Antoni Palluth
Encyclopedia
Antoni Palluth was a civilian employee in the German section (BS-4) of the Polish
General Staff
's interbellum Cipher Bureau
.
graduate of the Warsaw Polytechnic. In January 1929, he was one of the instructors in a cryptology course organized by the Cipher Bureau, at Poznań University, which was attended by selected mathematics
students. The students included future Cipher Bureau
civilian employees Marian Rejewski
, Jerzy Różycki
and Henryk Zygalski
.
In the 1930's, Palluth was one of the four directors of the AVA Radio Company
in Warsaw
, which produced cryptologic equipment designed by the Cipher Bureau.
In March 1943, while attempting to cross the border from German-occupied
France
into Spain
, Palluth was captured by the Germans along with the Cipher Bureau
's chief, Lt. Col. Gwido Langer
, its German section's chief, Major Maksymilian Ciężki
, and civilians Edward Fokczyński
and Kazimierz Gaca.
Palluth died during an Allied air raid at the German Sachsenhausen concentration camp.
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
General Staff
General Staff
A military staff, often referred to as General Staff, Army Staff, Navy Staff or Air Staff within the individual services, is a group of officers and enlisted personnel that provides a bi-directional flow of information between a commanding officer and subordinate military units...
's interbellum Cipher Bureau
Biuro Szyfrów
The Biuro Szyfrów was the interwar Polish General Staff's agency charged with both cryptography and cryptology ....
.
Life
Palluth was a civil-engineerCivil engineering
Civil engineering is a professional engineering discipline that deals with the design, construction, and maintenance of the physical and naturally built environment, including works like roads, bridges, canals, dams, and buildings...
graduate of the Warsaw Polytechnic. In January 1929, he was one of the instructors in a cryptology course organized by the Cipher Bureau, at Poznań University, which was attended by selected mathematics
Mathematics
Mathematics is the study of quantity, space, structure, and change. Mathematicians seek out patterns and formulate new conjectures. Mathematicians resolve the truth or falsity of conjectures by mathematical proofs, which are arguments sufficient to convince other mathematicians of their validity...
students. The students included future Cipher Bureau
Biuro Szyfrów
The Biuro Szyfrów was the interwar Polish General Staff's agency charged with both cryptography and cryptology ....
civilian employees Marian Rejewski
Marian Rejewski
Marian Adam Rejewski was a Polish mathematician and cryptologist who in 1932 solved the plugboard-equipped Enigma machine, the main cipher device used by Germany...
, Jerzy Różycki
Jerzy Rózycki
Jerzy Witold Różycki was a Polish mathematician and cryptologist who worked at breaking German Enigma-machine ciphers.-Life:Różycki was born in what is now Ukraine, the fourth and youngest child of Zygmunt Różycki, a pharmacist and graduate of Saint Petersburg University, and Wanda, née Benita. ...
and Henryk Zygalski
Henryk Zygalski
Henryk Zygalski was a Polish mathematician and cryptologist who worked at breaking German Enigma ciphers before and during World War II.-Life:...
.
In the 1930's, Palluth was one of the four directors of the AVA Radio Company
AVA Radio Company
The AVA Radio Company was a Polish electronics firm founded in 1929 in Warsaw, Poland. AVA designed and built radio equipment for the Polish General Staff's Cipher Bureau, which was responsible for the radio communications of the General Staff's Oddział II .After the Cipher Bureau's...
in Warsaw
Warsaw
Warsaw is the capital and largest city of Poland. It is located on the Vistula River, roughly from the Baltic Sea and from the Carpathian Mountains. Its population in 2010 was estimated at 1,716,855 residents with a greater metropolitan area of 2,631,902 residents, making Warsaw the 10th most...
, which produced cryptologic equipment designed by the Cipher Bureau.
In March 1943, while attempting to cross the border from German-occupied
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
into Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
, Palluth was captured by the Germans along with the Cipher Bureau
Biuro Szyfrów
The Biuro Szyfrów was the interwar Polish General Staff's agency charged with both cryptography and cryptology ....
's chief, Lt. Col. Gwido Langer
Gwido Langer
Lt. Col. Karol Gwido Langer was chief of the Polish General Staff's Cipher Bureau from at least mid-1931.-Life:...
, its German section's chief, Major Maksymilian Ciężki
Maksymilian Ciezki
Maksymilian Ciężki was the head of the German section of the Polish Cipher Bureau in the 1930s, during which time the Bureau decrypted German Enigma messages....
, and civilians Edward Fokczyński
Edward Fokczyński
Edward Fokczyński was one of the four directors of the AVA Radio Company, an electronics firm established in Warsaw, Poland, in 1929. AVA produced radio equipment for the Polish General Staff's Cipher Bureau, which was responsible for the radio communications of the General Staff's Intelligence...
and Kazimierz Gaca.
Palluth died during an Allied air raid at the German Sachsenhausen concentration camp.
See also
- Biuro SzyfrówBiuro SzyfrówThe Biuro Szyfrów was the interwar Polish General Staff's agency charged with both cryptography and cryptology ....
(Cipher Bureau) - Marian RejewskiMarian RejewskiMarian Adam Rejewski was a Polish mathematician and cryptologist who in 1932 solved the plugboard-equipped Enigma machine, the main cipher device used by Germany...
- Enigma machineEnigma machineAn Enigma machine is any of a family of related electro-mechanical rotor cipher machines used for the encryption and decryption of secret messages. Enigma was invented by German engineer Arthur Scherbius at the end of World War I...
- Cryptanalysis of the EnigmaCryptanalysis of the EnigmaCryptanalysis of the Enigma enabled the western Allies in World War II to read substantial amounts of secret Morse-coded radio communications of the Axis powers that had been enciphered using Enigma machines. This yielded military intelligence which, along with that from other decrypted Axis radio...
- UltraUltraUltra was the designation adopted by British military intelligence in June 1941 for wartime signals intelligence obtained by "breaking" high-level encrypted enemy radio and teleprinter communications at the Government Code and Cypher School at Bletchley Park. "Ultra" eventually became the standard...