LONDON -- Jews rescued from the Holocaust by a British spy in Berlin six decades ago said today they were delighted that Israel had decided to honor the forgotten hero who saved at least 10,000 of them.
Frank Foley helped to rescue even more Jews than Oskar Schindler -- famed subject of an Oscar-winning film.He has now posthumously been awarded the title of "Righteous Among Nations" by the Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial Museum in Jerusalem. The award goes to non-Jews who risked their lives by saving Jews from the Nazis.
Survivor Simon Wertheimer, who sent the museum details of Foley's undercover exploits, said of the award: "I am most delighted."
"I was only 7 years old in December of 1938 when he undertook steps that saved the lives of my parents and myself," he told BBC Radio. Foley issued the visas that helped them escape.
Lord Janner, chairman of the Holocaust Education Trust, also welcomed the decision, saying "Frank Foley was a hero."
Foley was head of the British MI6 intelligence station in Berlin during the 1930s. He controlled visas to Britain but had no diplomatic immunity and could have been arrested at any time.
Foley, who died in 1958, flouted strict British immigration rules to get visas for Jews. He hid Jews in his home who were hunted by the Gestapo, helped people to find false passports and even visited concentration camps to rescue them.