Varian Mackey Fry was an American journalist. Fry ran a rescue network in Vichy France that helped 2,000 to 4,000 anti-Nazi and Jewish refugees to escape Nazi Germany and the Holocaust. He was the first of five Americans to be recognized as "Righteous Among the Nations", an honorific given by the State of Israel to non-Jews who risked their lives to save Jews during the Holocaust.
Fry as a child
Memorial plaque in Berlin
Fry and Miriam Davenport, c. 1940
Varian Fry Street, Berlin
Righteous Among the Nations
Righteous Among the Nations is an honourific used by the State of Israel to describe all of the non-Jews who, for purely altruistic reasons, risked their lives in order to save Jews from being exterminated by Nazi Germany during the Holocaust. The term originates from the concept of ger toshav, a legal term used to refer to non-Jewish observers of the Seven Laws of Noah.
Memorial tree in Jerusalem, Israel honoring Irena Sendler, a Polish Roman Catholic nurse who saved 2,500 Jews
Obverse (left) and reverse (right) of the Righteous Medal
The Righteous Diploma of Maria Kotarba
A Righteous Among the Nations award ceremony in the Polish Senate, 2012