The First Enigma Codebreaker
Marian Rejewski who passed the baton to Alan Turing
By Robert Gawłowski
The history of Enigma is of interest to many researchers and authors on an international scale. The capture and unraveling of the most hidden secret of the army of the Third Reich that was decisive for the fate of one of the greatest armed conflicts in the history of the world appeals to everyone from the avid historian to Hollywood.. So far, other authors’ attention has focused on the technical and cryptological issues of Enigma functioning, the fate of the Bletchley Park facility, or Alan Turing’s story. Most of attention was devoted to the events during the Second World War and it is the time frame of this conflict that usually begins and ends the story of Enigma.
The First Enigma Codebreaker raises an issue that has never been discussed in greater detail in both international and Polish literature, the story of Marian Rejewski. This biography answers the questions: in what conditions was the “Enigma conqueror” brought up, in what circumstances did he managed to decode the machine, what happened to him during the Second World War and why he never ended up in Bletchley Park, what price he had to pay for his discovery in the communist Poland and what he did to make the world know the true history of Enigma.
This is the story of a man who made a revolution in cryptology, about the rivalry between man and machine, about powerful history affecting individual lives, and about the life of Marian Rejewski whose story is still waiting to be presented to the public.
Vintage Airfix Review:
No doubt, reading this book, which describes the life of an unsung hero of World War II, is a worthwhile endeavor.
An historical account of Marian Rejewski’s pre-war life, his struggles in war-torn Poland, and his enormous contributions to cryptography leading to Bletchley Park’s work on the Enigma.
This is a very interesting and well written book.
