Assignment: Rescue--The Story of Varian Fry and the Emergency Rescue Committee

Varian Fry, a liberal American journalist who was a witness to early Nazi atrocities, was recruited by the Emergency Rescue Committee to help rescue anti-Nazi activists trapped in the Vichy region of France after the Nazi invasion. Many of the people at risk were intellectuals, including poets, artists, engineers, and professors. Setting himself up in the port city of Marseille, Fry immediately began funneling refugees to safety through a southern mountain border with Spain. Battling the indifference of the U.S. State Department and the active suspicion of the Vichy government, Fry used an intricate system of false passports, alternative escape routes, and his black market and underworld connections in his daring rescue missions. After 13 months, Fry was deported for aiding Jews, anti-Nazis, and "reds," but by that time had saved several thousand people. This program offers an overdue tribute to Fry, who was posthumously honored at Yad Vashem as one of the "righteous among the nations." Unfortunately, the film is too brief, and gives no clue as to what happened to Fry during the rest of the war, or any other time up to his death in 1967. You're left with admiration for Fry, but little insight into the man's character. The surprisingly listless narration by Meryl Streep doesn't help either. Only very large Holocaust collections need to consider this. Aud: H, C, P. (S. Rees)