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Varian Fry

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Advocate

The Resume

    (October 15, 1907-September 13, 1967)
    Born in New York City, New York
    Foreign correspondent for the journal 'The Living Age'
    Sent to Marseilles as an agent of the Emergency Rescue Committee (August, 1940)
    Helped 2,200 Jewish and anti-Nazi refugees escape from Vichy France
    Known particularly for aiding writers and artists
    Refugees he helped included artists Marc Chagall, Marcel Duchamp, Jean Arp and Max Ernst; authors Arthur Koestler and Andre Breton; philosopher Claude Levi-Strauss; historian Hannah Arendt; classical musician Wanda Landowska; and director Max Ophuls
    Nicknamed 'the artists' Schindler'

Why he might be annoying:

    He had to repeat his senior year at Harvard after being suspended for putting up a 'For Sale' sign in front of a dean's house.
    He was openly elitist about preferring to rescue intellectuals.
    He was forced to leave France due to opposition from both the Vichy government and the US State Department, which refused to renew his passport.
    After World War II, he found the rest of his life anticlimactic.
    He suffered bipolar disorder.

Why he might not be annoying:

    He witnessed abuse against Jews during a visit to Berlin (1935) and said the experience turned him into an ardent anti-Nazi.
    He said, 'I could not remain idle as long as I had any chances at all of saving even a few of [the Nazis'] intended victims.'
    He rescued 2,200 people despite opposition from his own government.
    After Marc Chagall was arrested, Fry browbeat Vichy officials into releasing him within an hour.
    After returning to the US, he wrote 'The Massacre of Jews in Europe' for 'The New Republic' to try to alert the American public to the Holocaust.
    He received the French Legion of Honor (1967).
    He was the first US citizen honored by Israel as 'Righteous Among the Nations.' (1994)

Credit: C. Fishel


Featured in the following Annoying Collections:

Year In Review:

    For 2024, as of last weekly ranking, Out of 1 Votes: 100% Annoying
    In 2023, Out of 1 Votes: 0% Annoying
    In 2022, Out of 3 Votes: 0% Annoying
    In 2021, Out of 8 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
    In 2020, Out of 4 Votes: 75.00% Annoying
    In 2019, Out of 1 Votes: 0% Annoying
    In 2018, Out of 2 Votes: 0% Annoying
    In 2017, Out of 2 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
    In 2016, Out of 8 Votes: 37.50% Annoying
    In 2015, Out of 21 Votes: 9.52% Annoying
    In 2014, Out of 17 Votes: 29.41% Annoying