He was promoted after the successful posting to Zagreb and appointed Consul-General at Frankfurt/Main in Germany in 1932 just before the Nazi Party gained power . Smallbones held his position through the difficult pre-war years and in September 1939 at the outbreak of World War II he was evacuated with all British diplomatic staff . After Kristallnacht he worked to assist persecuted Jewish people gaining them travel visas , which would enable them to leave Nazi Germany by exploiting any opportunities the system allowed and some which it did not . He was remembered in the Jewish Chronicle as " the diplomat who faced down the Gestapo " , for visiting concentration camps to demand the release of Jewish people , he allowed his daughter Irene to horse-whip Gestapo agents arresting Jews and provided refuge for hundreds of Jewish people in his official residence , Frustrated at the refusal of the United States of America to issue visas to the Jews he masterminded and oversaw what became known as the " Smallbones Scheme " to extend the British efforts to evacuate the Jews from Germany and in October 1939 the British Government calculated that he had saved 48,000 and had been in the process of issuing papers to 50,000 more when war broke out
Kristallnacht
Kristallnacht
Robert Smallbones