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Enigma, les décrypteurs polonais et les services secrets français, 1932–1945

Publication date: 07.03.2019

History Notebooks, 2019, Issue 146 (1), pp. 209 - 217

https://doi.org/10.4467/20844069PH.19.011.9575

Authors

Jean-Charles Foucrier
Université Paris-Sorbonne – Paris IV
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5623-571X Orcid
All publications →

Titles

Enigma, les décrypteurs polonais et les services secrets français, 1932–1945

Abstract

Enigma, the Polish codebreakers and the French secret service, 1932–1945

In the early 1930’s, the Polish codebreakers succeeded while all the others failed: they broke the Enigma. Three young and brilliant mathematicians, Marian Rejewski, Henryk Zygalski and Jerzy Różycki managed to read the German cyphertexts from 1933 to as late as 1939. But this huge success remained a secret for a long time, unknown in France and England. After the fall of Poland in September 1939, the three mathematicians linked their fate with the French secret service and kept breaking the Enigma code. Again, following the French defeat of June 1940, they experienced exile and irremediably sank into oblivion. Today, the story of the Polish codebreakers and the French secret service remains very little known in France, although their work proved decisive in the Allied victory during the Second World War.

References

Sources

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Information

Information: History Notebooks, 2019, Issue 146 (1), pp. 209 - 217

Article type: Original article

Titles:

Polish:

Enigma, les décrypteurs polonais et les services secrets français, 1932–1945

English:

Enigma, the Polish codebreakers and the French secret service, 1932–1945

Authors

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5623-571X

Jean-Charles Foucrier
Université Paris-Sorbonne – Paris IV
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5623-571X Orcid
All publications →

Université Paris-Sorbonne – Paris IV

Published at: 07.03.2019

Article status: Open

Licence: CC BY-NC-ND  licence icon

Percentage share of authors:

Jean-Charles Foucrier (Author) - 100%

Article corrections:

-

Publication languages:

French