83, 87-90, 147, 172, 215. Marino, Andy. A Quiet American: The Secret War of Varian Fry. (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1999), pp. 99-100, 196, 107-108, 117, 120, 187, 209, 231, 268, 285, 287. Isenberg, Sheila. A Hero of Our Own: The Story of Varian Fry. (New York: Random House), pp. 75-76, 83, 86, 89, 125, 142, 150, 152-153, 193, 193n. Ryan, Donna F. The Holocaust and the Jews of Marseille: The Enforcement of Anti-Semitic Policies in Vichy France. (Urbana, IL: The University of Illinois Press, 1996), pp. 130, 142, 144. Hockley, Ralph M. Freedom is not Free. (2000). US Holocaust Memorial Museum. Assignment Rescue: The Story of Varian Fry and the Emergency Rescue Committee. [Exhibit catalog.] (Washington, DC: US Holocaust Memorial Museum, 1997), p. 7. Wyman, David S. Paper Walls: America and the Refugee Crisis, 1939-1941. (New York: Pantheon Books, 1985), pp. 167-168. Varian Fry Papers, Columbia University. HICEM records, France, YIVO Archives. Bauer, Yehuda. American Jewry and the Holocaust. (Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1981), p. 171. American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee Archives, New York City. Bauer, Yehuda. American Jewry and the Holocaust. (Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1981), p. 171.]

Gilberto Bosques, Mexican Consul General in Paris and Marseilles, 1939-42

Gilberto Bosques was a member of the revolutionary movement in Mexico in 1910. He served in numerous occupations, including that of journalist, educator and politician. He was appointed Ambassador at Large to France by Mexican President Cardenas. Bosques served as the Mexican Consul General in Paris and Marseilles in 1939-1942. During this time, Bosques issued hundreds of visas to refugees, including anti-Franco fighters from the Spanish Civil War. He also issued visas to thousands of Jews. Among those he helped save were artists, politicians and other refugees from Germany, Austria, France and Spain. Bosques supplied visas to Varian Fry and his Emergency Rescue Committee as well as numerous other rescue agencies. Bosques maintained two estates outside of Marseilles (formerly castles) in which he housed and fed thousands of refugees. In November 1942, Bosques and other members of the Mexican legation were arrested by French Vichy officials and Nazis. Bosques and his staff were later released and returned to Mexico. When Consul General Bosques returned to Mexico City, he was greeted by cheering throngs and a parade was held in his honor. After the war, Bosques served many years as a career diplomat in the Mexican foreign service.

In his oral history autobiography, Bosques recounts:

“In this humanitarian crisis, assistance and help for the persecuted Jews took on a dimension of an obligation to the human character. Mexico had not taken a firm position on the matter. However, the drama was taking place and we had to help these people. Our assistance took on the form of hiding certain people and documenting others, giving them opportunities to leave France, which was very difficult. Many people left with Mexican documentation. Some of these relied upon the prior admission on the part of the government, while others were documented, protected and assisted in leaving France for safety. Certain cases had numerous stumbling blocks, difficulties and barriers to overcome. Not withstanding this fact, the maximum possible assistance was provided to these people.” (Bosques oral history)

In 1940, Bosques and the Mexican ambassador to France, Luis I. Rodriquez, personally intervened on behalf of refugees with French Prime Minister Pierre Laval. They convinced Laval to permit thousands of Jews and Spanish refugees to leave France. This despite the objections of the Nazi occupying forces in France. Bosques recalled:

“For the task of protection, it was necessary to conduct a very important negotiation with the French authorities.”

It dealt with the issue of resolving the legal status that the Spanish refugees were going to have in France, on the way to Mexico. The minister in France, Luis I. Rodriguez, directed to the French government a note that indicated that there needed to be a formal arrangement on this issue. This note was sent in accordance with the direct instructions of President Lázaro Cardenas. It contemplated the shelter and the sending of the Spanish to Mexico.”

This note led to an accord, whereby the French government accepted the process of documenting these individuals' departure to Mexico. This accord opened the possibility that a large number of refugees could leave and that they could be cared for and helped within the French territory. Later, the accord was extended to cover members of the international brigades, which had fought for the Republic in Spanish territory. These brigades left from Spain but, with the French government's approval, the accord was extended to assist Spanish refugees, as they were in the same field of battle and the same position as the other refugees.” [Bosques oral history]

It is estimated that Bosques issued as many as 40,000 visas to refugees. Not all refugees, however, went to Mexico. Many of the refugees used the visa as a means of escape from southern France to Lisbon, Milan or Trieste, where they could make arrangements for transportation to leave Europe. Bosques understood that a visa, for many of the Jews and other refugees, was a means of escape from France, and not necessarily to go to Mexico.

“Mexico increased its protective assistance to all of the anti-Nazi and antifascist refugees in France, such that they received documentation and assistance in leaving France. They had to be assisted to escape from France and to organize the groundwork for the wars of liberation in Austria, Italy and Yugoslavia. We documented these individuals in order that they would have visas to serve as protection against the French police. They could say, ‘I am going to Mexico,’ and nobody would bother them anymore, since they would no longer be a problem for the police. This was how their exit was facilitated, and the liberation of their respective countries. For example, very important people were sent to Italy, like Luigi Longo of the Communist Party, and many others.

“…Certain groups of Spaniards traveled to Cuba and others to Santo Domingo, due to many circumstances. Some Spaniards of high intellectual ranking went to Buenos Aires, where they received professorships and they gave conferences. For this reason, they decided to stay there, feeling confident in the reception by fellow professors and in a country with which they were already familiar. Others traveled to Santo Domingo, looking for work.

“Many others went to Cuba. The bulk of the refugees came to Mexico. Even the republican government was established in Mexico. Additionally, others came too, including the intellectuals, the workers, the poets and the artists. It was a complete representation of the people of a country.” [Bosques oral history]

“France had just made an agreement with Mexico to let the Spanish republican refugees out, and Mexico was going to give them asylum and provide the boats to transport them.” (Varian Fry, Surrender on Demand, p. 59)

“When I arrived in New York, I learned that the State Department had devised a new and cruelly difficult form of visa application, which made it almost impossible for refugees to enter this country. Fortunately, Mexico and Cuba were more humane, and our office in Marseille (which still continued to function) sent out nearly three hundred more people between the time I left and the time it was raided and closed by the police, on June 2, 1942.” (Varian Fry, Surrender on Demand, p. 236)

“Fortunately, other nations were more humane. In particular, Mexico and Cuba continued to grant visas to hard-pressed refugees after the United States had all but ceased to do so. Thus it was still possible to get a few people out of France. […]

“Between October and December, 1941, more than one hundred of our protégés had their American visas reconfirmed or received Mexican visas, and most of the former went to Lisbon, to embark for New York there. (Among the refugees they sent over the Atlantic were the pianist, Heinz Jolles; the Catholic writer, Edgar Alexander-Emmerich; the sculptor, Bernard Reder; and Wanda Landowska, the harpsichordist, the psychiatrist, Dr. Bruno Strauss; the German art critic, Paul Westheim; the Sicilian novelist, Giuseppe Garetto, the surrealist poet, Benjamin Péret. […]

“On the other hand, Mexican and Cuban visas flowed more freely, and so quite a number of our protégés were able to go to Casablanca and embark there. At the end of January two ships sailed from Casa, the first taking twelve of our people, including Otto Klepper, a former liberal Prime Minister of Prussia, and one of the most endangered men in France, and the second taking thirty more.

“In March two more ships sailed from Casa, the first carrying Charles Stirling, formerly director of the Ingres Museum at Montauban, and now an assistant curator at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, the producer, Marc Sorkin, assistant to G. W. Pabst; and ten other protégés of ours; and the second bringing to Cuba and Mexico more than seventy clients of the office, including the family of the Spanish novelist, Vicente Blasco Ibañez; the Belgian surgeon, Le Boulanger; and the Czech writer, Victor Zsajka.

