Frank Foley
Encyclopedia
Major Francis Edward Foley CMG
(24 November 1884, Highbridge, Somerset
– 8 May 1958, Stourbridge
) was a British
Secret Intelligence Service
officer. As a passport
control officer for the British embassy in Berlin, Foley "bent the rules" and helped thousands of Jewish families escape from Nazi Germany
after Kristallnacht
and before the outbreak of the Second World War.
, Lancashire
where he was educated by the Jesuits. He then went to a Catholic
seminary
in France
to train as a priest but transferred to the Université de France in Poitiers
to study Classics
. While there he reconsidered his vocation for the priesthood and decided instead to pursue an academic career. He travelled extensively in Europe
, becoming fluent in both French and German
.
studying philosophy, when the United Kingdom
declared war
on Germany
in August 1914
. He made his way through Germany towards northern Holland by borrowing a military uniform and posing as a Prussian Army
officer. Exchanging the uniform for civilian clothes, he managed to get to Emden
, and with the help of a local priest found some fishermen who ferried him into neutral Holland. He made his way back to Highbridge and took a job as an assistant master at Bengeo
Preparatory School
while considering what to do next.
At the end of 1915 he decided to join the army, and entered the Inns of Court
Officer Training Corps, originally restricted to barrister
s before the rules were relaxed to include university and public school entrants. He received his commission as a Second Lieutenant
in the Hertfordshire Regiment in January 1917, and was posted to France
and the Western Front
, where he was promoted to acting Captain. He was wounded in the chest while fighting near Ecoust-Saint-Mein
and evacuated back to England.
Foley had been lucky to escape; within a few hours savage fighting, the strength of his unit had been cut by two thirds. The bullet had damaged his left lung, and after convalescence and recuperation, he was ruled no longer fit for front-line duty and sent on leave.
he served for a short time in the Inter-Allied Military Commission of Control in Cologne
. After the running down of the Commission, he was subsequently offered the post of passport control officer in Berlin
which was in fact a cover for his main duties as head of the British Secret Intelligence Service
(MI6) station. During the 1920s and 30s, Foley was successful in recruiting agents and acquiring key details of German
military research and development.
Foley is primarily remembered as a "British Schindler". In his role as passport control officer he helped thousands of Jews escape from Nazi
Germany
. At the 1961 trial of former ranking Nazi Adolf Eichmann
, he was described as a "Scarlet Pimpernel
" for the way he risked his own life to save Jews threatened with death by the Nazis. Despite having no diplomatic immunity
and being liable to arrest at any time, Foley would bend the rules when stamping passports and issuing visas, to allow Jews to escape "legally" to Britain or Palestine
, which was then controlled by the British. Sometimes he went further, going into internment camps to get Jews out, hiding them in his home, and helping them get forged passports. One Jewish aid worker estimated that he saved "tens of thousands" of people from the Holocaust.
Foley was recalled to London. In 1941, he was given the task of questioning Hitler's Deputy Rudolf Hess
, after Hess's flight to Scotland. After Hess was hospitalised in 1942, Foley helped co-ordinate MI5
and MI6 in running a network of double agents called the Double Cross System
. He returned to Berlin after the war, where he was involved in hunting for ex-SS members.
In 1949 Foley retired to Stourbridge
, a town in the Black Country
, and died there in 1958; he is buried in Stourbridge Cemetery.
by Israel
's Yad Vashem
. In 2004 a remembrance plaque was dedicated to him at the entrance to Stourbridge's Mary Stevens Park. The following year volunteers from Highbridge, Foley's birthplace, raised money to erect their own tribute.
A statue was commissioned from sculptor Jonathan Sells and unveiled on the anniversary of VE Day, which is also the anniversary of his death. The 'Frank Foley Parkway' between Highbridge and Burnham on Sea opened on 7 July 2009.
In 2007, a film about Foley's life was in the planning stages, but the producers were then taking legal action against MI6
to release still-classified documents related to his work.
