But when France capitulated to Germany in June 1940 and the Vichy government was formed

But when France capitulated to Germany in June 1940 and the Vichy government was formed, Fry realised this was not enough; not only were French Jews now at appalling risk from their own government, but so too were thousands of Europe's most distinguished writers, artists and intellectuals, who had fled to the South of France since Hitler came to power. To Fry, the torch-bearers of European civilisation, his people, were being held in the world's largest concentration camp.He declared that if no one else would go to help them, then he would. So he first coaxed a passport out of the State Department, which at that time took a dim view of Americans travelling to Europe. Then he cajoled a letter of introduction out of the International YMCA, identifying him as a relief worker, because the French authorities took a dim view of anyone who wanted to enter France without having some kind of official business.

He quizzed recent arrivals from Europe about the true conditions in Vichy-governed France. He spoke to Eleanor Roosevelt, enlisting her support for his efforts, specifically with the American consuls in France. He conferred with Thomas Mann, Jacques Maritain, Reinhold Niebuhr, Jules Romains and many others, all of whom provided him with names of those whom he would try - somehow - to save from the Nazis.Fry arrived in Marseilles on 15 August 1940, after travelling overland by train from Lisbon. He had with him two suitcases of clothes, a list of several hundred names, and $3,000 in cash taped to his leg. He installed himself in Room 307 of the Htel Splendide, just down from the Gare St Charles.Action was necessary; the collaborationist zeal of the French authorities was worse than Fry had been led to expect.

In the weeks before his arrival, one ominous decree after another had come out of Vichy. There were laws against Jews and statutes authorising prefects of police to arrest and intern foreign Jews without cause. And then it was announced that all foreigners between the ages of 18 and 55 could be interned.Furthermore, no one was allowed to leave the country without an exit visa - and all applications for exit visas were handed over to the Gestapo. For those in the greatest danger if they remained in France, the very act of asking to leave was sufficient to guarantee instant arrest, internment in a concentration camp and, ultimately, deportation to Germany.So Fry moved quickly to establish contact with as many people on his list as he could find among the city's swollen refugee population. The first he located were Franz Werfel, the Czech writer whose novel The Forty Days of Musa Dagh had been an international bestseller, and his already legendary wife, Alma Mahler Gropius Werfel They were staying in a hotel near the Vieux Port.

Fry found them distinctly unappealing: Werfel, a fat little man with thick glasses, was full of whining self-pity; his wife, of imperious self-importance.Much more congenial was the patrician and soft-spoken Heinrich Mann, Thomas Mann's older brother, who at that time was probably better known as a writer than his brother. Indeed, such was the respect he commanded that in 1932 he had been put forward by the social democratic press as a candidate for President of Germany. In 1933, when Hitler came to power, Mann was the first person to be stripped of his German citizenship. He and his young wife, Nelly, were staying in a hotel across the street from the Splendide.After these initial contacts, Fry quickly managed to get in touch with most of the people on his list. In fact, the refugee grapevine was so efficient that most of them found Fry before he could find them Equally quickly, he recruited some much-needed helpers. Two were to become crucial to the success of his operation: Albert Hirschman, a baby-faced 25-year-old German economist, whom Fry nicknamed Beamish, and Miriam Davenport, an energetic young woman from Boston who had been studying art history at the Sorbonne when war broke out.

With Fry as their ringleader, this improbable little band proceeded to launch one of the most daring rescue operations of the War.A cover had to be established for the operation and, if possible, official sanction obtained. Fry went to see the secretary-general of the prefecture and explained his plans for an American Relief Centre to aid needy refugees. Whether it was that the plans sounded innocent enough, or that Fry looked innocent enough in his pin-striped suit with the ever-present silk hand- kerchief and boutonnire, the secretary-general gave his blessing. A few days later, the Centre Amricain de Secours opened in an abandoned handbag factory in the rue Grignan.There, from early in the morning until late at night, Fry and his two young cohorts interviewed refugees. The basic information about each person, plus the name of someone who could verify that information, was written down on an index card Addresses, for obvious reasons, were omitted. Some refugees were given money for food, and a letter of introduction to a bona fide relief agency. Others, the ones on Fry's list, were told to await news of possible "travel plans".After the last of the refugees had departed each day, Fry and Beamish would adjourn to the bathroom, turn on the taps to foil any attempts at eavesdropping, and talk over any special problems.