An Irishman who helped save Jews (24 August, 2014, 28 Av, 5774)
Contents:
1. Introduction. The recent Execution by ISIS of Irish-American Journalist, James Foley
2. Francis Foley, The Hero of Irish Descent who Helped Save Tens of Thousands of Jews
3. Frank Foley in Wikipedia
4. His Wife Also Helped.
5. "Foley who was kind to the Jews"
6. "He saved 10,000 Jews, or possibly more." "He was a Mensch [a man, i.e. decent person], one of the righteous."
7. Another World, "A Scion of Irish stock"
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1. Introduction. The recent Execution by ISIS of Irish-American Journalist, James Foley
Recently an American journalist named James Foley was publicly executed by Muslim ISIS barbarians in Syria. A video of his beheading was sent around the web.
Re
ISIS captured and executed James Foley, an American journalist
http://www.vox.com/cards/things-about-isis-you-need-to-know/james-foley-isis
James Foley was an American conflict reporter who went missing in Syria almost two years ago. On Tuesday, August 19th, a video of Foley surfaced. The video, apparently produced by ISIS as a warning to the US to stop air strikes against the group in Iraq, ended with Foley's death.
James Foley was an Irish American. His death caused a stir not only in the USA but also in the Republic of Ireland.
The name Foley reminds us of another hero of Irish descent, Francis Foley.
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2. Francis Foley, The Hero of Irish Descent who Helped Save Tens of Thousands of Jews
Major Francis Edward Foley CMG (Companion of the Order Of St Michael and St George) 1884-1958, was born in Stourbridge, in Central England. He was the third son of a railway worker from Devon whose family originated from Roscommon in Connaught, West Ireland. At one stage he learned in a seminary for Priests in France but later changed his mind.
These days (July-August 2014, Operation Protective Edge) with anti-Israel demonstrations and similar acts of shame in Ireland, etc, Jews and Gentiles of Irish descent are feeling somewhat embarrassed.
It is worth remembering that Irishmen (including devout Catholics) of a different sort also existed.
James Foley was one of them.
Such types may not be that common but they are there.
They always have been.
Qualitatively they make up for all the rest.
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3. Frank Foley in Wikipedia
Frank Foley
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Foley
Extracts:
[Foley] was a British Secret Intelligence Service officer. As a passport control officer for the British embassy in Berlin, Foley "bent the rules" and helped thousands of Jewish families escape from Nazi Germany after Kristallnacht and before the outbreak of the Second World War.
Foley is primarily remembered as a "British Schindler". In his role as passport control officer he helped thousands of Jews escape from Nazi Germany. At the 1961 trial of former ranking Nazi Adolf Eichmann, he was described as a "Scarlet Pimpernel" for the way he risked 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 would bend the rules when stamping passports and issuing visas, to allow Jews to escape "legally" to Britain or Palestine, which was then controlled by the British. Sometimes he went further, going into internment camps to get Jews out, hiding them in his home, and helping them get forged passports. One Jewish aid worker estimated that he saved "tens of thousands" of people from the Holocaust.
Second World War and after
At the outbreak of war Foley was recalled to London. In 1941, he was given the task of questioning Hitler's Deputy Rudolf Hess, after Hess's flight to Scotland. After Hess was hospitalised in 1942, Foley helped co-ordinate MI5 and MI6 in running a network of double agents called the Double Cross System. He returned to Berlin after the war, where he was involved in hunting for ex-SS members. In 1949 Foley retired to Stourbridge, a town in the Black Country, and died there in 1958; he is buried in Stourbridge Cemetery.
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4. His Wife Also Helped.
Frank Foley
http://www.theholocaustexplained.org/ks3/responses-1933-1945/what-did-organisations-do/frank-foley/#.U_l_Ebdd61s
Frank Foley was a World War One veteran who was recruited into the British Secret Intelligence Service. He became a successful spy and was stationed in Berlin from 1922 to 1939.
Foley used his cover position as a passport officer at the British embassy to save thousands of Jews. Although he did not have diplomatic immunity, he entered concentration camps and issued visas to Jews so that they would be free to travel out of Germany. On more than one occasion Foley entered Sachsenhausen concentration camp to issue visas and travel documents.
By November 1938, Foley and his wife were sheltering Jews in their Berlin apartment. One of these people was Leo Baeck, chairman of the Association of German Rabbis. Before returning to England at the outbreak of war, Foley left a pile of visas and instructions for their distribution to Jews who were fleeing Germany.