“In April still another ship, chartered by the Mexican government, brought to safety in the New World forty of our Spanish friends who had not been able to leave France earlier.

“In May another ship took nearly twenty protégés of the Centre, among them Dr. Erich Drucker, a prominent heart specialist; and Fritz Lamm, one of the two victims of the Bouline adventure who were still in Vernet when I was refoulé.” (Fry, Varian, unpublished manuscript, pp. 432-434, Box 14, Folder 1, Varian Fry Papers, Butler Library, Columbia University, New York.)

“Paul Westheim came trotting up a little later, wearing his old uniform, and showed us a paper: a visa for Mexico. For him, the well-known critic, the polemicist against the “Kunstpolitik” of the Nazis, it had surely been easy to procure an entry permit. Another person rescued!” (Lisa Fittko, Escape through the Pyrenees, p. 176)

In 1944, Bosques wrote modestly regarding his rescue efforts:

“I followed the policy of my country, helping, giving material and moral support to the heroic advocates of the Spanish Republic, of the brave heroes of the struggle against Hitler, Mussolini, Franco, Pétain and Laval.”

“Vichy has issued a decree forbidding all Spanish males between 18 and 48 to leave the country. This evidently abrogates the accord Vichy France signed with Mexico last August, in which Mexico agreed to take the Spanish refugees and Vichy France agreed to let them go. It also betrays the Spanish refugees to Franco. But what is a little betrayal to the men who run France today?

“Thanks to the new regulations, even Julio Just, the former Counselor of the Bank of Spain, can no longer leave France, though he has Mexican, Colombian, Bolivian, Cuban, Nicaraguan and Dominican immigration visas.” (Dated “Wednesday, March 26 [1941].” Varian Fry, unpublished manuscript for Surrender on Demand, p. 491, Varian Fry Papers, Butler Library, Columbia University, New York) [Note: strikethrough text appears in original.]

“The Mexicans have succeeded in getting some of the Spaniards whose visas are ready released from the Massilia. Everybody else is being sent to work camps in France and Africa.” (Dated “Wednesday, May 14 [1941].” Varian Fry, unpublished manuscript for Surrender on Demand, p. 553, Varian Fry Papers, Butler Library, Columbia University, New York)

In 1943, Bosques was arrested by the Nazis and French officials because of his work in helping illegal refugees leaving the country.

Bosques, together with his family, was interned at the German village of Bad

Godsenberg for a year. This action was a violation of the international conventions for diplomatic representatives in war times.

Bosques was released and repatriated in a prisoner exchange with the Nazi government in 1943.

In 1944, Bosques wrote of his rescue efforts: “I followed the policy of my country, helping, giving material and moral support to the heroic advocates of the Spanish Republic, of the brave heroes of the struggle against Hitler, Mussolini, Franco, Pétain and Laval.”

When Bosques returned to Mexico City, he was greeted by thousands of cheering refugees who had received his visas.

Bosques may have issued as many as 40,000 visas.

After the war, Bosques was appointed Ambassador of Mexico to Portugal, Finland and Sweden. Later, he was appointed Ambassador to Cuba, and represented Mexico to the government of Fidel Castro.

After retirement, the people of Puebla, Mexico, honored Bosques with a commemorative plaque at the Congress of the State of Puebla.

In a letter addressed to Bosques on March 23rd, 1941, Dr. Alfred Kantorowicz, a Jewish survivor, full of gratefulness, wrote:

“I have the pleasure to announce that we shall be leaving tomorrow—via Martinique—to Mexico. I cannot leave Marseilles without repeating the sincere thanks, both my wife's and mine, for everything you have done for us. If we can leave, it is thanks to your protection and help.”

In 1994 former Jewish immigrants return to Mexico City to present Ambassador Bosques, who is 102 years old, with a document of gratitude. It states: “To Gilberto Bosques, whose human greatness will be present in our hearts forever.”

A documentary film is produced on Gilberto Bosques, documenting his rescue of Jews and other refugees. It is broadcast in Spanish in Mexico. It is entitled “Flucht nach Mexiko: Deutsche im Exil” [Fleeing to Mexico: Germans in Exil].

On June 4th, 2003, a street in Vienna was named for Gilberto Bosques.

In March 2005, Consul General Gilberto Bosques is nominated by the Visas for Life: The Righteous and Honorable Diplomats Project for the title of Righteous among the Nations by the Yad Vashem Martyrs’ and Heroes’ Remembrance Authority.

Gilberto Bosques has yet to be honored by the State of Israel for his activities in saving Jewish refugees. Bosques has not been honored by the United States for his rescue activities.

[Bosques, Gilberto. The National Revolutionary Party of Mexico and the Six-Year Plan. (Mexico: Bureau of Foreign Information of the National Revolutionary Party, 1937). Fry, Varian. Surrender on Demand. (New York: Random House, 1945), p. 127. See Visas for Life nomination for Yad Vashem. See also news clippings. Eck, Nathan. “The Rescue of Jews With the Aid of Passports and Citizenship Papers of Latin American States.” Yad Vashem Studies on the European Jewish Catastrophe and Resistance, 1 (1957), pp. 125-152. Marrus, Michael, R., and Robert O. Paxton. Vichy France and the Jews. (New York: Basic Books, 1981). Fittko, Lisa, translated by David Koblick. Escape through the Pyrénées. (Evanston, IL: Northwestern University Press, 1991). Ryan, Donna F. The Holocaust and the Jews of Marseille: The Enforcement of Anti-Semitic Policies in Vichy France. (Urbana, IL: The University of Illinois Press, 1996). Cline, H. F. The United States and Mexico. (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1953). Schuler, Friedrich E. Mexico Between Hitler and Roosevelt: Mexican Foreign Relations in the Age of Lázaro Cárdens, 1934-1940. (Albequerque, NM: University of New Mexico Press, 1998). Bosques Saldívar, Gilberto. Gilberto Bosques Saldívar: H. Congreso del Estado de Puebla. LII Legislatura. (San Andrés Cholula, Puebla: Imagen Pública y Corporativa). Barros Horcasitas, Beatriz. “Gilberto Bosques Saldívar, adalid del asilo diplomático.” Sólo Historia, 12 (2001), pp. 74-87. Carrillo Vivas, Gonzalo, “A los 84 años del desembarco de los marines en el Puerto de Veracruz,” Bulevar, 4 (1993), Mexico. Carrillo Vivas, Gonzalo, “Poeta: Gilberto Bosques Saldívar,” Bulevar, 8 (1994), Mexico. Garay, Graciela de, coord., Gilberto Bosques, historia oral de la diplomacia mexicana. Mexico, Archivo Histórico Diplomático, 1988. Romero Flores, Jesús, Don Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla. Mexico, SEP, 1960. Salado, Minerva, Cuba, revolución en la memoria. Mexico, IPN, 1989. Serrano Migallón, Fernanco, El asilo politico en Mexico. Mexico, Porrúa, 1988. Rodriguez, Luis I. Misión de Luis I. Rodriguez en Francia: La protección de los refugiados españoles, Julio a diciembre de 1940. (Mexico: El Colegio de México, Secretaría de Relaciones Exteriores, Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnología, 2000). Salzman, Daniela Gleizer. México Frente a la Inmigración de Refugiados Judíos: 1934-1940. (Mexico: Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historía, 2000). Kloyber, Christian (Ed.). Exilio y Cultura: El Exilio Cultural Austriaco en México. (Mexico: Secretaría de Relaciones Exteriores, 2002). Von Hanffstengel, Renata, Tercero, Cecilia (Eds.). México, El Exilio Bien Temperado. (Mexico City: Instituto de Investigaciones Interculturales Germano-Mexicanas,1995). Von Hanffstengel, Renata, Vasconcelos, Cecilia T., Nungesser, Michael, & Boullosa, Carmen. Encuentros Gráficos 1938-1948. (Mexico City: Instituto de Investigaciones Interculturales Germano-Mexicanas, 1999). Alexander, Brigitte. Die Ruckkehr: Erzählunen und Stücke aus dem Exile. (Berlin: Wolfgang Weist, 2005). Kloyber, Christian. Österreicher in Exil, Mexico 1938-1947: Eine Dokumentation. (Wien: Verlag Deutsche, 2002).]

