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Entrance to the Holocaust History Museum is not permitted for children under the age of Babies in strollers or carriers will not be permitted to enter. The refugees from Germany who had sought shelter in France were once again under German control, and the danger to their person was grave. An aid organization - the Emergency Rescue Committee ERC — was established in New York with the purpose of helping intellectuals and renowned figures stranded in France, who were in danger of being arrested and turned over to the Germans because of their anti-Nazi stand.

State Department, agreed to make an exception to its otherwise restrictive visa policy, and to provide entry visas to a limited number of two hundred refugees. His job was to reach Marseilles, where many of these refugees were staying, and to find a way to get them out. Arriving in Marseilles in August , Fry settled in his room in the hotel Splendide, and began writing letters to the people on his list.

Rumors of his arrival had spread, and hundreds of people came to ask him for assistance. He soon discovered that the American consulate was not going to help him get people to the US, and that he would have to work independently. Faced with the plight of the desperate refugees, Fry decided to act and began finding ways - most of which were illegal - to smuggle out those refugees who faced immediate danger of falling into German hands.

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The lines of refugees in front of his hotel room were so long that he rented an office and put together a group of associates — American expatriates, French nationals and refugees — to help him in the process of classification. They established the American Rescue Center Centre Americain de Secours and began interviewing between people every day.

We had to guess, and the only safe way to guess was to give each refugee the full benefit of the doubt. Otherwise we might refuse help to someone who was really in danger and learn later that he had been dragged away to Dachau or Buchenwald because we had turned him away. Although he had no experience in underground work, Fry put a manifold operation into place.