Frank Foley

Captain Francis (Frank) Edward Foley (1884 Highbridge –1958, Stourbridge) was a British secret service agent.

Related Topics:
1884 - Highbridge - 1958 - Stourbridge - British

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During the 1930's, Foley worked as a passport control officer in Berlin, as cover for his role as head of station for British Secret Intelligence Service (MI6) in the city, acquiring key details of German military research and development.

Related Topics:
1930's - Berlin - Secret Intelligence Service - German

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However he is primarily remembered as a 'British Schindler'. He used his cover as a Passport Control Officer in Berlin during the 1920s and 30s to help thousands of Jews to escape from Nazi Germany. At the 1961 trial of leading Nazi, Adolf Eichmann, he was described as a 'Scarlet Pimpernel', risking 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 went into internment camps to get Jews out, hid them in his home and helped them to get forged passports. Or, whilst pretending to do his job stamping passports and issuing visas, he would simply bend the rules allowing Jews to escape "legally" to Britain or to Palestine, which was controlled by the British in those days. One Jewish aid worker has estimated that he saved 'tens of thousands' of people from the Holocaust.

Related Topics:
Jew - Nazi - Germany - 1961 - Adolf Eichmann - Scarlet Pimpernel - Britain - Palestine

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After the war Foley retired to the town of Stourbridge in the Black Country where he died in 1958. He is buried at Stourbridge Crematorium. In 2004 a rememberance plaque was dedicated to him at enterance to Stourbridge's Mary Stevens Park. The following year volunteers from Highbridge in Somerset, Foley's birthtown, raised money to erect their own tribute. A statue was commissioned from sculptor Jonathan Sells and was unveiled on the anniversary of VE Day. ( BBC News, "Statue to Briton who saved Jews", 8th May 2005 )

Related Topics:
Stourbridge - Black Country - Mary Stevens Park - Highbridge - Jonathan Sells - VE Day

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