Frederic Drach, Issued Altered Dutch and Danish Passports

Frederic Drach sold Dutch and Danish passports to Varian Fry and members of the Emergency Rescue Committee. He apparently obtained unissued passports and was able to alter them. He sold them to the Emergency Rescue Committee. Fry later recalled in his manuscript that Drach later sold them for a nominal fee.

“It was just a few days before the episode of the demobilization paper that Reiner brought Frederic Drach to see me.

“‘This is Monsieur Drach,’ Reiner said. ‘Monsieur Drach has an interesting suggestion to make, and I brought him around because I knew you would want to hear it.’

“‘I have heard a great deal about you, Mr. Fry,’ Drach said, ‘and I think yo have heard something about me. I admire the work you are doing and I’d like to help you. I am an old criminal myself.’”

[…] “Drach’s ‘interesting suggestion’ had to do with Dutch and Danish passports. His story was that he was selling them for a general of the Deuxième Bureau who wanted to make a couple of hundred thousand francs before retiring, and was going to tell his superiors he had lost the passports in the retreat. We weren’t taken in by the story, and I don’t think Drach expected us to be. But the passports looked real enough to fool anybody, and he claimed to have a suitcase full of them. Some were new and some were used and some, though new, had been made to look as though they were old. With the help of a set of rubber stamps Drach carried in the same suitcase, some grease, and a judicious rubbing with fine sandpaper, in half an hour he could make a brand-new passport look as though it had been issued in Paris, the Hague or Copenhagen before the war. He could add rubber stamps which ‘proved’ that the owner of the passport had traveled back and forth between France and Denmark, France and Holland and France and England again and again. His passports were so plausible that it was only natural the price should be high. He wanted 6,000 francs apiece for them—about $150 at the official rate of exchange.

“The high price, and the fact that Drach was an intelligence officer who might also be a Gestapo agent, as far as we knew, made it inadvisable for us to use his passports, and I pretended to have no more than an academic interest in them when Reiner brought him in. Later, when the pinch got tighter, Beamish bought a number of them for various of our clients, and they used them with complete success. We also put two or three rich refugees in search of passports in touch with Drach. They bought his passports and got to Lisbon on them without the slightest trouble.” (Varian Fry, 1945, Surrender on Demand, pp. 43-44)

[Fry, 1945, pp. 43, 44, 82-83, 235, 238. Varian Fry Papers, Butler Library, Columbia University, New York.]

Pinto Ferreira, Portuguese Consul General in Vichy/Marseilles, France, 1943?

Pinto Ferreira, the Portuguese Consul General in Vichy stationed in Marseilles, protected Jews who were registered with the consulate. Ferreira argued strongly for the protection of these Jews. Portuguese dictator Salazar later approved the repatriation of the Portuguese Jews.

[Cable from Pinto Ferreira in Vichy to Salazar, March 18, 1943, AHD, 2o P. A. 50, M. 40. Cable from Salazar, March 27, 1943, AHD, 2o. P. A. 50, M. 40. Cited in Milgram, Avraham. “The Bounds of Neutrality: Portugal and the Repatriation of its Jewish Nationals.” Yad Vashem Studies, 31 (2003), pp. 201-244.]

Mssr. Figuière, Honorary Consul for Panama in Marseilles, 1940-41

The Panamanian Honorary Consul in Marseilles was a French shipping agent by the name of Figuière. He provided Panamanian visa stamps to refugees as a means of escaping Vichy France. Hans and Lisa Fittko, refugees, obtained Panamanian visas from the honorary consul. They stated in Lisa’s autobiography that he “sells” these visas for the price of a salami. It was clear that no one was going to Panama on these visas.

“It was then that we turned to Drach and his Danish and Dutch passports. The urgency of the situation overcame our reluctance to deal with him, and we bought several of his handsome little cloth-bound booklets. On them we had the honorary Consul of Panama at Marseille place Panamanian visas—with the solemn understanding that they would never be used for the purpose of entering Panama. We even agreed with the Panama Consul to instruct every refugee who got one of his visas to report to a certain person in Lisbon for help. By arrangement beforehand, we said, that person, instead of giving help, would take a rubber stamp and bang the word cancelado on the visa. Then he would hand the passport back to the bewildered refugee. The arrangement hugely amused the Panama consul, a French shipping agent by the name of Figuière. Actually, of course, we trusted our refugees and had no need of any such ruse to prevent them from using the visas to enter Panama. They would have been quite satisfied to get as far as Lisbon with them.” (Varian Fry, Surrender on Demand, pp. 82-83)

“Now, what was meant by ‘Panama visas’ in my brother’s telegram? And what’s this about ‘salami’—is that a key word?

“‘We have a connection with the honorary consul of Panama in Marseille,’ explained my brother. ‘He’s already sold visas to many people, to us too; you must check in with him right away. Of course he’s not authorized to issue visas, and the Panamanian government mustn’t find out about it. He takes salami in payment instead of money. I’ve found a shop in the Old Port that carries every kind of delicacy including salami…’

“‘But what do you do with a Panamanian visa when you can’t go to Panama?’

“‘You can try to get to Portugal with it. Some have already succeeded in doing so.’”

…“So we obtained the au lieu certificates and a medium-sized salami and, with them in hand, visited the honorary consul, a fat Frenchman. First off he made us swear an oath that we’d never set foot on Panamanian soil. We swore with a clear conscience.”

...“Some possessors of Panamanian visas had already obtained American transit visas; they cost four hundred francs each. That wasn’t much, but we had no money. I went to the Centre Américain de Secours and Varian Fry let me have the eight hundred francs. But he was angry that the Panama loophole had become common knowledge. ‘That’s my resource,’ he said. ‘We discovered it. It’s always the same—as soon as a new possibility appears, the news gets around and everybody pounces on it?’

“‘What else can you expect,’ I asked, ‘when everybody wants to save his own neck?’” (Lisa Fittko, Escape through the Pyrenees, pp. 165-166)

“‘Our assorted transit visas must be renewed,’ said Hans, ‘and we need travel IDs for the Cuban visas. Then we must see about boat tickets, but for them we have first to get an exchange permit, so you’ll have to—.’

“I interrupted him. ‘Where is Cuba, anyway?’

“‘I don’t know exactly, somewhere between North and Central America. Why do you have to know that now?’

“‘Because it doesn’t sound to me like a real country: Cuba. Just like those visas for China or Panama, pieces of paper—but no place one can go to. Do you know what kind of language they speak there?’

“‘It doesn’t matter—Spanish probably.” (Lisa Fittko, Escape through the Pyrenees, p. 177)

[Fry, Varian. Surrender on Demand. (New York: Random House, 1945), pp. 82-83. Fittko, Lisa, translated by David Koblick. Escape through the Pyrénées. (Evanston, IL: Northwestern University Press, 1991), pp. 165-166.]

J. ten Hagen, Consul for Netherlands in Marseilles, 1940

Information about this Dutch diplomat was received from Irwin Schiffres. Information was supplied by the Dutch Foreign Ministry.

