Frank Foley: The British Intelligence Officer Who Helped Thousands to Escape Persecution.

Frank Foley: The British Intelligence Officer Who Helped Thousands to Escape Persecution.

Could you risk your career, your freedom and possibly your life to help complete strangers escape persecution?

Today I want to find out a little about Frank Foley, a British intelligence officer who used his position in Berlin to help thousands of Jewish people escape Germany before the outbreak of the Second World War.

Francis Edward Foley was born on the 24th of November 1884 in Highbridge, Somerset. He was one of several sons born to railway worker Andrew Foley and his wife Isabella.

Frank considered becoming a Catholic priest and studied in France, but he decided that the religious life was not for him. His time abroad helped him to become fluent in French and German, skills that would later prove extremely valuable.

During the First World War, Frank served in the British Army and was mentioned in despatches. His ability with languages eventually led him into intelligence work.

After the war, he was sent to Berlin as Britain’s Passport Control Officer. This apparently ordinary diplomatic position also proved to be useful cover for his work with the Secret Intelligence Service, known as MI6.

As persecution of Jewish people in Germany intensified during the 1930s, desperate families began searching for ways to leave the country.

Frank was responsible for examining visa applications.

He could have simply followed every regulation placed in front of him. Instead, he repeatedly stretched and bent the rules to help people escape.

Working with others including Jewish businessman Wilfrid Israel and Hubert Pollack, Frank helped people to obtain the documents they needed to leave Germany. He reportedly visited concentration camps, helped people who were struggling to meet immigration requirements and even sheltered Jewish refugees inside his own home.

What made his actions particularly dangerous was that Frank did not have diplomatic immunity. If the German authorities had discovered the full extent of what he was doing, he could have been arrested.

When the Second World War began, Frank continued working in British intelligence. He later served in Norway during the German invasion and was involved in questioning Rudolf Hess after Hess flew to Scotland in 1941.

After the war, Frank returned to Germany and became involved in efforts to locate suspected war criminals.

He retired in 1949 and died in Stourbridge on the 8th of May 1958 at the age of 73.

Much of the wider public knew little about his wartime activities during his lifetime.

Frank was eventually recognised by Yad Vashem as Righteous Among the Nations in 1999 and was named a British Hero of the Holocaust in 2010.

He had spent years working behind the scenes, but for thousands of people trying to escape persecution, the decisions he made could mean the difference between being trapped and finding safety.

Had you heard of Frank Foley and the risks he took to help Jewish families escape Germany?