In the July 25, 1993, issue of the Cleveland Plain Dealer a fascinating article appeared about secret agent Varian Fry. He was an eccentric, bookish and shy man, one who hardly fits the picture of a secret agent. Nonetheless, this Harvard-educated writer left New York City in 1940 to begin a life of intrigue in France worthy of a Le Carre novel. His mission was to rescue artists, writers and musicians whose lives were in jeopardy because of Hitler's hatred of the Jews.

Fry was successful in liberating 2,500 refugees from the threat of the gas chambers including historian Hannah Arendt, painter Marc Chagall, surrealist Max Ernst and numerous other highly creative Europeans. At great danger to his own life, Fry provided travel visas for these people so that they could flee to Lisbon or to …