[See e-mail dated 9/30/2001]

Necdet Kent, Consul for Turkey in Marseilles and Grenoble, France, 1942-45

Necdet Kent was the Vice Consul for the Turkish Republic stationed in Marseilles, France, in 1942. He was later promoted to the rank of Consul and remained in Marseilles until 1945. When Nazi Germany occupied France in 1940, many Jewish Turks and others fled to unoccupied Vichy France. During the period of 1942-45, Kent issued numerous Turkish certificates of citizenship to Jewish refugees, preventing them from being deported to Nazi murder camps. On one occasion, Kent boarded a deportation train bound for Auschwitz with Jews loaded on cattle cars. Kent stopped the train and had the Jews released.

[Shaw, Stanford J. Turkey and the Holocaust: Turkey’s Role in Rescuing Turkish and European Jewry from Nazi Persecution, 1933-1945. (New York: New York University Press, 1993), pp. 64-66, 79, 95-96, 132-134, 148, 332, 341-344.]

D. F. W. van Lennep, Dutch Representative of the Consul in Marseilles, 1940

D. F. W. van Lennep was a member of the Dutch lower nobility who was in Cannes when the war broke out. Lennep went to Paris and offered his services to the Dutch mission in Paris. (Earlier he had worked for the Dutch mission in Berlin.) He became the representative in Vichy France for Mr. van Harinxma, and the representative of the Dutch government Commissioner for Fugitives, van Lidth de Geude.

[This information was supplied by the Dutch Foreign Ministry.]

Luis I. Rodriguez, Mexican Ambassador to France, 1939-1940

Luis I. Rodriguez was appointed the Mexican ambassador to France by President Lazaro Cardenas. Together with Consul General Gilberto Bosques, he presented numerous letters of protest regarding the horrendous conditions inside the French internment camps. These camps housed thousands of former Spanish Republican soldiers and Jewish refugees who were considered by the French government to be enemy aliens. Later, Rodriguez and Bosques presented formal complaints to the Vichy government regarding the deportation and murder of Jews. Rodriguez left France at the end of 1940, leaving Bosques in charge.

“For the task of protection, it was necessary to conduct a very important negotiation with the French authorities.”

Many of the refugees whom Bosques helped became important members of the anti-Nazi resistance and liberation movements in Europe.

“One afternoon, we gave documents along with the minister Rodriguez to fifty Italians who were leaving to serve the liberation in their home country. We documented certain individuals who later became prominent figures in the war of Yugoslavia, except for Tito who did not come through France. In some cases, we took advantage of the English intelligence channels and those of the patriots of the resistance. Certain Austrians and Germans preferred to stay and they did not accept the offer to come to Mexico. They took part in the war of the French liberation. The same happened with the refugees of other countries. ‘We are going to stay,’ they said, ‘our duty is to the fight here, the fight to the death, we are going to stay and fight and die in our countries to liberate ourselves from German domination.’” [Bosques oral history]

[Rodriguez, Luis I. Misión de Luis I. Rodriguez en Francia: La protección de los refugiados españoles, Julio a diciembre de 1940. (Mexico: El Colegio de México, Secretaría de Relaciones Exteriores, Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnología, 2000). Salzman, Daniela Gleizer. México Frente a la Inmigración de Refugiados Judíos: 1934-1940. (Mexico: Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historía, 2000). Kloyber, Christian (Ed.). Exilio y Cultura: El Exilio Cultural Austriaco en México. (Mexico: Secretaría de Relaciones Exteriores, 2002). Varian Fry Papers, Butler Library, Columbia University, New York.]

Myles Standish, US Vice Consul in Charge of Visas, Marseilles, France, 1940

Myles Standish, like Hiram Bingham, issued visas to Jewish and other refugees seeking to escape France to Portugal. He was active in the rescue of Lion Feuchtwanger from a French-German internment camp in 1940.

After his assignment in Marseilles, Standish took a position with the War Refugee Board finding escape routes for refugees in Europe.

“‘How do you find the [American] Consulate?’ I asked. ‘Have they co-operated?’

Standish issued numerous affidavits in lieu of passport:

“I am going to disturb them. I am going to write them letters and find out why those quotas are still closed.”

- Varian Fry (unpublished manuscript, Box 14, Folder 2, Varian Fry Papers, Butler Library, Columbia University, New York)

“Credit must be given to the intelligent and understanding cooperation of the American consular officials in Marseille, notably Hiram Bingham and Myles Standish. Without their aid we could not have been so successful at this time. They minimized formalities instead of creating barriers to the departure of refugees, and did everything in their power to help those ready to go in general showed a sympathetic attitude toward candidates for immigration. […]

[Fry, Varian. Surrender on Demand. (New York: Random House). Marino, Andy. A Quiet American: The Secret War of Varian Fry. (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1999), pp. 99-100, 120. FDR Library War Refugee Board Archives, 1944-1945. JDC Archives, NYC. Feuchtwanger, Lion, The Devil in France: My Encounter with Him in the Summer of 1940, Viking, 1940.]

Vladimír Vochoc●, Czech Consul in Marseilles, France, 1940

Czech Consul Vladimir Vochoc, stationed in Marseilles, distributed many Czech passports on his own authority to Jews and anti-Nazis who wanted to escape from Marseilles to Spain and Portugal. Vochoc worked closely with Varian Fry of the Emergency Rescue Committee (ERC), Dr. Frank Bohn of the American Federation of Labor (AFL) and Dr. Donald Lowrie of the Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA) in supplying Czech visas. For his life-saving activities, Vochoc was arrested by Nazi and French authorities pending possible deportation. Two months later, he managed to escape to Lisbon. He was awarded the title of Righteous Among the Nations by The State of Israel for his life saving activities.

“But if a refugee’s American visa hadn’t yet been authorized, of he wasn’t willing to travel under his own name even if it had been, there was usually only one solution—a false passport. It was the Czech Consul at Marseille who solved that problem, and it was Donald Lowrie who put me in touch with him. Lowrie was one of the representatives of the Y.M.C.A. in France, and also the delegate of the American Friends of Czechoslovakia. He had been in Prague when the Germans came in, and he had helped a good many German and Czech anti-Nazis escape. When he got to Marseille he was already known to the Czech Consul as a good friend of the Czechs. I met him very soon after my arrival, and he took me down to the Czech Consulate and introduced me to the Consul.

“Vladimir Vochoc was a diplomat of the old school He had been chief of the European personnel division of the Czech Foreign Office before the fall of Prague, and a professor at the University of Prague. I don’t think he liked the idea of handing out false passports, but he was wise enough to realize that his country had been invaded by the Nazis, and that it wouldn’t be liberated by legal means alone. He was willing to help any anti-Nazi save his life if there was any chance at all that, once saved, the man would be useful in overthrowing the Nazis and so restoring the independence of Czechoslovakia. Vochoc’s own job consisted in smuggling the Czech volunteers out of France so they could fight again with the British.

“At Lowrie’s suggestion, I made a deal with Vochoc. He agreed to grant Czech passports to any anti-Nazis I recommended to him. In return I gave him enough money to have new passports printed when his limited supply had run out. He couldn’t get any more from Prague, obviously, but as a Consul he had the right to have them printed in France. The work was actually done at Bordeaux, in the occupied zone, under the noses of the Germans. It was a very nice job. The covers were pink, whereas the old Prague passports had been green, but otherwise you couldn’t tell one from the other.

