Free France
In New York from 1940 to 1944, Rapkine and Laugier organized the rescue of French scientists and those of other nationalities fleeing occupied France for the United States and Great Britain, with assistance from the Rockefeller Foundation and the government-in-exile of Free France. In 1940 alone, Rapkine's organization assisted 35 scientists in secretly emigrating from France. Rapkine was officially named the head of the New York "Bureau Scientifique de la France Libre" (Free France scientific bureau) in December 1941.