(Photo: Brigitte Lacombe)
Julie Orringer, known for her captivating short stories and novels (How to Breath Under Water, The Invisible Bridge) is out with a new book this May. The Flight Portfolio tells the true story of Varian Fry, an American journalist who went the Europe at the height of Hitler’s power with the plan to save some of the Jewish artists and writers whose lives were in danger there. Amongst those he saved were Max Ernst, Marcel Duchamp, Hannah Arendt and Marc Chagall. Fry’s mission is an absolutely fascinating one; his story empowering. Fry was the first American to be named “Righteous Among the Nations” by Yad Vashem. The award recognizes non-Jewish people who risked their lives to save Jews during the Holocaust. As Orringer says, “He was a hero I’d never heard about before and one whose story I wanted to tell.”
Read the full interview on SF Station