Small, slightly overweight and unassuming, Captain Francis (Frank) Foley served Britain as a soldier in WWI.
Following the war in 1920, Foley was recruited by the British Secret Intelligence Service as Passport Control Officer at the British Embassy in Berlin and became one of Britain’s most successful spies.
Being stationed in Berlin, he was able to observe and report back on the political and social changes that took place in Germany resulting from the rise to power of Hitler and the Nazi Party.
Foley was especially concerned how the antisemitic measures introduced by the Nazis affected the everyday life of the Jews.
From 1935, an ever growing number of Jews appealed to his office to try and obtain immigration visas to British Mandate Palestine, or to the United Kingdom and other parts of the British Empire at that time.
Defying the Foreign Office, he bent the rules to issue 10,000 visas to Palestine.
It was a serious risk as he did not enjoy diplomatic immunity in Berlin and had the Nazis uncovered his secret mission, he would have suffered a much worse fate than being persona non grata.
Frank Foley made no money from his rescue efforts, risking his own life to save so many others.
Nor did he seek recognition or praise for his brave acts to help the Jews.
Sixteen year-old Miriam who was saved by Foley commented:
“He saved my life. You would never suspect he was a spy.”
Foley broke many Nazi laws.
On occasions he entered concentration camps and presented visas to the camp authorities so that Jews could be freed to travel.
He also hid Jews in his home and used his secret service skills to help them obtain false papers, forged passports and visas.
By issuing these visas he was also breaking British laws.
At the time of the infamous Kristallnacht pogrom in November 1938, Foley and his wife had taken to sheltering many Jews overnight in their apartment.
Reverend John Kelley, Foley’s nephew, an Anglican priest commented about his uncle.
“I believe that God put Frank Foley in Berlin to do his work. Foley did what he did as a witness to the Christian churches, to show what they should have done at that time, but did not do.”
During the Adolf Eichmann trial in 1961, Frank Foley was described by one of the witnesses as follows:
“There was one man who stood out above all others. Captain Foley, a man who in my opinion was one of the greatest among the nations of the world. He rescued thousands of Jews from the jaws of death.”
In 1999, Foley’s actions resulted in his being recognised as ‘Righteous Among the Nations’ at Yad Vashem in Israel.
During his lifetime, Foley received no recognition by the UK for his achievements, but in November 2004, the 120th anniversary of his birth, a plaque was unveiled in his honour at the British Embassy in Berlin.
In Highbridge, Somerset, a plaque has been placed on the house where he was born and in May 2005 a statue dedicated to him was also unveiled.
