Letter Signed by British Hero Major Frank Foley

Authors

Object ID

2016.1.23

Object Name

Letter

Date

3-7-1934

Files

Content Warning

The Bulmash Family Holocaust Collection consists of images, documents, and artifacts related to the Holocaust. The collection contains materials that depict a number of topics that may be difficult for viewers to engage with, including: antisemitic descriptions, caricatures, and representation of Jewish people; Nazi imagery and ideology; descriptions and images of German ghettos; graphic images of the violence of the Holocaust; and the creation of the State of Israel. For more information, see our policy page.

Description

Typewritten letter on ‘British Passport Control Office’ letterhead, signature of F. Foley

Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash:

In this letter Foley, in his role as British Passport Control Officer, in the early years of the Nazi rise to power, attempts to reassure one Carl Heinz Grebenau that he will be able to obtain a visa to Palestine when certain conditions are met. He is perhaps referring to the Havaara agreement, which was to help Jews emigrate to Palestine by giving up possessions to German authorities. In the 1930s, Major Frank Foley worked as a passport officer at the British Embassy in Berlin. But the job was a cover: Foley was an MI6 agent and he did everything he could - without diplomatic immunity and at great personal risk to his own life - to help Jews escape Nazi Germany by providing them with visas, passports and other means of exit to Britain or Palestine. He is known to have hidden Jews in his home, and even went to concentration camps to help free them. It is estimated that he saved as many as 10,000 Jews. He was posthumously accorded the status of Righteous Among Nations by Yad Vashem.

Dimensions

9 1/2 x 7 1/2"

Keywords

Frank Foley, British Embassy, Yad Vashem, Carl Grebenau

Subcollection

Diplomats

Recommended Citation

"Letter Signed by British Hero Major Frank Foley" (1934). Bulmash Family Holocaust Collection. 2016.1.23.
https://digital.kenyon.edu/bulmash/1283