In the summer of 1940, shortly after the fall of France, Fry, a New York newspaper editor, volunteered to go to Marseilles for the Emergency Rescue Committee, a private American organization set up to try to rescue artists, intellectuals and other refugees opposed to Nazism.
During a 13-month period, Fry organized a clandestine organization despite opposition from the Vichy government and the U.S. State Department. In the face of arrest and constant danger, he saved or helped thousands of refugees. These include painters Marc Chagall and Wilfred Lam, sculptor Jacques Lipchitz, writers Franz Werfel and Hans Habe, and scientists Fritz Kahn and Otto Meyerhof.
As a result, Fry was constantly hounded by the Vichy police and was arrested at one point. Soon American consular officials refused to renew his passport. In September 1941 Fry was expelled from France. The charge against him was “helping Jews and anti-Nazis.”
In 1996, Fry became the first American to be honored by Jerusalem’s Yad Vashem as one of its “Righteous Among Nations.”
The opening reception will be followed at 4 p.m. by an address by Alexander Dallin, senior fellow of the Institute for International Studies at Stanford University. Dallin, with his family, was rescued by Fry and his Emergency Rescue Committee.
The exhibit will be on view through May 23 in the ALSJCC’s Koret Gallery along with artwork by Chagall, Holocaust survivor Chris Ranes and Holocaust victim Charlotte Salomon.
Four events also are scheduled in conjunction with the display. They include a showing of the film “Weapons of the Spirit” and a presentation by the producer-director Pierre Sauvage at 3 p.m. Sunday, April 18.
An interactive family educational program for sixth- through eighth-graders and their parents titled “Heroes and Me: What Does it Take to Be a Tzaddik?” led by Rabbi Amy Bardack is set for 10:30 a.m. April 25.
Henry Feingold, professor at the Baruch Graduate Center of City University of New York, will speak on “Roosevelt and the Holocaust: What Were the Possibilities of Rescue? at 4 p.m. May 2.
“Rescue: After Varian Fry” will be the topic of a lecture by Mary Felstiner, professor in the department of history at San Francisco State University at 4 p.m. May 16.
For information, call ALSJCC at (650) 493-9400.