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Jews at Bletchley Park

The Jewish history of Bletchley Park pre-dates its now well-known war-time activities, as the Mansion at the heart of the Bletchley Park, had been the home of the home of Sir Herbert Leon MP and Lady Fanny Leon, who were non-observant Jews. Leon was a wealthy Jewish stock-broker, MP and atheist.

Jewish service men and women were well represented at Bletchely Park during the war and worked in many of the departments at the Park. At least 205 Jews, including some Americans, out of c. 8,000 staff in total, served at the secret facility. They came from a variety of social and religious back-grounds and were selected on ability and education, though many were recruited direct from Oxford and Cambridge Universities.

The Recruits

Jewish recruits often had well developed linguistic skills, especially in Oriental languages such as Hebrew, Arabic, and Turkish, as well as Classics, which were thought to be useful. Others had ability in mathematics, analysis and Chess. Many, due to their family origins, spoke fluent German, a key language.

Jewish Religious Life

There was no organised Jewish religious life on site - before the War there had only been one Jewish family in town. During the war three very orthodox Jewish evacuee families formed a tiny informal congregation (a shtieble) which was used by some Jews from BP. Most Jews went to Oxford or London for religious services, or to their homes. However, many Jews kept kosher by eating vegetarian food as an alternative, which was not a problem and at least one took each Saturday off for the Jewish Sabbath. While some anti-Semitism was evident at BP, and attempts were sometimes made to block recruitment of Jews, it does not seem to have been universal.

Jewish Social Life

Many Jews at BP met socially; Walter Ettinghausen formed a group, the Professional and Technical Aliya Association (PTWA) which met weekly at the flat of Joe Gillis. Apart from social activities they promoted the eventual emigration of Jewish professionals to Palestine at the end of the war to help found a Jewish nation in Palestine.

Key Jewish Staff

Jewish staff who played key roles at BP, included Professor Maxwell Newman (1897-1984), who was the architect of the Collosus computer, the world's first computer. Irving John Goodman (originally Isidore Jacob Gudak) was Alan Turing's chief statistical assistant, who used statistics to work out probable meanings in messages that had yet to be fully decoded. He also found a method of speeding up the Collosus computer and was an inventor of the modern computer.

Bletchley Park and the Holocaust

Many of the Jewish decoders at BP had family connections with Germany and other European countries over-ran by the Nazis and knew the threat Hitler posed to their relatives and other Jews and many of their families or relatives were murdered. Some of the decoders read distressing messages relating to Hitler's attempted genocide of the Jews, such as the transport of the Jews from Rhodes in 1944, 'for the final solution' and the last futile attempt of Jews to flee to Palestine in 1942, with the torpedoing of the Struma with the loss of 769 Rumanian lives, a disaster covered up by both the British and Turkish authorities. However, there is no doubt that the work at BP not only shortened the War but saved Jewish lives too.