“After that there was nothing left to do but work out a safe way to receive the passports. Lowrie was living at the Hotel Terminus, and I used to go over to his room and have breakfast with him twice a week. Each time I went I would take him an envelope of photographs and descriptions of my candidates for Czech passports, and he would give me an envelope of the passports Vochoc had already prepared for the previous lot. Then I’d go back to my room at the Splendide and hand the passports to the refugees as they came in to get them.” (Varian Fry, Surrender on Demand, pp. 18-19)

“Of them all, probably none was in greater danger than [Konrad] Heiden. What he had written about Adolph Hitler the Fuehrer would never forgive or forget. Heiden had been interned at the outbreak of the war, released a few weeks later, reinterned in May. […]

“Heiden made his way to Montauban, and from there he came to Marseille. At the Marseille consulate he got an American visa and an affidavit in lieu of a passport, under his own name. He wanted to go to Lisbon with this, but I felt I couldn’t take the responsibility of letting him go through Spain under his own name. I got him a Czech passport under the name of David Silbermann, and after a good deal of hesitation, he used the Czech passport as far as Lisbon, changing back to his rightful personality there.

“Most of the others had no choice. If they had American visas, they used them for travel documents. If they didn’t have them, I got them Czech passports, often under their own names, and sent them through that way. In those first days not one of them was arrested, either in France or in Spain.”

- Varian Fry (unpublished manuscript, pp. 113-114, Box 14, Folder 1, Varian Fry Papers, Butler Library, Columbia University, New York)

“The Prefecture had also called in the American Consul and told him it was inquiet—uneasy—about the ‘activities of Dr. Bohn and Mr. Fry.’ It had also complained about Lowrie’s activities in behalf of the Czech soldiers, and had warned Vochoc not to use any more false passports. Lowrie had given up his illegal activities, and Vochoc had decided to issue no more passports.” (Varian Fry, Surrender on Demand, p. 80)

“Later, in flagrant violation of his exequatur, they arrested the Czech Consul, Vladimir Vochoc, and placed him in residence force at Lubersac, near the demarcation line. We were convinced that he was being held for extradition, but two months later he managed to escape and get to Lisbon.” (Varian Fry, Surrender on Demand, p. 208)

“Then about 7 o’clock tonight a boy from the Czech Consulate came running up to the office to tell us that Vochoc, the Consul, had just been arrested. They think he will be extradited. He has shown great courage, and by his generosity with passports he has saved many lives, including some stalwart anti-Nazi lives. I suppose the Gestapo knows that, and that he is now to pay for what he has done. But will France calmly hand him over?

“Why not? Didn’t she hand his country over two years ago?” (Dated March 17 [1941]. Varian Fry, unpublished manuscript for Surrender on Demand, 1941, Varian Fry Papers, Butler Library, Columbia University, New York)

“The order for Vochoc’s arrest was signed by the new police chief, de Rodellec du Porzic, a Breton naval officer and great friend of Darlan, who appointed him. It was based on a telegram from the Ministry of the Interior.

“After spending the night in an armchair at the prefecture, Vochoc was taken this afternoon to the little village of Lubersac, Corrèze, near Perigneux—and the demarcation line. The prefecture says he is to be put in résidence forcée there, but the Czechs think it is only a step on the way to Germany, as Arles was a step for Breitscheid and Hilferding.

“I knew Vochoc so well, and worked with him so long, that his arrest has shaken me even more than the extraditions of Breitscheid and Hilferding. He is a member of the Legion of Honor and always wears the rosette in his buttonhole. Surely France will not hand over the Germany a man who has received a decoration for his services to France!

“Surely?” (Dated “Wednesday, March 19 [1941].” Varian Fry, unpublished manuscript for Surrender on Demand, p. 483, Varian Fry Papers, Butler Library, Columbia University, New York)

[Lowry, 1963, p. 48. Fry, Varian. Surrender on Demand. (New York: Random House, 1945), pp. 18-19, 32, 40-41, 49, 57, 80-82, 208. Marino, Andy. A Quiet American: The Secret War of Varian Fry. (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1999), pp. 107-108, 119, 137, 141, 192-193. Isenberg, Sheila. A Hero of Our Own: The Story of Varian Fry. (New York: Random House), pp. 38, 87, 111, 188. Klein, Anne. “Conscience, conflict and politics: The rescue of political refugees from southern France to the United States, 1940-1942.” Leo Baeck Institute Year Book, 43 (1998), 298-299. Archiv der socialen Demokratie, NL Vladimir Vochoc (transl. By Vera Pikow). Ryan, Donna F. The Holocaust and the Jews of Marseille: The Enforcement of Anti-Semitic Policies in Vichy France. (Urbana, IL: The University of Illinois Press, 1996), pp. 143-144, 148. Ebel, Miriam Davenport. An Unsentimental Education: A Memoir by Miriam Davenport Ebel. (1999). Moore, 2010, pp. 23, 24-26. Vochoc, Vladimír, Compte Rendu (London, 1941), 18. Coll Archiv Joseph Fisera USHMM RG-43.028 A 0069. Varian Fry Papers, Butler Library, Columbia University, New York.]

C. J. van der Waarden, Dutch Consul General in Marseilles, 1940

Information about this Dutch diplomat was received from Irwin Schiffres. Information was supplied by the Dutch Foreign Ministry. [See e-mail dated 9/30/2001.]

Li Yu-Ying, Chinese Consul, Marseilles, France, 1940

Li Yu-Ying was the acting Chinese Consul in Marseilles in 1940. He was also the President of the National Academy there. Many refugees in Marseilles received a visa stamp from Li Yu-Ying. In Chinese characters that virtually no one could read, the stamp read, “Under no circumstances is this person to be allowed entrance to China.” Anxious refugees used the visa stamp as an exit visa. Frank Bohn, of the American Federation of Labor (AFL), Varian Fry of the Emergency Rescue Committee (ERC), and other rescue and relief agencies utilized many of these Chinese visas to help refugees leave France for Spain, Portugal and other parts of Europe.

“Refugees who hadn’t yet received United States visas were taking Chinese or Siamese visas and getting Portuguese transit visas on them, with the intention of waiting for their United States visas in Lisbon rather than in France.”

“The Chinese visas were all in Chinese, except for two words: ‘100 francs.’ The Chinese and those who could read Chinese said that the ‘visa’ really read: ‘This person shall not, under any circumstances, be allowed to enter China.’ I don’t know whether this was true or not, but it didn’t matter so long as the Portuguese were accepting the visa as a valid one.” (Varian Fry, Surrender on Demand, p. 15)

“Those who hadn’t yet received their visas were more of a problem. Some of them could afford to wait for American visas, because there wasn’t any particular reason why they should be wanted by the Gestapo. When that was the case, I cabled their names to New York and asked the committee there to get them emergency visas as quickly as possible. Others couldn’t wait; they had to get out of France right away. When they had passports, I helped them get Chinese, Siamese or sometimes Belgian Congo visas and advised them to go as far as Lisbon, where they could wait, in comparative safety, for their American visas to be authorized.” (Varian Fry, Surrender on Demand, p. 15)

“There were rumors about honorary consuls who sold ‘final-destination’ visas. Indeed, at this time it wasn’t important whether or not they were valid; one could at least get to Portugal with them. In the rue St. Feréol there was a Chinese Bureau that issued Chinese visas for a hundred francs. Most of the emigrés could afford that amount, and lines stood in front of the bureau. We, too, got a Chinese stamp in our Czech passports. Much later, a Chinese friend translated the ‘visa’ for us. It read something like this: ‘It is strictly forbidden for the bearer of this document, under any circumstances and at any time, to set foot on Chinese soil.’ That made no difference, for the Portuguese in Marseille couldn’t understand Chinese—or perhaps they didn’t want to understand it?” (Lisa Fittko, Escape through the Pyrenees, p. 95)

“I interrupted him. ‘Where is Cuba, anyway?’

“‘I don’t know exactly, somewhere between North and Central America. Why do you have to know that now?’

“‘It doesn’t matter—Spanish probably.” (Lisa Fittko, Escape through the Pyrenees, p. 177)

[Fry, Varian. Surrender on Demand. (New York: Random House, 1945), pp. 15-17. Marino, Andy. A Quiet American: The Secret War of Varian Fry. (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1999), pp. 108, 119 Varian Fry Papers, Butler Library, Columbia University, New York.]

Cuban Consul in Vichy France, Marseilles, 1940-41?

The Cuban consulate in Vichy provided exit visas to Jewish refugees and to Varian Fry and the Emergency Rescue Committee and other rescue and relief operations active in Marseilles.

“I interrupted him. ‘Where is Cuba, anyway?’

“‘I don’t know exactly, somewhere between North and Central America. Why do you have to know that now?’

“‘It doesn’t matter—Spanish probably.” (Lisa Fittko, Escape through the Pyrenees, p. 177)

“Carlos never succeeded in getting exit visas for the Wolffs. Instead Maurice bought Danish passports for them from Drach, got them Cuban immigration visas, and moved them from place to place in Southern France, until, with the help of the Abbé Glasberg, assistant to Cardinal Gerlier of Lyon, they were able to get exit visas at the Lyon Prefecture and board a Spanish ship at Cadiz. When they reached Cuba, one of our hardest problems was solved.” (Varian Fry, Surrender on Demand, pp. 234-235)

“His friends in America got him a Cuban visa. The Cuban consul helped him. Since he had no French travel document, the consul gave him a Cuban one. On that he was able to get a not quite regular exit visa. Socialist friends enabled him to avoid the police, get on the boat without having to submit to the usual examination, taking up of food ration cards, etc. Thanks to their help he was able to reach Havana on April 25, 1942.” (Fry, note dated December 1941 et seq., from unpublished manuscript, Varian Fry Papers, Butler Library, Columbia University, New York)

“In April still another ship, chartered by the Mexican government, brought to safety in the New World forty of our Spanish friends who had not been able to leave France earlier.

[Fry, Varian. Surrender on Demand. (New York: Random House, 1945), pp. 127-128. Varian Fry Papers, Butler Library, Columbia University, New York.]

Honorary Hungarian Consul in Marseilles, France, July 1940

The honorary Hungarian consul in Marseilles helped Jewish refugee Hecht.

[Hecht oral statement.]

Lithuanian Honorary Consul in Aix-en-Provence, France, 1940?

The Lithuanian honorary consul in Marseilles, France, provided Lithuanian passports to Varian Fry and Albert Hirschmann of the Emergency Rescue Committee. These documents were necessary in order to get refugees safe passage through Spain to Lisbon. The honorary consul of Lithuania at Aix was eventually arrested by the French police.

“It was these three problems that Beamish was working on. He solved them all. He got Polish passports from the Polish Consul in Marseille, and Lithuanian passports from the Lithuanian Consul at Aix-en-Provence. He also found a way of sending men to Casablanca who wouldn’t go through Spain under any circumstances.” (Varian Fry, Surrender on Demand, p. 41)

“As I have already said, Beamish had discovered that the honorary Lithuanian Consul at Aix-en-Provence, a Frenchman, would sell Lithuanian passports, had, in fact, been selling quite a number of them to Frenchmen who wanted to join de Gaulle. For a few days we thought these would replace the Czech passports. They were very good papers to have, because Lithuania was a neutral country, and so there would be no difficulty with them in Spain, even for men of military age. We bought a number of them for our clients.” (Varian Fry, Surrender on Demand, p. 82)

“Maurice, our Rumanian doctor, had already had something to do with the illegal departure of refugees even before Beamish left, but afterward he took charge of it. He established relations with [Fittko] at the frontier, and later with this successor, S____. He organized a whole network of underground workers—the ‘invisible staff’ as we called it—managed the secret funds, found new hiding places, directed the movement of refugees from one place to another, and provided them with false passports and visas. When everything else failed, he worked closely with Emilio Lussu in building up an underground railroad all the way to Lisbon. He fancied himself as quite a dog with the ladies, and, superficially, he often seemed to take his work rather lightly. But I soon discovered that the impression was a false one.” (Varian Fry, Surrender on Demand, p. 152)

“Lithuanian consul. Arrested and imprisoned at the end of 1940. Immediately afterword the police came around looking for Beamish, who had been away on a trip to the frontier. When he came back I told him they were looking for him and he left France.” (Fry, note dated December 1940, from unpublished manuscript, Varian Fry Papers, Butler Library, Columbia University, New York)

“Lithuanian passports. Charlie says they blew up ‘the last of October or the first of Nov.’ ‘The Germans (?) raided the Lithuanian consulate and got names and addresses of everyone who had phony passports. Wasn’t someone in the office affected by this? I remember there was a lot of wailing about town that morning.” Charlie, letter of Aug. 6.” (Fry, note from unpublished manuscript, Varian Fry Papers, Butler Library, Columbia University, New York.)

[Fry, Varian. Surrender on Demand. (New York: Random House, 1945), pp. 40-41, 131. Marino, Andy. A Quiet American: The Secret War of Varian Fry. (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1999), pp. 141, 242. Ebel, Miriam Davenport. An Unsentimental Education: A Memoir by Miriam Davenport Ebel. (1999). Varian Fry Papers, Butler Library, Columbia University, New York.]

Polish Consul in Marseilles, France, 1940?

The Polish consul in Marseilles, France, provided Polish passports to Varian Fry and Albert Hirschmann of the Emergency Rescue Committee. These documents were necessary in order to get refugees safe passage through Spain to Lisbon.

“Beamish also discovered an Austrian refugee named Reiner who sold everything—demobilization orders, French identity cards, passports and forged exit visas. He seemed to be on good terms with the Czech and Polish Consulates. In fact, he could get Czech and Polish passports à volonté—and also French identity cards…” (Varian Fry, Surrender on Demand, p. 42)

[Fry, Varian. Surrender on Demand. (New York: Random House, 1945), pp. 40-41. Marino, Andy. A Quiet American: The Secret War of Varian Fry. (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1999), p. 141. Ebel, Miriam Davenport. An Unsentimental Education: A Memoir by Miriam Davenport Ebel. (1999). Varian Fry Papers, Butler Library, Columbia University, New York.]

Siamese (Thai) Consul, Marseilles, France, 1940

Varian Fry of the Emergency Rescue Committee (ERC) and other rescue and relief agencies used Siamese (Thai) visas as exit visas to leave Marseilles and Vichy France. Although there was no possible way of reaching Siam during the war, Portuguese and Spanish officials honored these visas. Once the refugees had the Portuguese and Spanish transit visas, they were able to go to Lisbon with ease. Eventually, the consulate of Siam was raided and the consul was arrested by the French authorities. After the raid, the Emergency Rescue Committee was no longer able to use these visas.

“The Siamese visas were real enough, only there was absolutely no way of going from Portugal to Siam without getting numerous unobtainable transit visas. Yet, at the time, the Portuguese Consuls gave the holders of these Siamese visas Portuguese transit visas exactly as though there were ships from Lisbon to Bangkok. Once they had the Portuguese and Spanish transit visas, most of the refugees were able to go to Lisbon with little or no difficulty.” (Varian Fry, Surrender on Demand, p. 15)

“But to make sure I wasn’t letting Klaus and his friend walk into a trip, I persuaded them to forget their prestataire career and desert... They took rooms at a Marseille hotel, changed into civilian clothes, and began to look around for ways to get out of France. Neither had any kind of overseas visa, so we got Klaus a Czech passport and a Siamese visa, and we sent this friend to Casablanca on a false demobilization order. When the Siamese visas and the Czech passports were no longer of any use, we had someone take Klaus’s name to Lisbon and cable it to New York from there, and we advised him to wait in Marseille until his American visa was ready.” (Varian Fry, Surrender on Demand, p. 99)

[Fry, Varian. Surrender on Demand. (New York: Random House, 1945), pp. 15-17, 132. Marino, Andy. A Quiet American: The Secret War of Varian Fry. (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1999), p. 119. Varian Fry Papers, Butler Library, Columbia University, New York.]

