Andrzej Duda's letter was read at a book promotion at the Polish Embassy in London on Friday which was attended by British journalists and academics.
Dermot Turing's new book, entitled “X, Y & Z: The Real Story of How Enigma Was Broken”, was published by History Press, with a foreword by the Polish Ambassador in the UK Arkady Rzegocki.
In his letter to Turing -- the nephew of cryptologist Alan Turing who British war-time Prime Minister Winston Churchill said shortened WWII by two years by breaking German ciphers -- Duda wrote: “I would like to express my gratitude for your work, which brought into the spotlight the important role that the exceptional Polish mathematicians and codebreakers – Marian Rejewski, Henryk Zygalski and Jerzy Różycki – played in deciphering the Enigma code”.
“For too many years the contribution of the Polish scientists was largely omitted from the mainstream historical narrative about the breaking of the Enigma, and it deserves to be better illuminated and understood,” Duda added.
“As Alan Turing’s nephew, it is admirable that you have been able to openly speak up that your uncle’s achievements would have been considerably slowed down, or perhaps impossible, had it not been for the vital accomplishments of the Polish School of Mathematics”.
At his book promotion in London, Dermot Turing said: “I am thrilled to be launching my new book at the Polish Embassy. Without the work of Polish mathematicians and engineers, the codebreakers at Bletchley Park would have started World War Two on the back foot. It was because the Polish Military Intelligence service shared its most closely-guarded secrets in July 1939 that Bletchley Park, and Alan Turing, were given a head start.”
Rejewski worked with fellow Polish mathematicians Jerzy Różycki and Henryk Zygalski in the 1930s to crack the Enigma code, which was employed by Nazi Germany to encrypt military communications.
The research conducted by the Poles was handed over to the UK at the start of World War II, in 1939, and was used by British cryptologists at Bletchley Park as part of their own work on the Enigma code.
Poles Marian Rejewski, Henryk Zygalski and Jerzy Różycki worked in the 1930s to crack the Enigma code, which was employed by Nazi Germany to encrypt military communications.
The research conducted by the Poles was handed over to the UK at the start of World War II, in 1939, and was used by British cryptologists at Bletchley Park as part of their own work on the Enigma code.
The code was eventually deciphered, contributing to the eventual defeat of Nazi Germany. But the role of the Poles in breaking the code was little known for almost three decades following the war.
(mk/vb)