{"id":4544,"date":"2023-08-10T18:59:19","date_gmt":"2023-08-10T16:59:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dziedzictwopolonii.pl\/portal\/?p=4544"},"modified":"2023-08-10T19:11:16","modified_gmt":"2023-08-10T17:11:16","slug":"marian-rejewski-jerzy-rozycki-and-henryk-zygalski-the-mathematicians-who-broke-the-enigma-code","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dziedzictwopolonii.pl\/portal\/marian-rejewski-jerzy-rozycki-and-henryk-zygalski-the-mathematicians-who-broke-the-enigma-code\/","title":{"rendered":"Marian Rejewski, Jerzy R\u00f3\u017cycki, and Henryk Zygalski. The mathematicians who broke the Enigma code."},"content":{"rendered":"
\"image_pdf\"POBIERZ PDF<\/span><\/a>\"image_print\"<\/a><\/div>

Milena Skulimowska<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong>Marian Rejewski, Jerzy R\u00f3\u017cycki, and Henryk Zygalski. <\/strong>The mathematicians who broke the Enigma code. <\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong>The story of solving the code of Enigma, a German cypher device used during the Second World War to encrypt confidential messages, was for years, and remains, a subject of interest for researchers and authors, and even moviemakers. The intelligence gathered from the decoded messages gave the Allies an advantage and had a significant impact on the outcome of the War. In recent years Dermot Turing, a British author, in his book X, Y and Z: The Real Story of How Enigma Was Broken <\/em>(2018), describes the cooperation of French, British, and Polish secret services to solve the secret of the Enigma machine. He drew attention to the role played in this process by three Polish mathematicians from the University of Pozna\u0144, Marian Rejewski, Jerzy R\u00f3\u017cycki, and Henryk Zygalski, who were able to solve the pre-war version of the Enigma machine and read encrypted messages.<\/p>\n

The Germans had begun to develop the Enigma machine around\u00a01919\u00a0and it became the coding method for the German navy in\u00a01926. In 1928 the Poles started to intercept German radio messages coded by the Enigma machine. The Cypher Bureau of the General Staff of the Polish army, seeing a potential for using the mathematical approach for codebreaking, organised in January 1929 a course on the basics of cryptology for a selected group of mathematics students from the University of Pozna\u0144. Marian Rejewski, Jezry R\u00f3\u017cycki, and Henryk Zygalski attended that course and it allowed them to get recruited to work for the Polish military intelligence.<\/p>\n

The purpose of this paper is to provide a summary biographies of the three Polish mathematicians and their input into solving the Enigma code.<\/p>\n

Marian Rejewski<\/strong><\/p>\n

Marian Adam Rejewski was born on 16 August 1905 in Bromberg, German Empire (now Bydgoszcz, Poland) and died on 13 February 1980 in Warsaw, Poland. Rejewski’s parents were J\u00f3zef Rejewski, a tobacco merchant, and Matylda Thoms.<\/p>\n

In\u00a01923\u00a0and entered the Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences of the University of Pozna\u0144 to study mathematics. He was awarded a master’s degree on\u00a01\u00a0March\u00a01929\u00a0for his thesis\u00a0Theory of double periodic functions of the second and third kind and its applications<\/em>. That year in January he attended a course on the basics of cryptology organised by Cypher Bureau, an intelligence agency within the General Staff of the Polish Army. He then went to G\u00f6ttingen University in Germany to enroll in a two-year actuarial statistics course. However, he did not complete the course. In the summer of\u00a01930, he was offered a position as a teaching assistant in mathematics at the University of Pozna\u0144, which he accepted.<\/p>\n

Shortly after, he began to work for the Pozna\u0144 Branch of the Cypher Bureau. After the Pozna\u0144 Branch of the Cypher Bureau was disbanded in the summer of\u00a01932\u00a0and, in September\u00a01932 Rejewski transferred to the Cypher Bureau in Warsaw.\u00a0 Rejewski began work decyphering the code of the Engma in late October or early November 1932. With the help of information provided by French intelligence, he was able to reconstruct the Enigma machine in December 1932. At the beginning of 1933, he was joined by R\u00f3\u017cycki and Zygalski in the effort to devise methods of decyphering messages encrypted by Enigma on routine bases.\u00a0 He applied statistical analysis to uncover Enigma’s cryptographic techniques allowing the machine to be solved. His insight and unconventional approach to code-breaking based on permutation theory produced a solution that had evaded his French and British peers.<\/p>\n

On\u00a020\u00a0June\u00a01934\u00a0Rejewski married Irena Maria Lewandowska. They had two children, Andrzej born in\u00a01936, and Janina born in\u00a01939. During this time, he continued to work at the Cypher Bureau in Warsaw. By January\u00a01938\u00a0the team of Polish mathematicians was able to read about three-quarters of the Enigma messages which were given to them for decoding.<\/p>\n