“On the other hand, there was Dr. H., another prominent Jewish writer on the Nazis’ ‘wanted’ list. He came into my office one afternoon. ‘But I thought you had left on yesterday's boat,’ I said. ‘I was aboard the ship,’ he replied, ‘and as you know my U.S. visa would expire at midnight. The police knew it, too, but since our ship was to sail at 10:00 P.M., they did nothing. Then there was some delay with loading, and after midnight the harbor police took me off. When I return to my room tonight I will be arrested-and so I've come to say good-by.’ Both of us knew we would never meet again.”

- The Hunted Children, Donald A. Lowrie (1963), p. 180

Chapter 17: Visas for Apatrides, from Donald A. Lowrie, The Hunted Children (1963):

Among the new words resulting from the war, like "jeep" or "commando," we relief agencies found ourselves constantly using the French word "apatride," no matter what language we were speaking. "Displaced persons" was a term that appeared only after the war.

Apatrides were the thousands who had no passports, what they had when they left home having been declared invalid by the powers now occupying their homelands: Spaniards or Germans or Czechs now disowned by the governments in power. Apatride means man without a country. Most of our refugees had become men without a continent, and most of them were trying to leave Europe for some other part of the globe. (P.173)

Whether or not you have a country you must have some sort of document proving that you are you. Even in peacetime, one of the gravest accidents that can befall a traveler is to lose his passport, and even if he never left home no European would think of living without an identity card. The story went around Paris of the Ukrainian refugee who decided to end her troubles by jumping into the Seine. Having arrived at the bridge, she changed her mind and dropped her carte d'identite into the water instead.

Even where there were no legal obstacles, most refugees found it very difficult to obtain or renew their identity cards. The police insisted upon the usual fee for all cases. That spring of 1941 one of our Jewish agencies was writing to New York: "The prefets refuse to consider the poverty of applicants. We have adopted the method of having all single men enlist in work groups, thus avoiding the expense of identity cards. Can we take the responsibility of doing the same for married men? We feel that families should not be separated." Refugees in camp were adversity personified, but those at liberty faced problems as well. If they admitted to the police that they were penniless, this meant joining the thousands already in Gurs or other camps. Foreigners without visible means of support, they lived in a constant state of dread: every action had to be weighed under the shadow of possible internment. The request for an identity card or a travel permit involved contact with the police and thus exposure of their vulnerable positions.

Along with "apatride," probably no other word was used more often than "visa." Every refugee hoped to leave for some less dangerous place. To move anywhere, a set of visas on one's passport was necessary. Regulations governing visas varied with the months, the type of refugee, and the changing military and political scene. At one moment you could not obtain a French exit permit until you had all the other visas lined up and in your passport. But most consulates would not issue transit visas before the refugee could present a steamer (p. 174) reservation: Portugal and Spain were taking no chances on having more refugees stranded in their territory. On the other hand, the few steamship lines in operation hesitated to reserve a place until the visas in a would-be passenger's passport proved that he really could reach the port of departure. Everyone talked of visas: every organization was more or less engaged in helping refugees obtain them, sometimes facing quite unpredictable complications. The Quakers worked for two years on a visa for one Fritz Schmidt and the Emergency Rescue Committee spent an equal amount of time on one Theodore Schmidt, before they discovered that the two names represented the same person.

Generally the cooperation among our agencies was better coordinated. Cooperation was often dictated by circumstances. Most agencies were limited in the amount of money they might use for a given refugee, and in scores of cases the given refugee needed twice or three times that amount. Here two or three organizations would join funds to enable the person in question to get out of France.

Failure to secure the right visas at the right time could mean death in an extermination camp in Poland. Frustration followed frustration: refugees suffered nervous collapse, unable to endure the tension. On occasion the usual esprit de corps among refugees failed. The Rescue Committee had moved heaven and earth to secure a U.S. "danger visa" for one Joseph Braun, internee in Gurs. The camp authorities alerted another Joseph Braun who calmly accepted the visa and went off to America. The right Joseph Braun discovered this only after the other was safely out of France.

There were legal and not-so-legal ways of procuring visas. Certain consulates might be "persuaded" to bypass the regulations. In rare cases a personal appeal to the authority concerned would procure the necessary rubber-stamped note in an endangered man's passport. One such personal connection with the consul of a certain Southeast Asian country [probably Siam] was most useful. And the records must show the names of scores (p. 175) of immigrants to that far-off land, who never got farther than the Free French forces in North Africa or Britain.

"Aryans" could obtain exit permits from France much more easily than Jews, though the latter formed the overwhelming majority of the refugee population. Early in 1941 Vichy had appealed to the United States to accept a larger number of refugees from southern France, to which our State Department replied that one way Vichy could reduce the number of refugees there would be to grant exit permits to the hundreds of persons who already had United States immigration visas.

Of these, at least 90 per cent were Jewish. The Macher case was typical. Interned in Vernet, Macher had received a "convocation" from the American consulate in Marseilles, indicating that a United States visa was awaiting him there. Macher put in the proper written request for permission to travel to Marseilles to receive the visa. After weeks without a reply, the American consulate wrote Macher again. Again he requested a travel permit, but as an internee that was all he could do. After this happened a third time, a lawyer acting on behalf of the Coordination Committee called on the Vernet commandant to inquire. He learned that Macher's request, after reposing for months on the commandant's desk, had been forwarded to the Commissariat for Jewish Affairs in Paris. It might as well have been referred to Rosenberg himself.

One day the Czech Aid office received from the American consulate a list of thirty-two names-Czechoslovak citizens who had been granted entry visas into the United States. This was evidently part of a scheme to move as many Czechs as possible out of the Germans' reach, so they could join their own armed forces in Britain. Of the whole list, not one man was known to any Czechoslovak agency in southern France. In any case these men would go to England, not to America, so after we had some discussion in the office, thirty-two men living at La Blancherie were renamed and provided (page 176) with the proper identity papers. Thus thirty-two more Czechs were able to reach England and continue the battle against Hitler.

By this time the Czech Aid office possessed an excellent set of "official" consular and police stamps and could arrange almost any man's papers for departure or change of residence. Certain Czech passports could not pass German-sympathizing border police in Spain, for instance. Even in peacetime, in some well-authenticated cases where a passport had been lost, the Prefecture would issue a substitute document "in lieu of a passport," on which the holder could have consular visas affixed. With the collaboration of friends in the Prefecture office, these blanks could be had, after which it was a simple matter to fill them in and affix the "official" stamp. Then a Spanish and a Portuguese transit visa would be stamped on the document, together with a destination visa. Since some Czechs had actually emigrated to Venezuela, this was the destination usually indicated.

There were occasions, however, when the lack of a visa proved useful. After the American head of the Emergency Rescue Committee [Varian Fry] had been engaged for more than a year in his "nefarious" efforts to save the lives of imperiled intellectuals, under ever closer surveillance by the police, he was finally arrested and taken to the Spanish frontier at Cerbère for deportation. But he had no Spanish visa in his passport, and so he was able to remain in France several months more.

Of all the organizations concerned with emigration, none had a more romantic story than the Emergency Rescue Committee, later known as the American Rescue Committee. Concerned with the fate of German Socialists and members of other liberal groups after France was overrun, the Committee set up an office in Marseilles, with the avowed intention of aiding these well-known leaders to escape by any means possible. This purpose was no secret to the police, but the Committee was permitted to operate long enough to move scores of "wanted" refugees to safety. Many of the most (P. 177) famous names in European liberal circles profited by its ministrations. Based on the State Department's authorization of emergency visas outside the normal quota system, the Rescue Committee could help special refugees to obtain such, and then supply the material aid necessary for travel to safety.

