Archief RC0865 - Richard Hoff fonds

Richard Hoff was born in Breslau Germany on 21 May 1904. His father, Leo Hoff, was born a Jew but later converted to Christianity in 1919. He had already had his son baptized in September 1904. Richard Hoff graduated from Friedrich Wilhelm University, Breslau in 1928 and was appointed as a judge in the Ministry of Justice in 1930. He was dismissed in April 1933 because he was of “Non-Aryan descent”. He later found work as the Manager of the Union of Non-Aryan Christians, Silesian Branch. The task of the Union was to advise and help Christian non-Ayrans who were being oppressed by the Nazis. He also worked as a clerk for various companies. In August 1939 he was able to emigrate to England where he found employment as a horticultural worker. He had hoped to emigrate to Brazil but that did not happen; instead he ended up in Canada in 1940. He was placed in an internment camp in Farnham, Quebec and was later transferred to a camp in Sherbrooke. In January 1943 he was at a refugee camp, Ile aux Noix, St. Paul, Quebec. He became a Canadian citizen in December 1946 and settled in Ottawa, working for the Directorate of Censorship. He married Margaret Bramley in 1969. He died in 1995 at the age of 91.