Foley, The Spy Who Saved 10,000 Jews (review)

This is an ordinary book about an extraordinary man. It is written in a straightforward, easy-to-read style. Although every fact is fully documented and there is an extensive index, it reads more like a newspaper article than a scholarly text. This is not surprising, considering that the author is a senior reporter for the British Daily Telegraph.

Frank Foley was a British spy during World War II. During the 1930s, his “cover” was to serve as the British Passport Control Officer in Berlin. In this capacity his job was to issue visas for all parts of the British Empire including England and Palestine.

The situation of the German Jews became increasing critical from 1933 on. It was the avowed purpose of the Nazi government to encourage them to emigrate, but virtually every country in the world was closed to them. However, the alternative in almost every case was death.

The policies of the British were no less restrictive than those of any other country. Along with the rest of the world, England was in the depths of a depression. The British were more concerned with the well-being of their own citizens than they were with unseen Jews half a continent away. Palestine was another and even more complicated issue. Jews were allowed in only if they had money; but Germany, which was short of foreign currency itself, would not allow the Jews to transfer money out of the country.

But to Frank Foley, these Jews were not faceless nonentities, but living, breathing, mothers and fathers, babies and grandparents caught in a terrible web not of their doing. He bent the rules, twisted and turned, risked his job, his reputation, and at times his very life to save the lives of people he often did not even know. He was well aware that what he was doing was “against policy.” But he could not let innocent people die while he had any chance of saving them. And he did—more than 10,000.

That is the thrust of the book. Equally important from my point of view is the wealth of “side information,” a heightened understanding of how Hitler was able to come to power and how and why he was allowed to take over Austria and Czechoslovakia. There is even an interesting section on Rudolf Hess, his quixotic mission to England in May 1941, and the reasons for it.

A good part of the book deals with military intelligence, its power and its weaknesses. The British military often ignored the correct information gathered by Foley and his colleagues; the Germans accepted wholeheartedly the misinformation fed them by the British. (There must be more to it than that, and the author lists dozens of other books on the topic.) However, it is an undisputed fact that Hitler was convinced that the Normandy landings were a feint and that the main invasion was to be at the Pas de Calais. There is also no question that the invasion was faltering after the first few days. It is likely that a timely counterattack by the elite panzer divisions being held in reserve could have thrown the Allies back into the sea. As a minimum, it would have prolonged the war by several months. Hitler, however, was convinced that Normandy was not the real objective and refused to release the divisions. Foley was at the heart of this deception, which by shortening the war saved hundreds of thousands of Jewish lives.

For reasons barely hinted at, it was not until 1999 “as a direct result of the evidence collected during the writing of this book” that Frank Foley was awarded the title of Righteous Among the Nations by Yad Vashem, the Israel Holocaust Memorial Center. The honor is not given lightly. It was never more richly deserved.