As you know, the Enigma was a German cipher machine, on the breaking of whose key the Polish, British and French intelligence services worked. Unravelling the mathematical riddle to unravel the specific code seemed impossible. The Germans themselves said that the Enigma was unbreakable. For all Allied intelligence, breaking the Enigma code remained a key task both before and during the Second World War.
Breaking the Enigma code
It was the Poles who were the first to break the enigma code, ten years before the British, using brilliant Polish mathematicians to work on breaking the cipher. In 1929, the Cipher Office of the Second Branch of the General Staff invited outstanding students of the University of Poznan to a cryptology course. Among them were three mathematicians who took part in the later work on deciphering the Enigma. They were Marian Rejewski, Jerzy Różycki and Henryk Zygalski.
Polish cryptologists developed effective mathematical methods, such as 'differential analysis’ and the 'Rotation Movement method’, to unlock the secrets of the Enigma. A copy of the Enigma and their knowledge of its design and the keys used, made it possible to decipher German encrypted messages. Let us remember that it was the work of Polish cryptologists that made a key contribution to the operation to break the German cipher and played an important role in the subsequent work of the British on Enigma. The achievement of Polish scientists is considered one of the most important events of the Second World War. Breaking the Enigma code hastened the victory of the Allies in World War II and was of great significance for the fate of millions of people in Europe and around the world. It is believed that this achievement contributed to saving the lives of hundreds of thousands and even millions of people. Deciphering German communications gave the Allies a strategic advantage in planning military operations and a more effective counter-action against German attacks.
An example that confirms the contribution of the work of Polish scientists to the decryption of Enigma is, for example, the carrying out of the victorious invasion of Normandy in 1944. Thanks to knowledge of the German plans, the Allies were able to carry out effective military operations, and the victorious invasion of Normandy is considered one of the most important events of World War II and a milestone in the history of the modern world.
Poland hands over the keys to Enigma to the Allies
On 24 July 1939, representatives of French and British military intelligence arrived in Warsaw to work with Polish cryptologists. On 25 July 1939, they were flown to a conference held in the complex of the German Cipher Office in Pyry, near Warsaw. This day turned out to be a real shock for Western intelligence – the Polish researchers revealed that they had already been able to break Enigma codes since 1932 and were able to read German reports. They also presented their own cryptographic machinery.
Any doubts the British and French had about 'working out’ the Enigma were dispelled on the second day of the conference, 26 July. Polish mathematicians again explained the workings of the Enigma and the decryption machines and demonstrated their cryptographic skills.
It is worth recalling that a copy of the Enigma was created at the AVA Radiotechnical Plant in Warsaw, where three Polish cryptologists managed to reconstruct the Enigma’s internal connections, making it possible to read German messages. To use it effectively, however, they had to constantly break the German keys, as the Germans changed the Enigma settings every day. Over the course of the war, on the other hand, they developed a rotation mechanism that was supposed to provide protection against the possibility of breaking the cipher. Fortunately, neither method succeeded in blocking the decryption efforts of Polish scientists.
Marian Rejewski was a Polish mathematician and cryptologist, born on 16 August 1905 in Bydgoszcz. One of the early pioneers of cryptology and a key figure in Allied efforts to decode Enigma encrypted messages during World War II. His work on Enigma was of great importance to Polish intelligence and contributed to the success in decrypting German messages.
After the war, Rejewski devoted himself to academic work and worked as a lecturer in mathematics at the University of Poznan. He died on 13 February 1980 in Warsaw.
Jerzy Różycki was born on 24 July 1909 in Olshan, in what is now Ukraine. While studying mathematics at the University of Poznań, he began working for military counter-intelligence radio. His contribution to the development of the Enigma decryption technique included the so-called clock method, which made it possible to determine the selection and setting of rotors in the Enigma machine. Unfortunately, he died tragically in a passenger ship crash on 9 January 1942 in the Mediterranean Sea, in unknown circumstances. His death was a great loss to Polish cryptology.
Henryk Zygalski was a Polish mathematician and cryptologist, born on 15 July 1908 in Poznań. One of the most gifted students of the Institute of Mathematics at the University of Poznań, he was admitted to a specialist cryptology course organised by the order of the General Staff of the Polish Army already in his third year of studies. His contribution to the development of the Enigma decryption technique was the development of the so-called Zygalski Sheets – perforated sheets of paper helping to determine the order of the Enigma encoding rotors.
After the war, Zygalski remained in exile in the UK, where he took up a job as a mathematics teacher in a provincial school. In 1977 he received an honorary doctorate from the Polish University Abroad for his achievements in cryptology. He died on 30 August 1978 in Liss.
The memory of the work and achievements of Marian Rajewski, Jerzy Różycki and Henryk Zygalski remains an important part of the history of cryptography. The achievements of the Polish scientists in breaking the code of the German Enigma, although they were extremely important for the further activities of the Allies, are often overlooked or rarely explicitly included in information concerning the decryption of this German machine.
We would like to remind you of their achievements, as their breaking of the Enigma code indisputably contributed to saving the lives of thousands of people in Europe and around the world.
In May, we informed you about the publication of a new layer – „Polish Scientific Thought” – an interactive map presenting the intellectual contribution of Polish scientists whose achievements have made their mark on Polish history. Let us remember that Polish scientific thought has also contributed to the development of science around the world. This layer promotes knowledge of the achievements and also commemorates Poles who have played a significant role in the development of science and in many cases have become irreplaceable figures for world science.
Poland has produced many distinguished scientists who have contributed to significant breakthroughs in various fields of science. We encourage you to visit https://rdi.org.pl/english/layers-of-memory/.
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