Morris Hoffman 

My brother-in-law, Morris Hoffman, was more than a brother to me and my other sisters and a caring son to my mother and father.   

As a baby he contracted Polio and due to the devoted and loving care of his mother he survived but left him with a weakened leg.    He even played cricket at school!  At university he studied German and French and was offered a position in the Civil Service.    In the early days of WW2 he was approached and was invited to serve at Bletchley Park. (The famous house and complex that was able to read Germany’s   secret code – Enigma.)   It is not too far fetched to say that the work at Bletchley Park saved thousands of men and perhaps Britain too, and so, we, British Jews, did not suffer the fate of European Jews.   He of course had to sign the Official Secrets Act and so he never told anybody – not even - Sylvia his wife, my sister, what he had done during the war.    Eventually he was allowed to tell.    And even once took me to Bletchley where we joined a group listening to a guide explaining what had been achieved there.    And ‘Lo and Behold’ the guide produced a document signed by a certain Morris Hoffman…     One time he had to call Winston Churchill to give him some information in the middle of the night shift.

He also told me that on the night of June 5th 1944 he, and the whole of Bletchley, were working feverishly as on the 6th of June, D.Day- the Allies landed their troops in Normandy.    He got back to his lodgings at about 4 in the morning only to be woken  by his landlord at 6 a.m. yelling “wake up wake up  – the allies have invaded France – and you are lying in bed”…     As if he didn’t know… But Official Secrets Act made him into a very plausible actor!

Beryl Waizner