When Your Quiet Uncle Is a Hero

He began to describe his Uncle Harry, admitting that he and his cousins sometimes made fun of the “unusual character” who didn’t seem to work, "looked a bit like Einstein," and wore suits even in wretched heat.

 

Throughout his life, Mr. Bland had considered his grandfather, Congressman and diplomat Jonathan Brewster Bingham, his hero. He didn’t realize that seemingly odd Uncle Harry (aka Hiram Bingham IV) would earn, post-mortem, the U.S. Constructive Dissent Award, a Medal of Valor from the Simon Wiesenthal Center, a place on the Episcopal Church's list of American Saints, and even a postage stamp in his honor. 

 

It was 1992, four years after Harry’s death, when family members discovered letters with clues to just how heroic unassuming Harry had been—and why he had lost his job with the U.S. Foreign Service after working at the Consulate in Marseilles, France. He had joined the Consulate in 1939, a year before the Nazis occupied France. Jews were desperate to leave France, but a State Department official's order had instructed diplomats to “put every obstacle in the way” of their visas. 

 

Uncle Harry could not abide that order. “In his position, he was not allowed to, or supposed to, grant papers to refugees,” Mr. Bland said. So Uncle Harry quietly disobeyed, over and over and over again, granting exit papers and ultimately saving the lives of an estimated 2,500 Jews. “He did what he knew in his heart was right,” Mr. Bland said. "And ultimately he [lost his position] as a result of that." What once seemed an inexplicable departure from the Foreign Service was actually a result of Uncle Harry's moral decision to choose humanity over bad policy.