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Carla Killough McClafferty

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In Defiance of Hitler: The Secret Mission of Varian Fry Kindle Edition

by Carla Killough McClafferty (Author) Format: Kindle Edition

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On August 4, 1940, an unassuming American journalist named Varian Fry made his way to Marseilles, France, carrying in his pockets the names of approximately two hundred artists and intellectuals – all enemies of the new Nazi regime. As a volunteer for the Emergency Rescue Committee, Fry's mission was to help these refugees flee to safety, then return home two weeks later. As more and more people came to him for assistance, however, he realized the situation was far worse than anyone in America had suspected – and his role far greater than he had imagined. He remained in France for over a year, refusing to leave until he was forcibly evicted.

At a time when most Americans ignored the World War II atrocities in Europe, Varian Fry engaged in covert operations, putting himself in great danger, to save strangers in a foreign land. He was instrumental in the rescue of over two thousand refugees, including the novelist Heinrich Mann and the artist Marc Chagall.

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Grade 6 Up—Fry was a young American journalist working in pre-World War II Germany when he witnessed an anti-Semitic uprising led by storm troopers, and he was inspired, over 13 months of espionage and clandestine efforts during the war, to save people from impending annihilation. Back in New York City and following the French-German armistice in 1940 that provided Germany control over France, he realized that numerous renowned artists, writers, and scientists, both Jews and non-Jews, would be trapped under the Vichy government. Fry joined the newly formed Emergency Rescue Committee and volunteered to lead an escape mission for as many of these refugees as possible. His work began as a one-man operation in Marseilles and quickly grew to a fully staffed unit posing as a refugee center. Fry not only helped the famous and talented, but also many ordinary Jews to escape France through Spain and Portugal and then to ports beyond. McClafferty describes an exciting if not daring and altruistic episode in this righteous gentile's life. Numerous black-and-white photographs of the period and individuals who worked closely with Fry augment the readable and well-documented text. This is an intriguing look at how life completely changed for so many and how ingenuity and daring used by a few outwitted the enemy and saved lives.—Rita Soltan, Youth Services Consultant, West Bloomfield, MI
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

*Starred Review* Rescue stories bring hope to the Holocaust darkness, and this stirring account of a young New York City journalist who secretly helped more than 2,000 refugees escape Nazi-occupied France blends exciting adventure with the grim history. Before the U.S. entered the war, Fry, 32, spent a year in Marseilles, using his relief organization as a cover for a hidden rescue operation which saved well-known artists, politicians, and scientists, including Marc Chagall and Heinrich Mann. In fact, part of the story is how Fry chose the few to save from all the desperate who lined up at his office. Along with the suspense of police raids and the gripping particulars about the brave rescuers on Fry’s team comes the knowledge that victims faced with extermination were not welcome in the U.S. The author begins with a brief overview of Hitler’s rise and the threat to the Jews, and then draws heavily on Fry’s autobiography and his letters home, which detail his increasing stress. Some readers will skip the details, but many will want all the amazing information about the unassuming hero who saved so many. Photos are scattered throughout, and source notes and bibliography are appended. Grades 7-12. --Hazel Rochman

Review

“Rescue stories bring hope to the Holocuast darkness, and this stirring account of a young New York City journalist who secretly helped over 2000 refugees escape Nazi-occupied France blends exciting adventure with the grim history.” ―Starred, Booklist

“The author's clear language makes the chronological story thrilling. She gives useful historical background to the individual saga and provides a lot of wonderful photos . . . . Highly recommended.” ―Starred, Jewish Book World Magazine

“Period photographs help to flesh out the story, and an appendix provides brief follow-up biographies of some of the others involved. An interesting read that shines a light on a hitherto little-known figure.” ―Kirkus Reviews

“Numerous black-and-white photographs of the period and individuals who worked closely with Fry augment the readable and well-documented text. This is an intriguing look at how life completely changed for so many and how ingenuity and daring used by a few outwitted the enemy and saved lives.” ―School Library Journal

“McClafferty takes a fascinating, in-depth look at journalist Varian Fry's operation as he worked beneath the noses of the Gestapo to bring people to safety. ” ―VOYA

“This book is a valuable addition to sources about the Holocaust for young people . . . should be included in the libraries of all secondary schools, and the book provides a vivid example of an individual taking great personal risks on behalf of the needs of others.” ―ALAN Online Review

“End matter comprising bibliography, index, quotation sources, and an appendix discussing the later years of ERC members will be useful for student research.” ―Bulletin for the Center of Children's Books

“Her [Carla Killough McClafferty] writing is sturdy, straightforward and unadorned.” ―Arkansas Times

About the Author

Carla Killough McClafferty grew up on an agricultural farm near England, Arkansas. “My elementary school didn’t even have a library. Bookshelves underneath the windows that spanned one side of each classroom were the substitutes. To this day, libraries inspire me with awe and appreciation. I always loved to read, but it never occurred to me as a child that I would become a writer. As a matter of fact, I have no background or training to be a writer.

