Who was Harry Bingham?

This interesting bit of info was passed along to the Gazette by Katy who thought it was worth reading.

Who was Harry Bingham and why is he getting a stamp?

Just an interesting piece of evidence of the curious behavior of
the Roosevelt administration toward the Jews during WWII -----

A few months ago, Secretary of State Colin Powell gave a
posthumous award for "constructive dissent" to Hiram (or Harry)
Bingham, IV. For over fifty years, the State Department resisted any
attempt to honor Bingham. For them he was an insubordinate member of the
US diplomatic service, a dangerous maverick who was eventually demoted.
Now, after his death, he has been officially recognized as a hero.

Bingham came from an illustrious family. His father (o n whom
the fictional character Indiana Jones was based) was the archeologist
who unearthed the Inca City of Machu Picchu, Peru, in 1911. Harry
entered the US diplomatic service and, in 1939, was posted to
Marseilles, France, as American Vice-Consul.

The USA was then neutral and, not wishing to annoy Marshal
Petain's puppet Vichy regime, President Roosevelt's government ordered
its representatives in Marseilles not to grant visas to any Jews.
Bingham found this policy immoral and, risking his career, did all in
his power to undermine it.

In defiance of his bosses in Washington, he granted over 2,500
USA visas to Jewish and other refugees, including the artists Marc
Chagall and Max Ernst and the family of the writer Thomas Mann. He also
sheltered Jews in his Marseilles home, and obtained forged identity
papers to help Jews in their dangerous journeys across Europe. He
worked with the French underground to smuggle Jews out of France into
Franco's Spain or across the Mediterranean and even contributed to their
expenses out of his own pocket. In 1941, Washington lost patience with
him. He was sent to Argentina, where later he continued to annoy his
superiors by reporting on the movements of Nazi war criminals.

Eventually, he was forced out of the American diplomatic service
completely. Bingham died almost penniless in 1988. Little was known of
his extraordinary activities until his son found some letters in his
belongings after his death. He has now been honored by many groups and
organizations including the United Nations and the State of Israel.