On 24 November 2004 (the 120th anniversary of his birth) descendants of Foley, relatives of those he saved, representatives of Jewish organisations, British MPs and other well-wishers gathered at the British Embassy for the unveiling of a plaque in honour of Foley.
The then Foreign Secretary Jack Straw
praised Foley's heroism: 'Frank Foley risked his life to save the lives of thousands of German Jews. Without the protection of diplomatic immunity he visited internment camps and sheltered Jewish refugees in his house. Frank Foley was a true British hero. It is right that we should honour him at the British Embassy in Berlin, not far from where he once worked.'
On 31 May 2009, a garden was dedicated in his memory at London's Sternberg Centre
, where a plaque was unveiled by Cherie Booth.
In 2010, Foley was posthumously named a British Hero of the Holocaust
by the British Governnment.
Order of St Michael and St George
The Most Distinguished Order of Saint Michael and Saint George is an order of chivalry founded on 28 April 1818 by George, Prince Regent, later George IV of the United Kingdom, while he was acting as Prince Regent for his father, George III....
(24 November 1884, Highbridge, Somerset
Highbridge, Somerset
Highbridge is a small market town situated on the edge of the Somerset Levels near the mouth of the River Brue. It is in the County of Somerset, and is approximately north west of Taunton, the county town of Somerset. Highbridge is in the District of Sedgemoor, being situated approximately north...
– 8 May 1958, Stourbridge
Stourbridge
Stourbridge is a town within the Metropolitan Borough of Dudley, in the West Midlands of England. Historically part of Worcestershire, Stourbridge was a centre of glass making, and today includes the suburbs of Amblecote, Lye, Norton, Oldswinford, Pedmore, Wollaston, Wollescote and Wordsley The...
) was a British
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
Secret Intelligence Service
Secret Intelligence Service
The Secret Intelligence Service is responsible for supplying the British Government with foreign intelligence. Alongside the internal Security Service , the Government Communications Headquarters and the Defence Intelligence , it operates under the formal direction of the Joint Intelligence...
officer. As a passport
Passport
A passport is a document, issued by a national government, which certifies, for the purpose of international travel, the identity and nationality of its holder. The elements of identity are name, date of birth, sex, and place of birth....
control officer for the British embassy in Berlin, Foley "bent the rules" and helped thousands of Jewish families escape from Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...
after Kristallnacht
Kristallnacht
Kristallnacht, also referred to as the Night of Broken Glass, and also Reichskristallnacht, Pogromnacht, and Novemberpogrome, was a pogrom or series of attacks against Jews throughout Nazi Germany and parts of Austria on 9–10 November 1938.Jewish homes were ransacked, as were shops, towns and...
and before the outbreak of the Second World War.
Early life
He was the third son of an Irish railway worker and after attending local schools won a scholarship to Stonyhurst CollegeStonyhurst College
Stonyhurst College is a Roman Catholic independent school, adhering to the Jesuit tradition. It is located on the Stonyhurst Estate near the village of Hurst Green in the Ribble Valley area of Lancashire, England, and occupies a Grade I listed building...
, Lancashire
Lancashire
Lancashire is a non-metropolitan county of historic origin in the North West of England. It takes its name from the city of Lancaster, and is sometimes known as the County of Lancaster. Although Lancaster is still considered to be the county town, Lancashire County Council is based in Preston...
where he was educated by the Jesuits. He then went to a Catholic
Catholic
The word catholic comes from the Greek phrase , meaning "on the whole," "according to the whole" or "in general", and is a combination of the Greek words meaning "about" and meaning "whole"...
seminary
Seminary
A seminary, theological college, or divinity school is an institution of secondary or post-secondary education for educating students in theology, generally to prepare them for ordination as clergy or for other ministry...
in France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
to train as a priest but transferred to the Université de France in Poitiers
Poitiers
Poitiers is a city on the Clain river in west central France. It is a commune and the capital of the Vienne department and of the Poitou-Charentes region. The centre is picturesque and its streets are interesting for predominant remains of historical architecture, especially from the Romanesque...
to study Classics
Classics
Classics is the branch of the Humanities comprising the languages, literature, philosophy, history, art, archaeology and other culture of the ancient Mediterranean world ; especially Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome during Classical Antiquity Classics (sometimes encompassing Classical Studies or...