“After high school I graduated from Baptist Medical Center School of Radiologic Technology in Little Rock, then worked in local hospitals. After my children were born, I was a stay-at-home mom except for occasional freelance work as a radiologic technologist in orthopedic clinics.

“I began writing after the death of my fourteen-month-old son, Corey, which left me struggling to answer impossible questions like ‘Why did this have to happen?’ I wrote a book about how God brought me through this difficult period in my life titled Forgiving God (Discovery House, 1995). I found through that experience that I loved to write and have been writing ever since.”

Ms. McClafferty’s first book of nonfiction for children is The Head Bone’s Connected to the Neck Bone: The Weird, Wacky, and Wonderful X-ray. Through an engaging text and numerous photographs, McClafferty tells the history of the X-ray, from its discovery to its applications today, covering such things as the use of X-rays to study art, Egyptian mummies, astronomy, and paleontology, just to name a few. In manuscript form, The Head Bone’s Connected to the Neck Bone: The Weird, Wacky, and Wonderful X-ray won the 1997 Work-in-Progress Grant from the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators.

In Something Out of Nothing: Marie Curie and Radium, Ms. McClafferty gives the scientist’s life and work a fresh telling, one that also explores the larger picture of the effects of radium in world culture, and its exploitation and sad misuse. Kirkus Reviews says the book “gives readers a terrific sense of Curie’s state of mind as she worked and loved. There are many biographies of Curie; this one stands out in its shared focus on her discovery and its legacy.”

Ms. McClafferty is a frequent speaker at church, writers’, teachers’ and school groups. She lives in North Little Rock, Arkansas, with her husband Pat. They have three children, Ryan, Brittney and the late Corey McClafferty.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

[Witness]

JULY 15, 1935. BERLIN, GERMANY

Varian Fry saw the mob. They gathered in front of the neat shops and cafés that lined Kurfürstendamm, one of Berlin’s main streets. He heard singing in the distance. The melody was that of a German military song, but the words were chanted like a cheer at a ball game as more and more of the crowd joined in. A leader sang a line of the song, then the crowd repeated it. Varian understood German well enough to realize the words meant:

When Jewish blood spurts from the knife,

Then everything will be fine again.

Somewhere in the crowd, someone yelled out "Jew." A pack of people surrounded the man who had been pointed out. They spit on the nameless "Jew," insulted him, and knocked him down onto the sidewalk. Once he was on the ground, the mob kicked him repeatedly, with sickening thuds. Then, from all directions, like a disease that spread, Varian heard "Jew," "Jew," "Jew." Each time a Jewish man or woman was pointed out, he or she was immediately set upon and beaten. The sound of sobbing women added to the chaos of shuffling feet and the repeating chorus of the military song. Then a new anti-Semitic chant rang out: "The best Jew is a dead Jew."

The mass of people on the street forced passing cars and buses to stop. If the occupants looked as if they might be Jewish, the crowd pulled them out and beat them. They pulled Jewish customers from cafés and attacked them. Everywhere Varian looked, Jewish people covered with blood ran down the street. Their pursuers were right behind them, hitting them with clubs and calling them names.

Members of the S.A., short for Sturmabteilung, the private Nazi army known as storm troopers, picked up tables and chairs from outside cafés and threw them through the windows of Jewish-owned shops.

Varian was horrified at what he was seeing.

"This is a holiday for us," a German youth said to Varian. Varian was shocked when he realized that the people in the crowd were actually enjoying their brutal behavior. He looked at the people

who made up the mob. They were German boys and girls, men and women, policemen and S.A. men, young and old, rich and poor. All sang and participated in the riot.

The scene Varian witnessed was seared into his memory.

The next morning, Varian walked down the once-charming street to survey the damage from the previous night. Shards of glass from broken shop windows littered the sidewalks and crunched beneath his feet. He passed several people who were bound with bandages.

Varian Fry had gone to Berlin to find out if the Germans were mistreating their own Jewish citizens. Ever since Adolf Hitler took over the government, rumors of abuse had spread throughout the world. As editor at The Living Age, a political journal, Varian wanted to see the situation for himself. Now he had no doubt. Germany had begun a reign of violence against Jews.

