Francis Edward Foley , November 24, 1884 , Highbridge , Somerset - May 8, 1958 , Stourbridge , West Midlands , UK - British Secret Intelligence Officer . While serving as a passport officer at the embassy in Berlin in the 1930s, Foley helped thousands of Jewish families leave Nazi Germany before the outbreak of World War II .
| Francis Foley | |
|---|---|
| English Francis Edward Foley | |
| Date of Birth | |
| Place of Birth | |
| Date of death | |
| Place of death | |
| A country | |
| Occupation | intelligence officer and diplomat |
| Spouse | Catherine |
| Children | Ursula's daughter |
| Awards and prizes |
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Content
Biography
Frank Foley was born on November 24, 1884 in Hybrid , Somerset County [3] . He was a deeply religious Catholic and was about to become a priest. He studied for three years at a seminary in Poitiers in France. When the First World War began , he studied philosophy in Hamburg . Foley left Germany through the Netherlands and joined the British Army. He was seriously wounded in the lung during fights in France, after which he was evacuated to the UK [4] , where he enlisted in British intelligence .
According to various sources, in 1919 [5] or 1922 [6] , Foley, with the rank of lieutenant, arrived in Berlin as an intelligence officer to work in the British embassy to counter communist activities. To cover the main activity, he was officially appointed to the post of chief employee of the passport control department. At the same time, Foley received wide powers to resolve the issue of the admission of foreigners to the British Empire. He was in this position until the outbreak of World War II [5] .
After the Nazis came to power in 1933, the emphasis in the work of Foley shifted to control over the rearmament of Germany. At the same time, he began to help Jews who, due to Nazi persecution, wanted to emigrate from Germany [7] . This activity was especially intensified after the Kristallnacht pogroms in November 1938 [5] .
In the years 1938-1939, Foley issued many fake British passports to German Jews, which allowed them to flee to the UK. He hid some in his own house until they left Germany [8] . Foley manipulated British laws and official instructions in order to help desperate people [5] . Lacking diplomatic immunity , Foley, at the risk of his own life, visited concentration camps and sought the liberation of the Jews. With the outbreak of World War II, he left Germany, leaving many Jews ready to issue documents for emigration [6] .
During World War II, Foley led the A1 Intelligence Division in Norway and Germany. In May 1941, he participated in interrogations of the Deputy Fuhrer Rudolf Hess , who had flown to the UK [9] [7] . Foley saved Norway’s gold reserves from the Nazis, recruited a number of German agents, participated in the development of “ Bodyguard Operation ” - a campaign to misinform the German command before the Allied invasion of Normandy and a number of other important operations [10] . From 1945 to 1947, he was engaged in the search for former Nazis, and then returned to London, where until 1949 he continued to work in MI-6 [11] .
After retiring with the rank of Major [12], he lived in solitude and died of a heart attack in Sturbridge on May 8, 1958 [3] [11] .
Awards and recognition
In 1959, in memory of Foley, his friends and colleagues landed a forest in the area of the kibbutz Harel ( Eng. Harel ) in Israel [13] . The name Foley as the savior of the Jews was called by witnesses in 1960 at the trial of Adolf Eichmann [14] .
Almost 40 years later, Foley’s story became widely known thanks to The Daily Telegraph journalist and former military intelligence officer Michael Smith, who published the 1999 book Foley: The Spy who Saved 10,000 Jews [4] [15] . Foley was called the “British Schindler ” due to the large number of rescued Jews [16] .
The Israeli Institute for Catastrophe and Heroism Yad Vashem for helping to save Jews February 25, 1999 awarded Frank Foley the honorary title of Righteous Among the Nations [3] . Foley is also a knight of the Order of St. Michael and St. George [17] .
In 2004, a memorial plaque was installed at the Foley embassy in Berlin [10] [18] . In Foley's homeland in Hybrid in 2005, a monument was erected to him. Another memorial plaque was opened in London by British Foreign Secretary William Hague in 2012 [12] .
In 2010, the British government posthumously awarded Foley the title of " British Holocaust Hero " [19] . The medal was awarded to Pat Dunstan, the granddaughter of Foley [20] .
Family
Foley was married and had a daughter, Ursula. His wife, Katherine, testified after his death about Foley’s efforts to save Jews [14] . She survived her husband by 21 years and died in 1979 [13] .
Notes
- ↑ 1 2 SNAC - 2010.
- ↑ Find a Grave - 1995. - ed. size: 165000000
- ↑ 1 2 3 Foley Francis (1884 - 1958) . Yad Vashem . Date of treatment September 6, 2015.
- ↑ 1 2 Campaign to get Stourbridge war hero Frank Foley knighted . Birmingham Post (May 10, 2008). Date of appeal September 30, 2015.
- ↑ 1 2 3 4 Paldiel, 2007 , p. eight.
- ↑ 1 2 Francis Foley . The Righteous Among The Nations . Yad Vashem . Date of treatment September 6, 2015.
- ↑ 1 2 Foley, Francis . Jewish Virtual Library . The American-Israeli Cooperative Enterprise . Date of treatment September 6, 2015.
- ↑ 1 2 Highbridge honors Frank Foley with statue . Historic People . BBC (05/05/2005). Date of treatment September 6, 2015.
- ↑ Lyn Smith, 2012 , p. 26.
- ↑ 1 2 Berlin Honors a True British Hero . Deutsche Welle (11/25/2004). Date of treatment September 29, 2015.
- ↑ 1 2 Lyn Smith, 2012 , p. 27.
- ↑ 1 2 Marcus Dysch. Hague to honor wartime British spy who saved Jews . The Jewish Chronicle (June 15, 2012). Date of treatment September 29, 2015.
- ↑ 1 2 Paldiel, 2007 , p. sixteen.
- ↑ 1 2 Paldiel, 2007 , p. 14.
- ↑ Author to honor unsung war hero . Express and Star (November 21, 2008). Date of appeal September 30, 2015.
- ↑ Author lifts the lid on British Schindler . BBC (January 2, 1999). Date of treatment October 5, 2015.
- ↑ Downing Street honor for Highbridge hero of the Holocaust . burnham-on-sea.com (March 11, 2010). Date of appeal September 30, 2015.
- ↑ Ben Aris. British spy who saved 10,000 Jews . The Guardian (November 25, 2004). Date of treatment September 6, 2015.
- ↑ Britons honored for holocaust heroism (Eng.) // The Telegraph. - Mar 9, 2010. Archived on March 9, 2010.
- ↑ BBC - Learning from Evil: Pat's Story . BBC (May 13, 2010). Date of appeal September 30, 2015.
Literature
- Michael Smith Foley: The Spy who Saved 10,000 Jews. - Coronet, 1999 .-- 358 p. - ISBN 9780340718513 .
- Mordecai Paldiel. Diplomat Heroes of the Holocaust. - Jersey City: KTAV Publishing House , 2007 .-- P. 8-17. - 241 p. - ISBN 9780881259094 .
- Lyn Smith. Heroes of the Holocaust: Ordinary Britons who risked their lives to make a difference. - Random House, 2012 .-- P. 9-30. - 288 p. - ISBN 9781448118120 .
Links
- Dan Sales. Cherie Blair could help Foley Film (Eng.) // Weekly News. - Newsquest Media (Southern) Ltd, 26 January 2007.
- AJR in 1950s keen to preserve memory of British officials such as Frank Foley ( AJR Journal). - The Association of Jewish Refugees, August 2005. - Vol. 5, no. 8 .