. While there he reconsidered his vocation for the priesthood and decided instead to pursue an academic career. He travelled extensively in Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
, becoming fluent in both French and German
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
.
First World War
Foley was in HamburgHamburg
-History:The first historic name for the city was, according to Claudius Ptolemy's reports, Treva.But the city takes its modern name, Hamburg, from the first permanent building on the site, a castle whose construction was ordered by the Emperor Charlemagne in AD 808...
studying philosophy, when the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
declared war
Declaration of war
A declaration of war is a formal act by which one nation goes to war against another. The declaration is a performative speech act by an authorized party of a national government in order to create a state of war between two or more states.The legality of who is competent to declare war varies...
on Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
in August 1914
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
. He made his way through Germany towards northern Holland by borrowing a military uniform and posing as a Prussian Army
Prussian Army
The Royal Prussian Army was the army of the Kingdom of Prussia. It was vital to the development of Brandenburg-Prussia as a European power.The Prussian Army had its roots in the meager mercenary forces of Brandenburg during the Thirty Years' War...
officer. Exchanging the uniform for civilian clothes, he managed to get to Emden
Emden
Emden is a city and seaport in the northwest of Germany, on the river Ems. It is the main city of the region of East Frisia; in 2006, the city had a total population of 51,692.-History:...
, and with the help of a local priest found some fishermen who ferried him into neutral Holland. He made his way back to Highbridge and took a job as an assistant master at Bengeo
Bengeo
Bengeo is a parish in Hertfordshire, England. It is referenced in the Domesday Book, where it is called "Belingehou". It is situated on a rise between the River Beane and River Rib overlooking Hartham Common and the rest of the town of Hertford.-Name:...
Preparatory School
University-preparatory school
A university-preparatory school or college-preparatory school is a secondary school, usually private, designed to prepare students for a college or university education...
while considering what to do next.
At the end of 1915 he decided to join the army, and entered the Inns of Court
Inns of Court
The Inns of Court in London are the professional associations for barristers in England and Wales. All such barristers must belong to one such association. They have supervisory and disciplinary functions over their members. The Inns also provide libraries, dining facilities and professional...
Officer Training Corps, originally restricted to barrister
Barrister
A barrister is a member of one of the two classes of lawyer found in many common law jurisdictions with split legal professions. Barristers specialise in courtroom advocacy, drafting legal pleadings and giving expert legal opinions...
s before the rules were relaxed to include university and public school entrants. He received his commission as a Second Lieutenant
Second Lieutenant
Second lieutenant is a junior commissioned officer military rank in many armed forces.- United Kingdom and Commonwealth :The rank second lieutenant was introduced throughout the British Army in 1871 to replace the rank of ensign , although it had long been used in the Royal Artillery, Royal...
in the Hertfordshire Regiment in January 1917, and was posted to France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
and the Western Front
Western Front (World War I)
Following the outbreak of World War I in 1914, the German Army opened the Western Front by first invading Luxembourg and Belgium, then gaining military control of important industrial regions in France. The tide of the advance was dramatically turned with the Battle of the Marne...
, where he was promoted to acting Captain. He was wounded in the chest while fighting near Ecoust-Saint-Mein
Écoust-Saint-Mein
Écoust-Saint-Mein is a commune in the Pas-de-Calais département in the Nord-Pas-de-Calais region of France.-Geography:A farming village situated southeast of Arras at the junction of the D956 and D5 roads.-Population:-Places of interest:...
and evacuated back to England.
Foley had been lucky to escape; within a few hours savage fighting, the strength of his unit had been cut by two thirds. The bullet had damaged his left lung, and after convalescence and recuperation, he was ruled no longer fit for front-line duty and sent on leave.
