clearly agreed, however, on the importance of 'adopting as humane an attitude as possible' in dealing with the issue. (Cabinet Conclusions 14(38), CAB 23/93, TNA) 9. Extract from Berlin Consular Report, 8 June 1938. A graphic account of a 'recent recrudescence of Jewish persecution', including the breaking up of families by means of legislation and the activities of the police: 'Jews have been hunted like rats in their homes.' The author of this report found that the German public viewed these developments with sympathy and 'morbid interest'; though his comment that people were expressing 'regret and disgust' at the action or inaction of the Government indicates the ambivalence of many ordinary German people towards the Nazi regime. (C 7092/1667/62, FO 371121635, TNA) 10. Despatch No. 1224 from Sir G Ogilvie-Forbes, HM Minister in Berlin, 16 November 1938. This fierce but dispassionately worded despatch describes the terrible events of November 1938 that made Foley's role even more important to those desperately seeking escape from Germany. What Ogilvie-Forbes describes as 'national persecution' of Jews followed the murder in Paris of an official of the German Embassy, vom Rath, on 7 November. After an 'orgy of destruction and terror' on the night of 9/10 November 1938 (Kristallnacht) , hundreds of Jews were arrested and sent to concentration camps; and on 12 November the first of a new set of anti-Jewish decrees were published. Ogilvie-Forbes had no doubt that vom Rath's murder 'only accelerated the process of elimination of the Jews which has for long been planned' . The Jews of Germany, he wrote were now 'not a national but a world problem which if neglected contains the seeds of a terrible vengeance' . (C 14108/ 1667/62, FO 371121637, TNA) 11. Facsimile reproduction of a notification issued by Frank Foley to the Ruppel family, 21 November 1938, informing them that the Home Office had granted them permission to travel to England. (Reproduced by kind permission of Michael Smith, whose account of the Ruppel family's fate can be found in Foley: The Spy who Saved 10,000 Jews, pp 127-30) 12. Extract from Conclusions of a Meeting of the Cabinet held at 10 Downing Street on 22 November 1938. Malcolm MacDonald's statement encapsulated the difficulties faced by the Government in deciding whether to increase the numbers of Jews that could enter Palestine. Humanitarian considerations had to be set against the priority of reaching a broader settlement on Palestine at forthcoming discussions in London, to be attended by Arab and Zionist representatives. Dr Chaim Weizmann, the Zionist leader, refused to attend the conference unless a demand from the Jewish Agency to admit 21,000 further Jews to Palestine were met; the Palestine Arabs refused to attend if they were admitted; and the British High Commissioner in India reported that the Indian Government (influential to Moslem opinion) believed the British Government would not have invited neighbouring Arab States to the conference unless they intended to suspend immigration. The British Government's decision not to take an early decision on further immigration must be seen against this dilemma. (Cabinet Conclusions 56(38), CAB 23/96, TNA)
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