Foley risked his own life to save the lives of others. Had he been caught he would have suffered at the hands of the Nazis. Foley's actions enabled over 10,000 people to escape the Nazi terror.
Frank Foley was recognised as Righteous Amongst the Nations on 25 February 1999.
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5. "Foley who was kind to the Jews"
Francis Foley, Great Britain
http://www.yadvashem.org/yv/en/righteous/stories/foley.asp
Defying the Foreign Office, he bent the rules to issue 10,000 visas for British Mandatory Palestine. He did not enjoy diplomatic immunity in Berlin and was running a serious risk. Had he been exposed by the Nazis, he would have suffered a much worse fate than being persona non grata. Miriam Posner, who was 16 when she traveled from East Prussia to beg for a visa to Palestine, even though she did not meet Britain's stiff conditions for entry, said: ''Foley saved my life. We heard that there was this man Foley who was kind to the Jews. My mother begged him. He just paced up and down a little and then asked for my passport and put the visa stamp on it. He did not ask any questions." She added, "He was small and quiet. You would never suspect he was a spy." Ze'ev Padan's father was interned in Sachsenhausen concentration camp when Foley went to rescue him. Ze'ev too was saved by Foley's defiance of authority. Foley was described in Adolf Eichmann's 1961 trial by one of the witnesses, Benno Cohen as follows: "There was one man who stood out above all others. Captain Foley, a man who in my opinion was one of the greatest among the nations of the world. He rescued thousands of Jews from the jaws of death." By the time of the infamous Kristallnacht pogrom in November 1938, Foley and his wife had taken to sheltering Jews overnight in their apartment. Among the "guests" was Leo Baeck, chairman of the Association of German Rabbis. When the war started and Foley left Germany, he left behind a thick wad of already approved visas with instructions that they should be distributed to those fleeing the Nazi terror. Reverend John Kelley, Foley's nephew, an Anglican priest said about his uncle: "I believe that God put Frank Foley in Berlin to do His Work. Foley did what he did as a witness to the Christian churches to show what they should have done at that time, but did not do." Captain Foley died in 1958. A Daily Telegraph journalist, Michael Smith, brought Foley's story to light in his book Foley, the Spy who saved 10,000 Jews (1999).
On February 25, 1999, Yad Vashem recognized Francis Foley as Righteous Among the Nations.
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6. "He saved 10,000 Jews, or possibly more." "He was a Mensch [a man, i.e. decent person], one of the righteous."
Late Honour to Foley: The Spy Who Saved 10,000 Jews
http://able2know.org/topic/39630-1
Extract:
Having been originally sent to Berlin in 1920 as a member of the then relatively new Secret Intelligence Service, he was risking his own life with his actions. He had no diplomatic immunity to protect him if the Nazi regime had gleaned what he was up to.
Given the title of "passport control officer", his original task was to spy on Bolsheviks in the German capital - regarded as a hotbed of communists in the 1920s. But, having seen Hitler's attempted putsch, imprisonment and the writing of Mein Kampf, he was ahead of his London minders in foreseeing the plight of the Jews.
Strictly speaking, he was only allowed to issue visas for Palestine - then under British mandate - if the applicant was either a skilled agricultural worker (unlikely among middle-class Berlin Jews), or had a bank account in Palestine with a deposit already cashed in.
In reality, he went further than turning a blind eye, to the extent that historians reckon he saved 10,000 Jews, or possibly more, from the concentration camps.
Today, 62-year old Peter Weiss, whose mother escaped the Nazis in 1933 in a visa given to her by Foley, said: "He was a small, insignificant man in glasses, but today me, and all the children of the survivors, are his legacy.
"He was a Mensch, one of the righteous."
Indeed, he has already been given the Medal of Righteousness, the highest honour the Israeli state can bestow on a gentile, by the Yad Vashem holocaust centre in Jerusalem.
British ambassador Peter Torry called Foley "a British hero", who "tore up the rulebook" to save Jewish lives.
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7. Another World, "A Scion of Irish stock"
British ambassador Peter Torry called Foley "a British hero", who "tore up the rulebook" to save Jewish lives. He was a British Hero like hundreds of thousands of others of Irish descent who served in the British ranks. He was also a scion of Irish stock who revealed an aspect of Ireland that has always been there but has often gone unnoticed. It may yet resurface in a fullness of glory.