Emergency Rescue Committee collection

The Emergency Rescue Committee collection documents the efforts of Varian Fry in assisting three of the more than 1,500 refugees he helped escape while living in France from 1940-1941. As a member of the Emergency Rescue Committee, Fry was sent to Marseille, France, to assist in the escape of prominent intellectuals and artists who were living in recently German-occupied France. The correspondence and cables concern Max Ernst, Elena Frank, and Wilhelm Herzog, in addition to a list of clients for the Emergency Rescue Committee that were living in various countries in 1943. The Emergency Rescue Committee papers consists mainly of correspondence and cables concerning three refugees, and document the efforts taken in trying to assist in their escape from France. Wilhelm Herzog, whose papers are the most prominent in this collection, was a German historian of literature and culture. He wrote for several magazines and journals and wrote an encyclopedia of great figures in history. Elena Frank was the wife of Leonhard Frank, a German expressionist writer. Max Ernst was a popular surrealist painter. Also included in this collection is a list of Emergency Rescue Committee clients and their location. The Emergency Rescue Committee was formed in 1940, shortly after the German occupation of France. Created by several political advocates, the committee raised money to help bring refugees over to the United States from France. The committee later merged with the International Relief Association, to form the International Rescue Committee in 1942.