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The real Jewish history behind Netflix’s ‘Transatlantic’ and the WWII rescue mission that inspired it

JL;DR SUMMARY Netflix's "Transatlantic," created by Anna Winger, dramatizes the life-saving efforts of Varian Fry, an American journalist who orchestrated the rescue of over 2,000 Jewish and anti-Nazi refugees in Vichy France during WWII. A way out west there was a fella, fella I want to tell you about, fella by the name of Jeff Lebowski. At least, that was the handle his lovin' parents gave him, but he never had much use for it himself. This Lebowski, he called himself the Dude. Now, Dude, that's a name no one would self-apply where I come from. But then, there was a lot about the Dude that didn't make a whole lot of sense to me. And a lot about where he lived, likewise. But then again, maybe that's why I found the place s'durned innarestin'.

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Tags

World War IiJewish RefugeesNetflixTransatlanticHolocaust HistoryVarian FryRescue MissionHistorical DramaFictionalizationEmergency Rescue Committee

Places mentioned

Marseille, Provence-Alpes-Côte-d’Azur, France
"Starring Cory Michael Smith as Fry, the seven-episode Transatlantic aims to recreate his operation in Marseille after the Nazis defeated France and before the United States entered the war."
Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, France
"Pierre Sauvage, president of the Varian Fry Institute, called the shows trailer shocking."
New York, United States
"However, Frys shoestring operation had enabled 2,000 Jewish and other anti-Nazi refugees to flee Europe, including such towering artists as Chagall, Max Ernst and Marcel Duchamp, and intellects such as Arendt, Heinrich Mann and Andr Breton."
Chicago, Illinois, United States
"Lisa Fittko ended up in Chicago, where she worked hard in import-export, translation and clerical jobs to earn money, eventually joining protests against the Vietnam War."
Israel
"In 1994, he became the first American honored by Yad Vashem, Israels Holocaust memorial and history authority, as Righteous Among the Nations."
Massachusetts, United States
"My job is to bring this to a wide audience, to people who dont know anything about it."
Berlin, Germany
"Winger, a Jewish Massachusetts native who has lived in Berlin for two decades, conceived of making a series about Fry in 2015."
Ukraine
"The war in Ukraine started three days into the production and there was a whole other wave of refugees coming to Berlin, she said."

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Retrieved 2026-02-24 05:31:25 UTC
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