Polish-Jewish Relations: 1,300 Keyword-Phrase-Indexed Book Reviews (by Jan Peczkis)

Seizing The Enigma: The Race To Break The German U-boat Codes, 1939-1943, by David Kahn. 1998

Non-Polish Author Gives Unstinting Credit for Cracking ENIGMA To Where It Belongs–The Poles

Nowadays, many British productions ignore or downplay the Polish achievement in cracking Enigma. The focus is customarily on gay British mathematician Alan Turing, in an effort to promote acceptance of homosexuality.

POLAK POTRAFI: THE POLES DID IT

In contrast to some English-language books on this subject, Kahn gives credit squarely where it is due. He emphasizes the fact that the Poles cracked the German ENIGMA code, and that “Poland did what no other country had done–and what the Germans believed impossible.” (p. 67). Kahn recognizes the fact that Polish mathematician Marian Rejewski was the “solver of ENIGMA.” (p. 323). He even calls Rejewski one of the “greatest cryptanalysts of all time”. (p. 66).

OTHER WWII-RELATED EVENTS

Kahn emphasizes the codes used by the German Navy, but also touches on other aspects of WWII. He notes the Katyn massacre, wherein the Soviets murdered tens of thousands of disarmed Polish officers and intellectuals. He points to the irony of the Germans exploiting this tragedy for propaganda purposes while at the same time having killed many more Poles and Jews.

Kahn believes that the ULTRA was the greatest WWII secret after the atom bomb. However, he rejects the premise that the cracking of the “invincible” German codes by the Allies enabled them to win the war. Instead, he supposes that the Allied victory in the European theater would have been delayed by about a year, and with much greater casualties, had the Allies not broken the German ciphers.