English Section

Polish film reveals new facts on Nazi Enigma machine

25.11.2019 13:21
A Polish documentary called "Enigma .. we have news" reveals fresh facts about the Enigma machine that Nazi Germany used to encode military and trade communications during World War II.
Audio
An Enigma machine on display at a museum
An Enigma machine on display at a museum Photo: Elgaard [CC BY-SA 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/)]

Polish mathematician Henryk Zygalski, along with fellow mathematicians Marian Rejewski and Jerzy Różycki, cracked the Enigma code before the outbreak of the war and then passed on the information to Britain.

The breaking of the code was one of Poland’s most important contributions to the Allied victory.

Deciphering the German system is believed to have shortened World War II by two years and saved countless lives.

Klaudiusz Madeja spoke about the Polish documentary to cryptologist Marek Grajek, who in 2016 discovered new facts about the Enigma machine.