"Who's Caballero?" he asked. -
I told him he had been Prime Minister of Spain during the
Civil War.
"Oh," the Vice-Consul said, "one of those Reds."
I explained that Caballero had resigned the Premiership rather
than continue to co-operate with the communists.
"Well," the Vice-Consul said, "it doesn't make
any difference to me what his politics are. If he has any political
views at all, we don't want him. We don't want any agitators
in the United States. We've got too many already."
By the end of June, the American Consulates in France received
new instructions forbidding them to grant any visas at all except
on specific authorization from the State Department. Even transit
visas had to be authorized by the Department, and all the refugees
who had been patiently building up immigration-visa dossiers
at the Consulates now had to begin all over again in Washington.
No one with a close relative in Italy, Germany or any of the
occupied countries, including the occupied part of France, could
get a visa under any circumstances.
- Fry, V. (1945). Surrender on demand (pp. 215-216). Boulder:
Johnson Books.
Many contemporary sources describing conditions in Marseilles
during 1940 and 1941 suggest that the U.S. vice consul, Hiram
Bingham Jr., expedited exit visas with letters promising that
U.S. entry visas would be issued immediately afterward. Bingham,
however, often acted against the wishes of the consul, Hugh Fullerton,
and directives from his home government.
- Ryan, D. (1996). The Holocaust & The Jews of Marseilles
(p. 130). University of Illinois Press.
Although obtaining all the necessary visas remained difficult,
in the early days of Fry's work there was enough inconsistency
in government policy for Fry and his clients to exploit. U.S.
entry documents tended to flow steadily, though not profusely.
This trend continued as long as Hiram Bingham remained Vice-Consul
in charge of visas, that is, until June 1941, when U.S. official
immigration policy changed. It appears that the situation in
1940 and early 1941 might have been much worse without Bingham,
for the consul general, Hugh Fullerton, distrusted Fry, perhaps
because he appeared sympathetic to leftists at a time when fear
of Communist infiltration to the United States reigned supreme.
- Ryan, D. (1996). The Holocaust & The Jews of Marseilles
(p. 142). University of Illinois Press.
Without legal exit visas, Lion Feuchtwanger, Heinrich and
Nelly Mann, Golo Mann, and Franz and Alma Mahler Werfel escaped
to New York via Spain and Lisbon with ERC help. Unfortunately,
Feuchtwanger, eager to exaggerate his own courageous participation
in these events, gave away the details of his escape,
including his rescue from the camp at Saint Nicolas with the
help of Miles Standish, the U.S. Vice-Consul, and his concealment
at Hiram Bingham's house. His description probably alerted officials
to the need for tighter border control.
- Ryan, D. (1996). The Holocaust & The Jews of Marseilles
(p. 144). University of Illinois Press.
