[France24] The story of Varian Fry, a US journalist who helped some 2,000 of Europe’s imperilled artists, writers and refugees escape from Nazi-occupied Europe, has inspired the new Netflix series "Transatlantic". FRANCE 24 takes a look at a hero who risked his life many times over before falling into relative anonymity.
The new Netflix series "Transatlantic" dramatises the short but intense period of Fry’s life when he helped found the Emergency Rescue Committee and enabled hundreds of illustrious writers, artists and refugees to flee Vichy France.
Varian Fry, enamoured by European artists and writers, first travelled to Berlin in 1935 as a bookish and scholarly young journalist. But instead of finding high culture, he witnessed first-hand the violence meted out by fascist thugs in the streets of the German capital. He saw the SS beating and bloodying Jewish women and men, later writing that the police didn't make any effort to save the victims from the brutality, instead trying to clear the area for cars to get through.
In June 1940, Nazi forces marched into Paris, creating a massive exodus of refugees to the south of France. Driven by his abhorrence for Nazism and all that it stood for, Fry helped found the Emergency Rescue Committee (ERC). Its mission was to help anyone persecuted by the Nazis, including European writers, artists or intellectuals, both Jewish and non-Jewish. 
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