Photos Helen Oppenheim thanks to Netflix
I am watching Transatlantic on Netflix, a limited series of 7 episodes based on a book based on a true story about a very brave group who helped refugees escape the Nazis in occupied France in 1940 during the early days of WW11. When America was still neutral. They helped artists, writers, Jewish thinkers who were on the Nazi’s “Most Wanted List.”
I have just seen two episodes and not sure if Varian Fry, the American journalist who helped 2,000 escape in real life, is credited in the fictionalized tv series for helping some famous names we all know escape to America. I read another book on the subject and know he helped Max Ernst, Thomas Mann, Chagall, Marcel Duchamp, André Breton, amongst others escape from Marseilles, where most the action in the tv series takes place.
Mary Jayne Gold an American heiress portrayed by Gillian Jacobs, featured in photos, played an important part funding the heroic rescues. Lucas Englander is German Jewish Refugee Albert Hirshman. Corey Michael Smith portrays Varian Fry.
The Vichy French, to their shame, and the American government, to their shame, were no help. Transatlantic is good, could be better, but it is worth watching …