After Germany invaded Poland on\u00a01\u00a0September\u00a01939, Rejewski, along with R\u00f3\u017cycki and Zygalski, was evacuated to Romania\u00a0(although his wife and family remained in Poland)\u00a0and then to Paris which they reached before the end of September. In October they joined a decoding unit operating under the cryptonym \u2018Bruno\u2019 at the Ch\u00e2teau de Vignolles northeast of Paris and by the end of the year, they were again managing to decode messages sent by the German Enigma machines.<\/p>\n

After the German troops entered Paris in June 1940 Rejewski and his colleagues were evacuated to Algeria. After a new French government collaborating with Germany was established in Vichy, Rejewski and his colleagues returned to Vichy France (10 July 1940 \u2013 9 August 1944) in September\u00a01940. He worked there together with Zygalski and R\u00f3\u017cycki for a secret cryptology unit operating under a cryptonym \u2018Cadix\u2019.\u00a0 Every few months, they would travel to work in a similar decoding center operating in Algeria. During one of such journeys on 9 January 1942, Jerzy R\u00f3\u017cycki died, after the ship he was on sunk near the Balearic Islands.<\/p>\n

After Germany occupied Vichy France the unit at the Ch\u00e2teau des Fouzes had to evacuate in November 1942. Rejewski and\u00a0Zygalski\u00a0moved around across southern France evading capture. They eventually decided to cross the Pyrenees. Despite being robbed by their guide at gunpoint, they reached Spain, only to be put in prison. From January to March\u00a01943 they were held at S\u00e9o de Urgel, then they were transferred to a prison in Lerida. On\u00a024\u00a0May they were released and sent to Madrid. From there they made their way to Portugal. From Portugal they traveled on board a Royal Navy ship to Gibraltar, to be flown to Britain where they arrived\u00a0in August\u00a01943. Rejewski then joined the Polish Army in Britain and remained there for the rest of the war, working on decoding.<\/p>\n

In November\u00a01946\u00a0Rejewski was released from the military service and returned to Poland to be reunited with his family, which was still living in Bydgoszcz. Following his return, Rejewski decided not to resume his academic career and took a job in the department of sales at Kabel Polski (Polish Cable) company, where he worked until 1950. Then he worked as a clerk until he retired in\u00a01967. Between 1949\u20131958, Rejewski was investigated by the Security Service (S\u0142u\u017cba Bezpieczenstwa, SB), an agency combining functions of the secret police and intelligence service.\u00a0 However, at that time almost nothing was known about his wartime fate and work on Enigma. Up to the time of his retirement, Rejewski had maintained complete secrecy about his work in cryptology.<\/p>\n

In\u00a01969\u00a0Rejewski and his family moved to Warsaw and the full story of his involvement with the Enigma cypher breaking emerged in\u00a01973. This led him to appear in the media. He wrote several technical articles and memoirs from his time in cryptology. Rejewski died on 13 February 1980 at his home in Warsaw following a heart attack and was buried with full military honours at Pow\u0105zki Military Cemetery<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Jerzy R\u00f3\u017cycki<\/strong><\/p>\n

Jerzy Witold R\u00f3\u017cycki was born on 24 July 1909 in Olszana, Russian Empire (now Vilshana, Ukraine), and died on 9 January 1942 on the Mediterranean Sea near Balearic Island. He was the fourth and the youngest child of Zygmunt R\u00f3\u017cycki,\u00a0a pharmacist and graduate of Saint Petersburg University, and his wife Wanda Leopolda Benita. He spent his early life attending a school for pupils of Polish origin in Kyiv. However in\u00a01918, before he was able to graduate, he moved together with his parents to Wyszkow in Poland. He attended secondary school there, graduating in\u00a01926.<\/p>\n

In 1927 he entered the Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences of the University of Pozna\u0144 where she studied mathematics and geography. On 19 February 1932, he was awarded a master\u2019s degree in mathematics, and on 13 December 1937 master’s in geography. While studying at the University of Pozna\u0144 he joined the Student Corporation \u2018Chrobia\u2019 (Korporacja Academicka Chrobia), a type of fraternity, which was closely connected with the military circles in Pozna\u0144.<\/p>\n

R\u00f3\u017cycki\u2019s engagement with the Polish military intelligence started in January\u00a01929\u00a0when he attended the cryptology course run by Polish Cypher Bureau. While still a student, R\u00f3\u017cycki was employed in the Pozna\u0144 branch of the Cypher Bureau. There he worked on decoding German radio and telephone messages. During\u00a01929-32, together with\u00a0Marian Rejewski\u00a0and\u00a0Henryk Zygalski, he dealt mainly with the decryption of the code of the German navy. After the Pozna\u0144 branch of the Cypher Bureau was disbanded in 1932, he began working at the Cypher Bureau in Warsaw.<\/p>\n

