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Meet the First American Military Spouse Codebreaker
This four-rotor Enigma machine is what German Naval traffic began transmitting on in 1943. (U.S. Navy/Moneé Cottman)
Historical fiction plays up places like Bletchley Park in Buckinghamshire, England, as romantic and exciting despite the very real threat of Nazi invasion and bombing during World War II. Women made up about 75% of the workforce at Bletchley Park, which consisted of jobs operating cryptographic and communications machinery and translating documents. Some even were breaking code with the legendary Dilly Knox, who helped decrypt the Zimmermann telegram that brought the U.S. into World War I and broke the German Naval and Abwehr Enigma codes during World War II.
Hillsdale Collegian
Alumna nicknamed âmother of cryptologyâ gets PBS documentary
Hillsdale in 1915, gets an episode in PBSâs
âAmerican ExpeÂrienceâ series | Winona Yearbook.
Hillsdale alumna Elizebeth Smith Friedmanâs life story came to the small screen this month when she was feaÂtured in an episode of the PBS docÂuÂmentary series âAmerican Experience.â
The Jan. 11 episode, titled âThe CodeÂbreaker,â focused on the 1915 graduateâs groundÂbreaking conÂtriÂbuÂtions to the art and science of codeÂbreaking, which she developed with her husband, William Friedman, during World War I. They conÂtinued to refine cryptÂanalysis throughout the 20th century by deciÂphering the codes used by orgaÂnized crime synÂdiÂcates during ProÂhiÂbition and later by the Axis powers during World War II.
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While Friedman was brought to an Illinois estate by the wealthy George Fabyan in order to seek the hidden codes in Shakespeare s plays to prove they had been written by Francis Bacon, her ability to recognize sequencing and to break codes led her and her husband to play a role in the American military s fight in World War I, the jailing of gangster bootleggers during Prohibition, and again in the military during World War II.
During the Second World War, Friedman s work focused on a massive Nazi spy ring in South America.
Her story, which includes some college years at the College of Wooster in Ohio, is the focus of the newest installment of the PBS anthology series,
Elizebeth Friedman is the subject of the American Experience documentary The Codebreaker. (PBS)
11 Jan 2021 The Codebreaker, premiering this week on PBS American Experience, tells the story of Elizebeth Friedman, a visionary American codebreaker who established our decryption programs during World War I, helped break the codes used by gangsters during Prohibition and led our efforts to break the Enigma code during World War II.
Wait, you re saying, if this cryptanalyst was so great, how come we ve never heard of her? The Codebreaker delves deep into her story, utilizing government files that weren t declassified until decades after her death to reveal the truth about a person who deserves recognition as a pioneer of American military intelligence.