Hitler rose to power within the Nazi political party and was named Chancellor—the head of government—of Germany in 1933. The next year he added the title of der Führer, which means "the leader." As the supreme leader of Germany, Hitler became a dictator with unlimited power. Nothing happened in that country without his consent and approval.

Varian made an appointment with Ernst Hanfstaengl, who was chief of the Foreign Press Division of the Nazi Propaganda Ministry and a personal friend of Hitler’s. Hanfstaengl—son of a German father and American mother—often entertained Hitler by playing classical music on the piano. Varian had never met Hanfstaengl, but they had one thing in common: they were both Harvard graduates.

Though their meeting took place in Berlin, Germany’s capital, Hanfstaengl spoke to Varian in English. In his cultured accent, he calmly explained that the goal of the Nazi Party was to get rid of all the Jews in Europe and that there were two opinions about what to do with them. One group suggested that all Jews be rounded up and shipped out of Europe, maybe to Palestine or Madagascar. The other group, including Hitler, wanted to solve the "Jewish problem" by killing the Jews.

As Varian listened to Hanfstaengl, he was stunned. How could one group of people discuss the possibility of annihilating another group of people? It was such a horrible thought that Varian couldn’t quite believe it. Yet he had witnessed the brutality of average Germans toward average Jews the day before. Right away, Varian wrote an article detailing this violence; it appeared in The New York Times the next day, July 17, 1935.

At the time, few people outside Germany understood the lengths to which Hitler was willing to go. Ever since he had come to power, Hitler had been steadily working toward taking away the rights of Jews in Germany.

Hitler believed in a racist theory that Germans belonged to a so-called Aryan race. In ancient times, Aryans were people who settled in northern India and spoke a language that became known as Indo- European. In the mid-1800s, Joseph-Arthur, comte de Gobineau, a wealthy Frenchman, wrote a book called Essay on the Inequality of Human Races. In it Gobineau suggested that the white race, which he referred to as the Aryan race, was superior to all others. Gobineau’s ideas later influenced Houston Stewart Chamberlain, an Englishman with great admiration for Germany. In 1899 Chamberlain’s book The Foundations of the Nineteenth Century was published. He wrote that all positive influences in Europe came from "Aryans," all negative ones from other races, especially the Jews. Many people believe that Adolf Hitler was inspired by Chamberlain’s views. Hitler was convinced that Germans were Aryans, making up a "master race" of Caucasian, non-Jewish people.

When Varian went back home to New York City, he and his wife, Eileen, closely followed the news from Nazi Germany. In September 1935, only a few weeks after Varian returned from Berlin, Germany passed the Nuremberg Laws. These laws took away the civil rights of Jewish people who lived in Germany. It didn’t matter to Hitler that the families of these Jewish German citizens had lived there for centuries, or that many Jewish men were war veterans who’d fought for Germany during World War I. What mattered to Hitler was that they were Jews.

The Nuremberg Laws dictated that a "Jew" was anyone who had three or four Jewish grandparents. Suddenly all people considered Jewish were stripped of their German citizenship and segregated from other German citizens. From that point on, it was illegal for a Jew to marry a non-Jewish German. Jews were not permitted to display the German flag, own land, use the legal system, have national health insurance, serve in the military, or own a radio. Jews were forced out of their jobs as newspaper editors, doctors, and lawyers. Jewish teachers could not teach non-Jewish children. Jewish students could not attend a non-Jewish school. Jewish stores were boycotted by Germans. Books written by Jewish authors were publicly burned.

Taking away their rights was only the first phase of Hitler’s plan to destroy Jews everywhere. Yet the Jews weren’t the only group of people Hitler considered inferior. He intended to wipe out Gypsies, homosexuals, Freemasons (members of a secret society frequently opposed by organized religion), Jehovah’s Witnesses (a religious sect who refused to vote, salute, or join the army), and disabled people as well. With Germany’s army and air force trained to carry out his orders without hesitation, Hitler had the power to destroy countless people.

Hitler also wanted military domination over as much of Europe as possible. In 1938 Germany took over Austria and seized Czechoslovakia. The next year, with Germany’s invasion of Poland, World War II began. In 1940 the Nazis invaded Denmark, Norway, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Belgium, and France. All countries that came under Hitler’s control were bound by Germany’s anti-Semitic Nuremberg Laws. As each country fell to Hitler, its Jewish citizens went from being a free and important part of society to having no rights at all. Nazi brutality was displayed again and again as German soldiers humiliated Jews on the streets of Europe.