Here was a prominent Hungarian journalist, living in Switzerland at the outbreak of war and editing an anti-Nazi paper. He moved at once to France and volunteered in the only military unit available, the French Foreign Legion. Twice decorated, he was taken prisoner by the Germans, who did not discover his identity before he escaped and arrived in Marseilles. For many refugees a visa to some Latin-American country was the simplest and speediest way out, but these countries did not recognize the visas of stateless persons, apatrides: they required a national passport. In this particular case the passport was still valid but it had to be amended, since it authorized travel "in European countries" only. However, the minute this passport came into a Hungarian consul's hands it would be confiscated. Thanks to the Rescue Committee, a U.S. emergency visa was issued on a separate travel document; the journalist could use his Hungarian passport for Spain and Portugal, and take a ship in Lisbon.

Leon Feuchtwanger, bound for a deportation camp, was snatched from a stumbling line of refugees by "unknown persons" [U.S. vice- consul Myles Standish] in a passing car. Thanks to one of the refugee agencies he was able to cross the Pyrenees on foot, dressed as a woman. To avoid further perilous delay he used the steamer reservation of the head of another agency, and so was able to reach the States safely.

In some cases, along with the tragedy, there was humor. Franz Werfel had left Paris at the time of the exodus, and was living in Lourdes when Martha Sharp and Helen Lowrie, representing the Unitarian Service Committee, called on him. Out of this contact, incidentally, came The Song of Bernadette: although Werfel had been living in Lourdes for weeks, he had never visited the famous shrine, and the two ladies (p. 178) took him to see it. His interest aroused, Werfel produced the book after he reached the States. But getting there was no easy matter. American visas were available, and Werfel and his wife moved to Marseilles. With the help of the Rescue Committee false passports were provided, since France was too friendly with Hitler to let such a prominent Jew pass through Spain. For months the Werfels sat in a hotel, hoping for some legal means of emigration and fearing to attempt anything clandestine. At last they realized there was no other way, and agreed to let the Rescue Committee engage a guide to take them over the mountains at the frontier near Perpignan. If anything clandestine was ever less secret, we never heard of it. The lady refused to attempt the passage at night, and appeared for the hike over the mountains in bright sunlight; wearing a white dress and carrying a white parasol, she was about as inconspicuous as a fly in a glass of milk. Frontier guards had evidently been "approached," however, and the Werfels came safely to the States.

Probably 90 per cent of all refugees wanted to go to the United States. Obtaining an American visa was often a time consuming process, and under the shadow of imminent German occupation haste was essential. A refugee had to present three affidavits of support from three separate persons. It not infrequently happened that two would arrive, but the third would be missing, so correspondence with the States had to be renewed to secure that third affidavit. By this time the steamship reservation might be useless, and then negotiation would have to take place all over again.

There was one prominent writer who had managed to reach Morocco and who possessed a U.S. visa. It took him months to secure permission to move to Tangier, where he had his steamer reservation. While he waited, the U.S. visa expired, but the consulate in Morocco extended it. In Tangier, however, the U.S. consul felt the need of new instructions from Washington and in the meantime our friend missed his boat. Again the visa expired. This man's danger was heightened

(p. 179) by new events in France, and finally the Rescue Committee gave up hope and helped the man obtain a visa for Cuba. It is pleasant to report that he eventually reached the promised land in New York.

The case of Professor B. was another excellent example of visa complications. Through one of the agencies U.S. visas and passage for the professor and his wife were guaranteed, but it took a month to secure the Portuguese transit visa: only in Lisbon could he obtain steamer reservations. The U.S. visa expired. Overanxious, Professor B. alerted two organizations, and both submitted his case to the State Department. Once this confusion was cleared, the Department cabled the visa to Nice, but Professor B. had already moved to Marseilles. Transferring the visa to Marseilles caused a delay of a few more weeks, but finally the Bs got off on the SS Winnipeg, which sailed as far as Trinidad where the French detained it until the visas had again expired.

Further correspondence moved Washington to renew the visa a second time, and eight weeks later it came, but it mentioned only Professor B. and not his wife. So the Bs had to go through the whole process again. A letter to B. from the Rescue Committee explained that "One reason for the delay is that your case was recommended by Professor R. who is thought to have Communist leanings." Two months later the Rescue Committee was writing: "The next step is a statement about your and your wife's relatives: who are dead, where the others are living, if in Germany, what contacts, if any, you have with them, etc. The statement is to be furnished in triplicate with two of the copies notarized." These extracts from correspondence tell the rest of the story.

September-"The American consul in Trinidad has received no instructions about the Bs."

October-"Learned that State Department has disapproved the Bs' visa. There is no explanation."

December-"The Bs decided to ask for a Cuban visa. Sponsors must provide new biographical material." (p. 180)

January-"The Enemy Alien Act rules that no one of enemy nationality may receive a visa or an extension of one."

March-"We hope to find someone to present the Bs' appeal in Washington."

June-"Very difficult to find anyone to push Bs' appeal for reconsideration."

August-"The Bs' case will be heard on August 17."

November-"This case refused after hearing." There is a final happy note in this file: "June 27, 1945. The Bs arrived in New York."

For many of these hunted people the expiration date of a visa was almost like a date for execution. Some years after the war, in New York, I met an ex-refugee who greeted me with "You saved my life." I had no recollection of the case, but this man explained: "I was in the army and could not reach Marseilles before my American visa expired. The American consulate was refusing to receive people like me, but you gave me a note to the consul and I was able to take a ship for New York."

On the other hand, there was Dr. H., another prominent Jewish writer on the Nazis' "wanted" list. He came into my office one afternoon. "But I thought you had left on yesterday's boat," I said. "I was aboard the ship," he replied, "and as you know my U.S. visa would expire at midnight. The police knew it, too, but since our ship was to sail at 10:00 P.M., they did nothing. Then there was some delay with loading, and after midnight the harbor police took me off. When I return to my room tonight I will be arrested-and so I've come to say good-by." Both of us knew we would never meet again.

Volunteers who Worked with Diplomats in Southern France

Richard Allen, director, American Red Cross in France

Father Pierre Marie-Bénoit (Benedetto), President, Delegazione Assistenze Emigranti Ebrei (Jewish Emigrant Association; Delasem), 1942-1945 (also in Southern France)

Daniel Bénédite, Emergency Rescue Committee (ERC)

Howard Brooks, Unitarian Service Committee (USC)

Jean Chaigneau, Prefect of the Alpes-Maritimes, France, 1943

Noel Field, Unitarian Service Committee (USC), Head of Marseilles Office

Joseph Fisera, Volunteer Czechoslovakian diplomatic mission, Marseilles

Varian Fry, Emergency Rescue Committee (ERC)

Pastor Charles Guillon, Mayor Le Chambon-sur-Lignon

Dr. Charles Joy, Unitarian Service Committee (USC)

Howard Kershner, American Friends’ Service Committee (AFSC) – Quakers

Donald Lowrie, Nimes Committee, Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA,) Czeck Aid

Simon Mairesse, Le-Chambon-sur-Lignon

Roswell McClelland, American Friends’ Service Committee (AFSC), Marseilles

Lindsley Nobel, American Friends’ Service Committee (AFSC), Marseilles

Mireille Philip, Le-Chambon-sur-Lignon

Pierre Piton, Le-Chambon-sur-Lignon

Father John Aan de Stegge, Catholic Priest, Toulouse

Martha and Waitstill Sharp, Unitarian Service Committee (USC)

Tracy Strong, Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA)

Pastor Edouard Theis, Le-Chambon-sur-Lignon

Pastor André Trocmé, Le Chambon-sur-Lignon

Daniel Trocmé*, Le-Chambon-sur-Lignon

Magda Trocmé, Le-Chambon-sur-Lignon

Monsignor Ulla, Priest, Salesian Order, Valley of Lanzo