Jerzy Różycki

(b. 24 July 1909, Olshana, near Kyiv; d. 9 January 1942 at sea near the Balearic Islands)

Różycki studied mathematics from 1927 to 1932 in the Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Science at Poznań University, obtaining his master’s degree in 1932. In March 1929, alongside Marian Rejewski and Henryk Zygalski, he attended a secret course in the fundamentals of cryptology, organised by Poznań University and the Cipher Bureau of the Polish Armed Forces. From 1932 to 1937 he studied geography at the same university, gaining a second master’s degree. In autumn 1929 he was employed at the radio intelligence branch in the Poznań citadel, and in September 1932 he was moved to the General Staff in Warsaw. In December 1932, he, Rejewski and Zygalski became the first to break the code of the German Enigma encryption machine. After the outbreak of war he was evacuated to Romania, France, Algeria, and again to France, and continued to work in decryption. He died in the sinking of the French ship Lamoricière, on which he was returning from the Algerian branch office of the Cadix decryption centre.

Roman Murawski

L. Maligranda, W. Wnuk, 100 lat matematyki na uniwersytecie w Poznaniu 1919–2019, Wyd. Nauk. UAM, Poznań 2021, pp. 493–494.