Honour for Hero Who Helped Jews Escape Nazi Persecution
Published: May 8, 2005
A Second World War hero dubbed “the British Schindler” for helping thousands of Jews escape Germany was today honoured in his home town.
Frank Foley used his official job at the British Embassy in Berlin to issue visas to Jews fleeing Nazi persecution.
Now an 8ft-high Portland stone statue has been unveiled in his birthplace of Highbridge, Somerset, to provide a permanent tribute to him.
David Rothenberg, vice-chairman of the Association of Jewish Refugees, which partly funded the statue, said: “We are delighted to have contributed to this worthy cause and honour the life of Major Foley. Without his bravery and initiative, many more people would have been trapped in Germany and would inevitably have lost their lives.
“On the 60th anniversary of the end of the Second World War we take this opportunity to reflect on the enormous impact one individual can make.”
Major Foley was posted to Berlin in the early 1920s by the Secret Intelligence Service, the predecessor of MI6.
After Adolf Hitler rose to power in 1933, Major Foley used his job as the embassy’s passport control officer to issue the necessary paperwork to Jews to leave Germany for sanctuary – often bending rules under which London was trying to limit Jewish migration to British-ruled Palestine.
It is estimated he helped around 10,000 Jews.
Described as a deeply-religious Catholic, Major Foley also went into concentration camps to secure the release of Jewish prisoners, and sheltered Jews in his own home until they could leave the country.
The new statue was commissioned in 2000 on behalf of the Foley Committee, which has also erected a plaque outside the house in which he was born.
Local volunteers raised more than £25,000 for the statue, which depicts Major Foley stamping the visa of an anonymous Jewish refugee.
The statue now stands in front of Highbridge community centre.
Last year a plaque was unveiled at the British Embassy in Berlin to Major Foley, who died in 1973.
Calling him “a true British hero”, British Ambassador Sir Peter Torry, who carried out the ceremony, said: “Without diplomatic immunity, at considerable personal risk to himself, this unassuming man chose to follow his conscience.”
At the ceremony last November, Peter Weiss recalled that his mother “heard a rumour that someone was giving out visas in Berlin” and went to Major Foley’s office in 1939. He let her stay at his apartment for three days before presenting her with documents that allowed her to flee to Belgium.
“My mother was virtually the only survivor of a very large family,” Weiss said. “All the children from that time who survived are his legacy.”
In 1999, Major Foley was named as a Righteous Among The Nations, the highest award Israel can confer on a non-Jew for saving Jews from Nazi persecution.
His name was inscribed on a wall in the Garden of the Righteous, which tumbles down a wooded hillside outside Jerusalem.
If you enjoyed this good news Subscribe to Good News Blog
Share this
To share this simply copy and paste one of the below URL's: