U.S. Diplomat Who Helped Save Jews from the Nazis to be Honored on Postage

[seemslikeadream]

PHILADELPHIA, Aug. 12 /U.S. Newswire/ -- Hiram "Harry" Bingham IV, a U.S. diplomat who risked his career to help save more than 2,000 of the world's leading writers, musicians, and artists -- most of them Jewish refugees -- from the Nazis, will be honored on a U.S. postage stamp.

Bingham (1903-1988), a U.S. vice-consul in France under the pro-Nazi Vichy regime, secretly worked side-by-side with rescue activist Varian Fry until the Roosevelt administration halted their activity in 1941, by refusing to renew Fry's passport and transferring Bingham out of France.

...

The David S. Wyman Institute for Holocaust Studies, which has been publicizing Bingham's story in schools, public programs, and the news media, strongly praised the decision to issue the Bingham stamp. Wyman Institute director Dr. Rafael Medoff said: "It is an act of historic justice that the U.S. government, which in 1941 interfered with Bingham's rescue activity, is now publicly recognizing that Bingham was right, and, in effect, acknowledging that the Roosevelt administration was wrong."

The stamp decision follows a five-year educational campaign initiated by one of Bingham's sons, Robert Kim Bingham, whose efforts attracted nationwide interest and resulted in an outpouring of letters to the Postal Service. The campaign was endorsed by the American Foreign Service Association, a professional association of U.S. Foreign Service officers, as well as Members of Congress and the Connecticut House of Representatives.

Bingham's youngest son, Connecticut attorney William S. Bingham, will be a featured speaker at the Wyman Institute's national conference in New York City on September 18, 2005, as will Bella Chagall Meyer, granddaughter of the artist Marc Chagall, who was rescued by Varian Fry and Harry Bingham. They will be joined by Varian Fry's widow, Mrs. Annette Fry; the three will meet for the first time at the Wyman conference. A rare film clip of Chagall and Fry, made by Bingham at Chagall's home in 1941, will be also be shown at the conference.

Bingham's rescue work was almost completely unknown to the public until after his death, when William S. Bingham discovered a cache of documents about his father's activity that had been hidden in an old linen closet in the family's Salem, CT home. He is currently researching the story for a book and film projects on his father's rescue work.

http://releases.usnewswire.com/GetRelease.asp?id=51629

[brainshrub]

1. Let this be a lesson to govt employees working in the Bush Administration:

In the long run, it's better to do the right thing.

[K-W]

2. Thats great. I had never heard of him before. EOM

[Greeby]

3. This man deserves one of these

:patriot:

[JNelson6563]

4. Very nice.

His family must be very proud and the families of those he saved, very grateful. Nice to read of such a beautiful, humanitarian effort.

Julie

[NNN0LHI]

5. Holocaust Survivors' Network has a different take on this fellow

http://isurvived.org/BinghamIV-final_outcome.html

[Judi Lynn]

6. Interesting....

Robert Kim Bingham often compared his dad to Oskar Schindler. (See, for instance, Mr. Bingham article of May 24, 1998, published in The Day newspaper of New London, Connecticut, USA, entitled Remembering Salem's "Schindler" (Exhibit 04_Schindler, hereto). For sure the two men, Schindler and Bingham IV, had one thing in common: they were both womanizers. But Schindler, unlike Bingham IV, was a rescuer of Jews and that is way Schindler was awarded with the "Righteous Among the Nations" title and Bingham IV was not.

(snip)

I doubt their opinion should be overlooked.

[papau]

7. A good man - but not a rescuer - Eleanor Roosevelt was needed to get the

visa in one case mentioned.

"He has a heart of gold. He does everything he can to help us, within American law."
as said by Varian Fry - who was a rescuer

A "clear sympathizer and a facilitator, but not a rescuer" - and a fellow that unlike other anti-jewish American diplonmats actually tried to get visas through diplomatic channels.

Hiram "Harry" Bingham IV was a good man during evil times.