Those who opposed Hitler and his Nazi Party became known as anti-Nazis. As Hitler’s army took over a new country, the secret state police, the Geheime Staatspolizei, known as the Gestapo, moved in. The Gestapo would hunt down and kill every anti-Nazi they could find, including former government leaders, writers, artists, and scientists, as well as average citizens.

When the German army occupied a country, many Jews and anti-Nazis ran for their lives. They became refugees, people who flee to another country for safety. The refugees took with them only what they could carry in their hands, leaving behind all the material possessions they had accumulated in a lifetime.

Before France fell to the Germans, refugees from other countries headed there. In the past, France had always welcomed and protected refugees. The capital city, Paris, located in the northern part of the country, overflowed with them.

Varian Fry and all the rest of America listened to news reports as Nazi Germany methodically vanquished the European continent. At this time the United States was not involved in the war. America wouldn’t enter the war until the empire of Japan, an ally of Germany, bombed Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941.

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Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B00IQOC226
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Farrar, Straus and Giroux; 1st edition (April 22, 2014)
Publication date ‏ : ‎ April 22, 2014
Language ‏ : ‎ English
File size ‏ : ‎ 2.9 MB
Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Print length ‏ : ‎ 226 pages

Best Sellers Rank: #1,564,481 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- #77 in Children's Holocaust History Books
- #111 in Children's Explore Europe Books
- #124 in Teen & Young Adult Historical Biography eBooks

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Carla Killough McClafferty

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Carla Killough McClafferty is an award-winning author of nonfiction books and a public speaker. Her path to becoming an author is unique as her first career is as a Registered Radiologic Technologist. She began writing after the death of her young son, Corey, when she wrote her first book Forgiving God: A Woman’s Struggle to Understand When God Answers No.

Next, McClafferty turned her attention to writing nonfiction books for young readers McClafferty has written books on a wide variety of topics including George Washington, Marie Curie, X-rays, an American holocaust rescuer, concussions in football, enslaved people, and spies in the American Revolution. Her books have been recognized for excellence in various ways including starred reviews, Bank Street Best Books of the Year, IRA Children’s Book Award Winner, NCTE Orbis Pictus Honor Book, ALA Best Books for Young Adult List, ALA Amelia Bloomer Project List, National Science Teachers Association Outstanding Science Trade Book, National Council of Social Studies Outstanding Trade Book, Colonial Dames Literary Prize, Doubleday’s Crossings Book Club, and more.

McClafferty is a popular public speaker and has been featured at national and international venues including Mount Vernon’s Ford Book Series, CSpan 2 Book TV, Colonial Williamsburg, the American Library Association national conference, the National Science Teachers Association national conference, U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, and the U.S. Consulate in Marseille, France. She presents both live and virtual sessions for teacher professional development workshops, and provides author visits and interactive videoconferences with students all over the nation

Her books include:

Spies in the American Revolution

Buried Lives: The Enslaved People of George Washington’s Mount Vernon

A Short Biography of George Washington

Fourth Down and Inches: Concussions and Football’s Make-or-Break Moment

Tech Titans

The Many Faces of George Washington: Remaking a Presidential Icon

In Defiance of Hitler: The Secret Mission of Varian Fry

Something Out of Nothing: Marie Curie and Radium

The Head Bone’s Connected to the Neck Bone: The Weird, Wacky and Wonderful X-ray

Forgiving God: A Woman’s Struggle to Understand When God Answers No

The Life of David: Comfort from the Psalms

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Mark
An engaging and heroic narrative
Reviewed in the United States on September 19, 2008

This is the newest and in my opinion best introduction to Varian Fry, still a relatively unknown and unsung hero of World War II. This book is targeted at a young audience, nevertheless I recommend it to anyone seeking an introduction to a remarkable man through whom we can all draw inspiration. The author has done an excellent job conveying the danger, intrigue, frustration and ultimate success of the Emergency Rescue Committee's most charismatic character. The photographs are excellent as well as the appendix and source notes.

Great job Carla Killough McClafferty

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Robert V. Rose, retired education researcher
A great read!!
Reviewed in the United States on April 24, 2012
Verified Purchase
When I was in college I had a very close Sephardic friend who was born in Paris in January 1939. She told me her family had escaped Europe on a false Portuguese passport and that she was a distant relative of the famous Italian painter, Modigliani.

I don't know for sure if Varian Fry helped her family, but one mention of a Modigliani (a fleeing Italian socialist) is mentioned in the book.

Fry gave up his job and his marriage, and was willing to give up his life, to help get refugees away from Hitler.

This book is a fascinating portrait of a great man, his life and his work, as well as a fascinating addendum to WW2 history for a maven like me.

