[close] In 1940, Varian Fry, a young American magazine editor, traveled to France to work as a representative of the Emergency Rescue Committee, a group that offered aid to political refugees in France who were in danger of being extradited to Germany. With the aid of the French government, the Germans were then in the process of creating what Fry calls "the most gigantic man-trap in history." Associating himself necessarily with shady characters who could get things done, including a few double agents and gangsters, Fry managed, during a stay of 13 months, to win the freedom of some 1,500 men and women, among them painters Marc Chagall, Marcel Duchamp, and Max Ernst; dissidents Andre Breton and Victor Serge; writer Franz Werfel; musician Wanda Landowska; and other intellectuals and artists. His memoir, Surrender on Demand, has the makings of a political thriller, and it is deeply inspiring. [close]