Villa Air-Bel: World War II, Escape, and a House in Marseille Book

This narrative nonfiction by Rosemary Sullivan has been a lesson in history for me. A true story, based on thousands of memoirs, letters and diaries of individuals, she has woven together a fascinating tapestry of lives that intersect at a time in history that reverberates with fear and bone chilling horror. Introducing us to the main characters in their own milieu, the book begins in Paris in 1933. Here we meet Andre Breton, Max Ernst, Victor Serge, Marc Chagall and scores of other cultural elite. Some are French born, others have moved to France from Franco's Spain. There are also some Americans, who, in spite of the Depression of 1929, have stayed back in Paris. Every individual is there because of the cultural and political freedom offered by France. As the riots of 1934 overtake the city, this idyll is jolted as anti Semitism, anti communism, anti socialism and hatred take root in society as part of ultra nationalistic narrative. At the same time, left leaning intellectuals of the day were beginning to get disillusioned by Russia as Stalinist purges had already begun. Writers like Victor Serge were banned and were serving in the labour camps in Russia. The author slowly acquaints us with the entire socio cultural and political situation facing Europe during this crucial period. She takes us through the First International Congress of Writers for the Defence of Culture, held in 1935 and how it leads to the release of Victor Serge with interventions from luminaries like Andre Malraux, Romaine Roland and such. As the Nazis burn piles of books in Berlin, people inside this very charming circle of poets, artists, socialists and some expat sympathizers continue to meet and discuss the future without realizing how each one would soon get engulfed in the coming catastrophe. As German troops march through Paris in June 1939, their worst nightmare unfolds in its entirety.
Across the Altantic, a private organization in New York called the Emergency Rescue Committee sends Varian Fry to Paris to see to the repatriation of stranded intellectuals. This effort was generously funded by private donors like Mary Jayne Gold, Peggy Guggenheim and others. As France is divided into occupied and unoccupied portions, this group of poets and artists leaves Paris for Marseille as do thousands others trying to flee the Nazis. Varian Fry sets up his small office in a non descript house in Marseille and begins the process of getting visas for the people he had come to help. As the collaboration between the French government in Vichy and the Germans continues to grow, thousands of people:socialists, communists, any dissenters and Jews become 'undesirables' almost overnight. The lines outside the office of the Rescue Committee keep getting longer. Varian Fry with the help of Danny Benedite, a Frenchman and a survivor from Dunkurque tries to procure visas for the refugees but is astounded by the callousness of the US State Department. It ultimately takes the intervention of First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt to ease the situation somewhat and very reluctantly the US government starts issuing some emergency visas.
During these trying circumstances, the members of the committee discover a dilapidated but a large house on the outskirts of Marseille which was up for rent; the Villa Air-Bel. It seems like a great idea to move to this place to all the members of the Committee ( called CAS as its French acronym) as staying in Marseille was becoming more and more dangerous for them. This house then becomes a place of not only refuge but also of camaraderie, bonhomie and at times intense arguments amongst these intellectuals. Surrealist Andre Breton seems to bring the place alive with his poetry and Surrealist games that he devises. It remains an idyll for few months but then the Vichy police start raiding it on one pretext or the other. Varian Fry as the head of CAS has now thousands on his list who are desperate to leave France. He, with help from Danny Benedite and others tries all means, some legal and some not, to get what they require to save the lives of these people caught up in the worst nightmare the world had faced. The book here becomes so tense and absorbing that I could read only few pages at a time. The US State Department wants Fry to return back as it becomes increasingly clear that he has exceeded his mandate and is helping those that need help, not always who the US government thinks needs it. The US refuses visas to Victor Serge and his son as he was once a revolutionary even though he had been incarcerated in Russia. Fry arranges him to finally travel to Mexico which grants visas to many in peril. The final chapters detailing Varian Fry and his trusted lieutenants' efforts to help others at the cost to their own lives, reads like a fast paced espionage novel, except that it is not. Varian Fry cannot keep himself aloof from the plight of ordinary people and help only intellectuals, he helps all those that he can; sometimes sending those for whom getting an exit visa from France was impossible, over the Pyrenees to Spain, onward to Portugal and then hopefully on a ship out of Lisbon. These are real men and women and the story of their heroism. It tells of the courage shown not by soldiers on the battlefield but by those who remain unsung and unknown except may be in academia as subjects of research. The main protagonist of course is Varian Fry whose commitment to his mission is almost inhuman. Then there is Victor Serge, who is almost on the verge of breakdown but still remains a modicum of dignity; when questioned by the police whether he is Jewish, he answers, "I do not have the honour."
In general I am too lazy to quote, but this book has so many invaluable ones that I could not desist. Here are a few
"In their country as in any other, the men who think and the men who kill are not the same. And in their country, as everywhere else, when the men who kill are the masters they begin by killing and gagging the men who think."….Victor Serge
"Where could I have applied? Who to? I was standing outside the world. The Germans were marching in. The twilight of time had come."…..Anna Seghers
'The Nazis opened up a forbidden door in the soul. I suppose if you have to stake out this little idea, this little bit of ground that says you are the superior race and then you have to defend it, something horrible always happens….. when you claim certainty, when you claim you know."….Leonara Carrington
"Here is a beggar's alley gathering the remnants of revolutions, democracies, and crushed intellects. In our ranks are enough doctors, psychologists, poets, painters, writers, musicians, economists and public men to vitalize a whole great country.Our wretchedness contains as much talent and expertise as Paris could summon in the days of her prime; and nothing of it is visible, only hunted, terribly tired men at the limit of their nervous resources."

I unreservedly give this book five shining stars.