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Rose Lodowski
In Defiance of Hitler, the Secret Mission of Varian Fry - the "American Schindler"
Reviewed in the United States on December 7, 2011
Verified Purchase
Amazing story of Varian Fry, the "American Schindler" that rescued over 2,000 people from Nazi-occupied France in 1940. The 2009 Orbis-Pictus Award Winner, I selected and read this book for my Children's Literature class at The University of Texas at Dallas. I was thrilled to receive a response e-mail from the Author, Carla McCafferty, after writing to congratulate her on the story of Varian Fry, one that she so capably brought to life with vivid and historically correct detail.

Geared to middle-school age youngsters, McCafferty's book thrilled the socks off this 55 year old Baby Boomer. A very good read! *****

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Jewish Book World Magazine
In Defiance of Hitler
Reviewed in the United States on January 27, 2009
One man can make a difference! This edge of your seat biography about Varian Fry, a little known hero who rescued hunted people from under the nose of the Nazis in occupied France is a shining example of that truism. Fry, a young New York journalist, an average person, whose knowledge of espionage comes from movies, finds himself on a startling war-time mission. Because no one else will go, he agrees to fly to Marseilles and help famous, therefore recognizable, artists, writers and scientists escape the Germans who have closed the French borders to round up Jews. With no training, Fry sets up a front refugee organization, develops a staff he can trust, hires a cartoonist to forge papers, finds maps for crossing the Pyrenees on foot, and locates the intellectuals on his list. His two week assignment lasts over a year, ending because he is thrown out of the country. It is legal to help refugees survive, but absolutely illegal to help them leave France without proper documents. Not since The Firm has paperwork been so tense and exciting. Sent to save 200, Fry saves 2000 including famous individuals (ex. Marc Chagall), British soldiers and frightened families. He does this in spite of the opposition of the American State Department whose officials in Marseilles and Vichy - with only one exception, a man now on a US postage stamp - hinder Fry and take away his travel papers. Fry is a hero who cannot handle a normal routine on his return to America; and the remainder of his life is sad. Near his end the French Government honors him for his important, brave war deeds. Long after his death he becomes the first American included at Yad Vashem as a Righteous Gentile. At a time when most Americans ignore the European disaster, Fry investigates rumors, understands Nazi goals, witnesses their atrocities, writes about them in US newspapers, and when asked, works tirelessly behind enemy lines to save trapped Jews and others. The author's clear language makes the chronological story thrilling. She gives useful historical background to the individual saga and provides a lot of wonderful photos. The action in the book relies on following a paper trail and keeping many names straight. Reviewed by Ellen Cole

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Darcy Pattison
Conscience, Courage, Defiance, Paying the Price
Reviewed in the United States on November 28, 2008
Harvard-educated Varian Fry was a man with a conscience. He traveled through Germany before the outbreak of WWII and saw the rising hatred against the Jews. When Hitler took over and Jews were forced to flee, many wound up in France. But Hitler was advancing into France and the lives of refugee Jews were endangered again. Their only hope - one man, Varian Fry.

Almost single handedly Fry managed to rescue two thousand refugees. McClafferty does an expert job of presenting the prevailing atmosphere of the times, evoked by numerous historically accurate details. Yet, she does this with flair and makes the story engrossing for the middle grade reader, the young adult reader or the adult reader. The story is definitely a page-turner, a study in how to defy a tyrant and overcome the darkness of the Holocaust.

We are tempted to believe that every brave man deserves to life happily-ever-after. Courage, though, takes it's toll. McClafferty draws the picture of Varian Fry's later years with sympathy.

If you are teaching a lesson on the Holocaust, plan to include this stirring story.

McClafferty's previous book, Something Out of Nothing: Marie Curie and Radium was awarded the International Reading Association medal for the Best Nonfiction Book in the Intermediate Category; it was also an Orbis Pictus Honor Book. Also, see her first book, The Head Bone's Connected To The Neck Bone: The Weird, Wacky, and Wonderful X-Ray. For more, [...]

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In Defiance of Hitler: The Secret Mission of Varian Fry Kindle Edition

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4.0 out of 5 stars An engaging and heroic narrative

5.0 out of 5 stars A great read!!

5.0 out of 5 stars In Defiance of Hitler, the Secret Mission of Varian Fry - the "American Schindler"

5.0 out of 5 stars In Defiance of Hitler

5.0 out of 5 stars Conscience, Courage, Defiance, Paying the Price

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An engaging and heroic narrative

A great read!!

In Defiance of Hitler, the Secret Mission of Varian Fry - the "American Schindler"

In Defiance of Hitler

Conscience, Courage, Defiance, Paying the Price