Varian's War: The Forgotten Hero

Varian Fry: ...Not much time to react. But, react we must. What we do now, how we rise to the challenge will be how our children will judge us. The Darkness descending over Europe might keep the night for a thousand years. You ask me, Why the intellectuals? Because it is precisely the artists, poets, and writers who the Nazis hate the most for they are the keepers of the soul of Europe. The best of that civilization. If their voices be stilled, then who will sound the call to the rest of the world? You ask me, How will I get them out? I cannot say, for sure not today. But, if I have to bring them out one at a time on my back, or in the water, or over the Pyrenees, then that is what I will do because I am an American. Because my country has been a beacon to the world, a messenger of Liberty. To fail these people now would be to fail my country and fail my conscience. Do I ask, Would you take up arms? No, I ask only that you reach into your pocket to share some of the plenty that America has showered onto you to save a few persecuted men and women for whom their moment of God-given freedom is but a distant dream.