Joining secret service
By the time he returned, the story of his escape from Germany and his language skills had been noted by someone at the War Office. He was encouraged to apply for the Intelligence Corps. In July 1918 he became part of a small unit which was responsible for recruiting and running networks of secret agents in France, Belgium and Holland. After a few weeks he was sent to France, where after the ArmisticeArmistice with Germany (Compiègne)
The armistice between the Allies and Germany was an agreement that ended the fighting in the First World War. It was signed in a railway carriage in Compiègne Forest on 11 November 1918 and marked a victory for the Allies and a complete defeat for Germany, although not technically a surrender...
he served for a short time in the Inter-Allied Military Commission of Control in Cologne
Cologne
Cologne is Germany's fourth-largest city , and is the largest city both in the Germany Federal State of North Rhine-Westphalia and within the Rhine-Ruhr Metropolitan Area, one of the major European metropolitan areas with more than ten million inhabitants.Cologne is located on both sides of the...
. After the running down of the Commission, he was subsequently offered the post of passport control officer in Berlin
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
which was in fact a cover for his main duties as head of the British Secret Intelligence Service
Secret Intelligence Service
The Secret Intelligence Service is responsible for supplying the British Government with foreign intelligence. Alongside the internal Security Service , the Government Communications Headquarters and the Defence Intelligence , it operates under the formal direction of the Joint Intelligence...
(MI6) station. During the 1920s and 30s, Foley was successful in recruiting agents and acquiring key details of German
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
military research and development.
Foley is primarily remembered as a "British Schindler". In his role as passport control officer he helped thousands of Jews escape from Nazi
Nazism
Nazism, the common short form name of National Socialism was the ideology and practice of the Nazi Party and of Nazi Germany...
Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
. At the 1961 trial of former ranking Nazi Adolf Eichmann
Adolf Eichmann
Adolf Otto Eichmann was a German Nazi and SS-Obersturmbannführer and one of the major organizers of the Holocaust...
, he was described as a "Scarlet Pimpernel
Scarlet pimpernel
Scarlet pimpernel is a low-growing annual plant found in Europe, Asia and North America...
" for the way he risked his own life to save Jews threatened with death by the Nazis. Despite having no diplomatic immunity
Diplomatic immunity
Diplomatic immunity is a form of legal immunity and a policy held between governments that ensures that diplomats are given safe passage and are considered not susceptible to lawsuit or prosecution under the host country's laws...
and being liable to arrest at any time, Foley would bend the rules when stamping passports and issuing visas, to allow Jews to escape "legally" to Britain or Palestine
Palestine
Palestine is a conventional name, among others, used to describe the geographic region between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River, and various adjoining lands....
, which was then controlled by the British. Sometimes he went further, going into internment camps to get Jews out, hiding them in his home, and helping them get forged passports. One Jewish aid worker estimated that he saved "tens of thousands" of people from the Holocaust.
Second World War and after
At the outbreak of warWorld War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
Foley was recalled to London. In 1941, he was given the task of questioning Hitler's Deputy Rudolf Hess
Rudolf Hess
Rudolf Walter Richard Hess was a prominent Nazi politician who was Adolf Hitler's deputy in the Nazi Party during the 1930s and early 1940s...
, after Hess's flight to Scotland. After Hess was hospitalised in 1942, Foley helped co-ordinate MI5
MI5
The Security Service, commonly known as MI5 , is the United Kingdom's internal counter-intelligence and security agency and is part of its core intelligence machinery alongside the Secret Intelligence Service focused on foreign threats, Government Communications Headquarters and the Defence...
and MI6 in running a network of double agents called the Double Cross System
Double Cross System
The Double Cross System, or XX System, was a World War II anti-espionage and deception operation of the British military intelligence arm, MI5. Nazi agents in Britain - real and false - were captured, turned themselves in or simply announced themselves and were then used by the British to broadcast...
. He returned to Berlin after the war, where he was involved in hunting for ex-SS members.
In 1949 Foley retired to Stourbridge
Stourbridge
Stourbridge is a town within the Metropolitan Borough of Dudley, in the West Midlands of England. Historically part of Worcestershire, Stourbridge was a centre of glass making, and today includes the suburbs of Amblecote, Lye, Norton, Oldswinford, Pedmore, Wollaston, Wollescote and Wordsley The...
