At the back History
UNSUNG HEROES David Forfar discusses the role of Polish cryptologists – including a would-be actuary – in cracking Enigma during the Second World War
T
he 8th of May marked the 75th anniversary of the guns falling silent in Europe. This year, the wartime cryptography centre Bletchley Park had been due to hold an exhibition celebrating wartime cryptography – but COVID-19 intervened. It is not well known, at least not in the UK, that the first cryptologist to break the German military ‘Enigma’ coding machine of the Second World War was not Alan Turing, nor any British or French cryptologist, but Marian Rejewski of the Polish Cipher Bureau. He accomplished this in 1932, seven years before Alan Turing started to work at Bletchley Park. It was an astonishing feat of cryptographic virtuosity, as the best British and French cryptologists had been unable to break Enigma. The German cryptologists considered Enigma to be unbreakable. That Rejewski possessed one of the finest cryptological minds of his generation was confirmed by the eminent US cryptologist David Kahn, who described Rejewski’s achievements as “one of the finest in the history of the art”.
The road not taken Many British actuaries are probably unaware that when Rejewski graduated from university he had intended to
Monument – Marian Rejewski's bench. Bydgoszcz, KuyavianPomeranian Voivodeship, Poland
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