Netflix: “Transatlantic”

“Transatlantic” (Netflix) is a thriller set in 1940 Marseilles, and one of the most thrilling things about it is that the story is absolutely true. Based on “The Flight Portfolio” by Julie Orringer, the show tells the largely untold tale of Varian Fry, a Harvard-educated journalist who, appalled by the Nazi persecution of Jews and intellectuals in the 1930s, created the Emergency Rescue Committee (ERC). This tiny organization was dedicated to helping thousands of refugees escape across the Atlantic to safety in the Americas.

Once the Nazis overran northern France in 1940, the ERC moved its operation to Marseilles, the last remaining open port from which refugees could leave by boat. Fry (Corey Michael Smith) faced enormous pressure from the Vichy police who were sympathetic to the Nazi cause, and from the American consulate led by the decidedly unsympathetic Graham Patterson (Corey Stoll).

Fortunately Fry had Mary-Jayne Gold (Gillian Jacobs) on his side, an American heiress living in Europe who was equally appalled by the situation and who supplied family money to the ERC (as Fry had a mere $3000 at the outset). An antifascist young refugee from Berlin, Albert Hirschman (Lucas Englander) also assisted in the effort, despite the fact he had a visa and could have left Europe at any time. Together they obtained exit visas for nearly 2,000 refugees, some of whom are portrayed in the series. These include Hannah Arendt (Alexa Karolinski), Marc Chagall (Gera Sandler), Andre Breton (Louis-Do de Lencquesaing), and Max Ernst (Alexander Fehling).

Even thought we know how WWII ends (the good guys win, the bad guys don’t), the series never loses its power to keep you on edge, as we see the ERC help people escape through the Pyrenees, spring political prisoners from jail, and outsmart Vichy bureaucrats and gendarmes. There are love stories too (both straight and gay) and madcap dinner parties in the mansion where the refugees are temporarily hiding. Peggy Guggenheim (Jodhi May) is among the guests; she and MOMA’s Alfred Barr were critical in the effort to save the artists from the Nazi regime.

If you are fascinated as I am with this period of history, you’ll love this show. And if you’re not especially into the history part but love an old-fashioned thriller, with period costumes and vintage cars, you’ll like it too. Created by Anna Winger and Daniel Hendler (from “Unorthodox”), “Transatlantic” shows that even under the most dire circumstances, there are still those who manage to do the right thing anyway.