, a town in the Black Country
Black Country
The Black Country is a loosely defined area of the English West Midlands conurbation, to the north and west of Birmingham, and to the south and east of Wolverhampton. During the industrial revolution in the 19th century this area had become one of the most intensely industrialised in the nation...
, and died there in 1958; he is buried in Stourbridge Cemetery.
Posthumous recognition
In October 1999 he was accorded the status of a Righteous Among the NationsRighteous Among the Nations
Righteous among the Nations of the world's nations"), also translated as Righteous Gentiles is an honorific used by the State of Israel to describe non-Jews who risked their lives during the Holocaust to save Jews from extermination by the Nazis....
by Israel
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
's Yad Vashem
Yad Vashem
Yad Vashem is Israel's official memorial to the Jewish victims of the Holocaust, established in 1953 through the Yad Vashem Law passed by the Knesset, Israel's parliament....
. In 2004 a remembrance plaque was dedicated to him at the entrance to Stourbridge's Mary Stevens Park. The following year volunteers from Highbridge, Foley's birthplace, raised money to erect their own tribute.
In 2007, a film about Foley's life was in the planning stages, but the producers were then taking legal action against MI6
Secret Intelligence Service
The Secret Intelligence Service is responsible for supplying the British Government with foreign intelligence. Alongside the internal Security Service , the Government Communications Headquarters and the Defence Intelligence , it operates under the formal direction of the Joint Intelligence...
to release still-classified documents related to his work.
On 24 November 2004 (the 120th anniversary of his birth) descendants of Foley, relatives of those he saved, representatives of Jewish organisations, British MPs and other well-wishers gathered at the British Embassy for the unveiling of a plaque in honour of Foley.
The then Foreign Secretary Jack Straw
Jack Straw
Jack Straw , British politician.Jack Straw may also refer to:* Jack Straw , English* "Jack Straw" , 1971 song by the Grateful Dead* Jack Straw by W...
praised Foley's heroism: 'Frank Foley risked his life to save the lives of thousands of German Jews. Without the protection of diplomatic immunity he visited internment camps and sheltered Jewish refugees in his house. Frank Foley was a true British hero. It is right that we should honour him at the British Embassy in Berlin, not far from where he once worked.'
On 31 May 2009, a garden was dedicated in his memory at London's Sternberg Centre
Sternberg Centre
The Sternberg Centre for Judaism, in East End Road, Finchley, London, is a campus hosting a number of Jewish institutions, built around the 18th-century Finchley manor house....
, where a plaque was unveiled by Cherie Booth.
In 2010, Foley was posthumously named a British Hero of the Holocaust
British Hero of the Holocaust
The British Hero of the Holocaust award is a special national award given by the UK government in recognition of British citizens who assisted in rescuing victims of the Holocaust. On 9 March 2010 it was awarded to 25 individuals posthumously, and to two living people, Sir Nicholas Winton aged 100,...
by the British Governnment.
Further reading
- Michael Smith. Foley: The spy who saved 10,000 Jews. Hodder, 1999. ISBN 0-340-76603-4.
- Burnham and Highbridge Weekly News. Kevin Spacey or Anthony Hopkins for Frank Foley Film?.http://www.burnhamandhighbridgeweeklynews.co.uk/news/bhnewsburnham/display.var.953687.0.spacey_or_hopkins_for_foley_film.php
- Daily Telegraph: Mrs Foley's diary solves the mystery of Hess By Michael Smith http://www.telegraph.co.uk/core/Content/displayPrintable.jhtml?xml=/news/2004/12/27/whess27.xml&site=5&page=0
- BBC: Inside Out: Foley The Quiet Briton http://www.bbc.co.uk/insideout/west/series7/frank_foley.shtml
- A Big Little Man — Proving a Gentile was Righteous http://christianactionforisrael.org/antiholo/foley.html
- Cherie Blair could help Foley Film http://www.burnhamandhighbridgeweeklynews.co.uk/display.var.1150937.0.cherie_blair_could_help_foley_film.php