After Rejewski had reconstructed the German military\u00a0Enigma machine\u00a0in December 1932, R\u00f3\u017cycki and Zygalski started to work with him on the ongoing development of methods and equipment to exploit Enigma\u00a0decryption\u00a0as a source of\u00a0intelligence. R\u00f3\u017cycki invented the so-called \u2018clock method\u2019, for determining the rotor setting in the Enigma machine. The team continued the work on decrypting messages sent through Enigma until the summer of 1939 when they passed their discoveries to the British.<\/p>\n

After the German invasion, in September 1939 R\u00f3\u017cycki had to leave the country, \u00a0while his family, a son, and wife Maria Barbara Majka, whom he married a year before remained in Poland. R\u00f3\u017cycki together with Rejewski and Zygalski evacuated through Romania to France. In October\u00a01939, the three Polish mathematicians began decoding German cyphers at the decoding centre \u2018Bruno\u2019 which was established at the Ch\u00e2teau de Vignolles in Gretz-Armainvillers close to Paris. After German troops entered Paris and France surrendered in June 1940, R\u00f3\u017cycki and his two colleagues were transferred to Algeria. After a few months spent in Algeria, they return to Vichy France to work at the decoding centre \u2018Cadix\u2019\u00a0 that operated in secret at the Ch\u00e2teau Les Fouzes near Us\u00e8s in Provence from October\u00a01940\u00a0to November\u00a01942.<\/p>\n

In the summer of\u00a01941,\u00a0R\u00f3\u017cycki was delegated back to Algeria to work on reading the dispatches sent by the German and Italian troops operating in North Africa. He remained there until early January 1942. On his return to France, he boarded the Lamorici\u00e8re<\/em>, a steamer operated by the Compagnie G\u00e9n\u00e9rale Transatlantique, in Algiers heading for Marseille. The ship had\u00a0272\u00a0passengers,\u00a088\u00a0of whom were military personnel. It sank in a storm near Balearic Islands on\u00a09\u00a0January\u00a01942\u00a0but the circumstances have never been entirely clear. It is known that it changed course on\u00a08\u00a0January when, during a storm, it received a signal of distress from another ship.<\/em>\u00a0The\u00a0Lamorici\u00e8re<\/em>\u00a0experienced some problems with coal and began to sink approximately ten kilometers from Cape Favaritx in the northeast of Menorca. There were\u00a093\u00a0survivors of the disaster, but sadly R\u00f3\u017cycki drowned. His body was never found.<\/p>\n

Henryk Zygalski<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong>Henryk Micha\u0142 Zygalski was born 15 July 1908 in Posen, German Empire, (now Pozna\u0144, Poland) and died on 30 August 1978 in Liss, Hempshire, United Kingdom. Zygalski\u2019s parents were Micha\u0142 Zygalski who run a tailor shop in Pznan\u00a0and Stanis\u0142awa Kielisz. He attended the St Mary Magdalene Gymnasium in Pozna\u0144 from which he graduated in 1926. Later that year\u00a0Zygalski entered the Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences of Pozna\u0144 University. He passed his final master’s degree examinations in\u00a0December\u00a01931.<\/p>\n

After attending a course on the basics of cryptology course orgised by the Polish Cypher Bureau in January 1929, he worked for the Pozna\u0144 Branch of Cypher Bureau until it was disbanded in the summer of 1932. In September 1932 he began working for the Cypher Bureau in Warsaw. He worked there together with Marian Rejewski and Jerzy R\u00f3\u017cycki on decyphering German Navy code. After Rejewski reconstructed the Enigma machine Zygalski together with R\u00f3\u017cycki joined Rejewski in working on devising the method of decrypting messages sent encoded by Enigma.<\/p>\n

In late 1938, in response to growing complexities in German encryption procedures, Zygalski designed the \u2018perforated sheets\u2019, also known as \u2018Zygalski sheets\u2019, a manual grid-based cardboard system used to determine Enigma\u2019s settings. Zygalski sheets, together with reconstructed version of the Enigma machine and other findings were passed to the British in July 1939 and were later used at Bletchley Park, the British center for codebreaking and cryptanalysis during the Second World War.<\/p>\n

In September, following the German attack on Poland, Zygalski,\u00a0Rejewski, and R\u00f3zycki\u00a0were told to evacuate from Warsaw. With German armies attacking from the west, they went east crossing the border into Romania on\u00a017\u00a0September. From there they made their way to France. In\u00a0October\u00a01939, Zygalski, together with the other two Polish mathematicians, began decoding German messages at a decoding centre \u2018Bruno\u2019 at Ch\u00e2teau de Vignolles in Gretz-Armainvillers northeast of Paris.<\/p>\n

