Kindertransport - Wilfrid Israel

Wilfrid Israel

Wilfrid Israel (1899–1943) may have been a key figure in the rescue of Jews from Germany and occupied Europe. He warned the British government, through Lord Samuel, of the impending Kristallnacht in November 1938. Through a British agent, Frank Foley, passport officer at the Berlin consulate, he kept British intelligence informed of Nazi activities. He spoke for the Reichsvertretung, (the German Jewish communal organisation) and the Hilfsverein (the self-help body), urged a plan of rescue on the Foreign Office and helped British Quakers to visit Jewish communities all over Germany to prove to the British government that Jewish parents were indeed prepared to part with their children.