As a result of the German attack on France Bruno was evacuated on\u00a09\u00a0June 1940. On\u00a024\u00a0June Zygalski and his two colleagues were moved to Algeria. They returned to Vichy France in September 1940. They were based at a decoding center \u2018Cadix\u2019 outside the town of Uz\u00e8s in southern France which was in operation until 1942. During that time they were also required to spend some time working at a decoding centre in Algeria where they were gathering information in preparation for the Allied invasion of North Africa.\u00a0On\u00a09\u00a0January\u00a01942, R\u00f3\u017cycki died\u00a0when the ship he was on sank while crossing the Mediterranean from Algiers to France.<\/p>\n

Following the German occupation of Vichy France in\u00a0November\u00a01942, Zygalski and\u00a0Rejewski had to flee again. In\u00a0January\u00a01943 they reached the Spanish border accompanied by a guide who robbed them at gunpoint during this journey. Once in Spain, Zygalski and\u00a0Rejewski\u00a0were arrested and from January to May 1943 were held in prison in S\u00e9o de Urgel and Lerida. On\u00a024\u00a0May they were released and sent to Madrid. From there they traveled to Portugal to eventually find there their way via Gibraltar to Britain where they arrived in August\u00a01943.<\/p>\n

Once in Britain, Zygalski and\u00a0Rejewski\u00a0became part of the Polish battalion stationed at Boxmoor near London. They did no further work on the Enigma codes but they did work on breaking other German cyphers for the rest of the war. It remains unclear why the two Polish mathematicians were not allowed to join the work of decoding Enigma messages carried by Bletchley Park, particularly since they had collaborated with the British while in France.<\/p>\n

After the war ended Zygalski, decided to remain in Britain working as a lecturer in mathematics at the University of Surrey (between 1956 and 1966 known as Battersea College of Technology, and before that as Battersea Polytechnic Institute).\u00a0 His academic carrier ended in 1968 due to health problems. In 1977 he was awarded an honorary title by the Polish University Abroad in London for his achievements. He died on 30 August 1978 in\u00a0Liss, Hampshire,\u00a0United Kingdom. His body was cremated and the ashes were scattered at the Garden of Remembrance at the crematorium in Chichester, West Sussex.<\/p>\n

On 6 September\u00a0 2019, at the Church of St. Peter and St. Paul in Krakow, a ceremony was held to commemorate Polish cryptologists, Marian Rejewski, Jerzy R\u00f3\u017cycki, and Henryk Zygalski. A memorial sarcophagus was erected at the National Pantheon in the vault of the church, containing urns with soil from places associated with the death or burial of Polish cryptologists, i.e. Pow\u0105zki Cemetery in Warsaw, the bottom of the Mediterranean Sea,\u00a0 Chichester<\/p>\n

Bibliography<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong>Bauer F. L., Decrypted Secrets. Methods and Maxims of Cryptology<\/em>, (New York 2002)<\/p>\n

Bertrand G. Enigma ou la plus grande \u00e9nigme de la guerre 1939\u20131945<\/em>, (Paris 1973)<\/p>\n

Deavours C. A., \u2018Comments to \u201cHow Polish Mathematicians Deciphered the Enigma\u201d
\nby Marian Rejewski\u2019, Annals of the History of Computing<\/em>, 3 (1981), 229\u2013234<\/p>\n

Freedman M., Unravelling Enigma. Winning the Code War at Station X<\/em>, (Barnsley 2000)<\/p>\n

Gaj K., Szyfr Enigmy \u2013 metody z\u0142amania<\/em>, (Warszawa 1989)<\/p>\n

Garlinski J., Enigma \u2013 tajemnice drugiej wojny \u015bwiatowej<\/em>, (Lublin 1999)<\/p>\n

Grajek M., Enigma. Bli\u017cej prawdy<\/em>, (Pozna\u0144 2010)<\/p>\n

Hodges A., Alan Turing: The Enigma<\/em>, (New York 1983)<\/p>\n

Kahn, D.,\u00a0 The Codebreakers<\/em>, (New York 1967)<\/p>\n

Kozaczuk W., W kr\u0119gu Enigmy<\/em>, (Warszawa 1979)<\/p>\n

Rejewski M. (1980-2): \u2018Jak matematycy polscy rozszyfrowali Enigm\u0119\u2019, Wiadomo \u0301sci Matema-
\ntyczne,<\/em> 23 (1980), 1\u201328<\/p>\n

Sebag-Montefiore H., Enigma \u2013 The Battle for the Code<\/em>, (London 2000)<\/p>\n

Woytak R., On the Border of War and Peace: Polish Intelligence and Diplomacy in 1937\u20131939 and the Origins of the Ultra Secret<\/em>, (New York 1979)<\/p>\n

Turing D., X, Y and Z: The Real Story of How Enigma Was Broken, \u00a0<\/em>(History Press 2018)<\/p>\n