Enigma online

The sea constitutes a symbolic theme in Henryk Zygalski’s biography. It comes up in the cryptologist’s sentimental journey to his family memories from Kołobrzeg in 1917 and Hel in 1930. Thanks to Henryk’s letters and photos we are able to recreate his relationship with the people close to him.

You are writing that it is a backwater and that your room is going to be even smaller – can you give me the name of the place? Is it in Pomerania – somewhere near Kołobrzeg?

An extract of a letter written by Henryk Zygalski to his sister Monika in 1959 raises many questions. After so many years we are still wondering where Henryk Zygalski’s sister was spending her holiday and, more importantly, why the Enigma codebreaker mentioned Kołobrzeg. Was there any connection between him and the seaside resort? Did the sea play an important role in Zygalski’s life? Could an analysis of this issue tell us more about his relationship with the people close to him?

 

Zygalski’s letter to his sister Monika is part of a longer correspondence between the siblings. Zygalski probably wrote it on 24^th June, the longest day of the year, at the time when nature was waking up after winter sleep. July was drawing close, and along with it – the summer holiday season. The letter informs us that Monika and her husband Ignacy were planning to spend holiday by the Polish sea. The previous letter must have included some criticism of the place chosen for the summer break. It was probably a small town which did not offer many tourist attractions since Zygalski described it as ‘backwater’. Likewise, the room also left a lot to be desired. However, it is the context connected to the location that is more important. It raises a question: why did Zygalski ask about Kołobrzeg and its surrounding?

The fierce fighting in the winter of 1945 destroyed 95 per cent of the city (according to the official website of the city of Kołobrzeg/ history of the city). It was not just the architecture that was destroyed. After the war, the authorities needed to design new municipal structures. New inhabitants came to Kołobrzeg from different corners of the country, contributing to its reconstruction. However, in 1959 the work was still underway. So was the work on the rebuilding of the smaller towns in the vicinity of Kołobrzeg. That is why the fact that Zygalski described the town as ‘backwater’ in his letter is not surprising. It reflects the state of post-war emptiness, which was characteristic of the area.

 

The birth of the seaside resort

It was not always like that. In the 19^th century, when Kołobrzeg had a German name – Collberg, people discovered sunbathing – an activity which still remains very popular in the city today. The health benefits of sea bathing were also noticed. An innovator of the modern form of spending time by the Baltic Sea, a customs solicitor from Poznań, Jan Henryk Ludwik von Held, highlighted the water’s healing properties (Dziemba 2018: 117). It was a revolution for the city by the Parsęta River. Until then, Kołobrzeg had been a fortress and sea bathing had had to be consulted in advance with a garrison commander (Dziemba 2018: 117).

Over the years the attitude towards the new form of recreation began to change. In 1825 the city authorities issued an important document regulating the time and place of bathing. One could bathe in the sea between 5 a.m. and 9 a.m. and then between 5 p.m. and 9 p.m. Special sections for men and women were designated and it was prohibited to approach the swimming area of the opposite sex during the opening hours. There were also strict rules governing beach fashion. Bathing suits had to cover the body from neck to knees (Dziemba 2018: 118).

What is more, seaside infrastructure was created. A pier was built as well as the Coastal Palace (Strandschloß) surrounded with lush vegetation and colourful flowerbeds. The existing photographs from this period present well-maintained parks and squares where one could take strolls and make new acquaintances. Extensive research and promotion of health resort treatment started. Doctors specialising in this field began to come to Kołobrzeg (Dziemba 2018: 118).

The appeal of the city did not escape attention. The forerunners of today’s health resort patients began to visit it to take care of their health as well as to bathe in the sea and socialise. However, at the turn of the 20^th century not everyone could afford such a form of recreation, which is why it was mainly the social elites that visited Kołobrzeg.

Henryk Zygalski came from a wealthy Poznań family of tailors. His parents’ profession provided not only income but also probably connections to the German upper crust living in Poznań at the beginning of the 20^th century. All ladies needed fashionable and beautiful dresses, and Henryk’s parents could provide them with these. Because the Zygalskis maintained relationships with the elite they may have  participated in conversations about the latest global trends, for example, concerning modern recreation. In 1859 the Western Railway was built. This was a game changer for Poznań. The city gained a new railway connection to Kołobrzeg, whereas its inhabitants gained access to a new form of recreation at the seaside resort.

The Zygalskis’ holiday

Thus, it is understandable that Henryk Zygalski mentioned Kołobrzeg in a letter to his sister Monika which he sent years later. An answer to the pressing question was given by the cryptologist’s close relative Anna Zygalska-Cannon. In the family’s private archive she found photographs proving that the Enigma codebreaker had had some connection to the coastal city. The unique black-and-white photographs from 1917 depict the Zygalski Family on a beach in Kołobrzeg. The first photo presents the family gathered around a wicker beach chair. Henryk’s father and an unknown man are sitting in the chair. In front of them, on the sand, is sitting Maria Zygalska with her children – Henryk and Monika. Henryk is wearing a collar on his neck, with a characteristic pattern found on a navy uniform. It is probably navy blue with white stripes. A similar pattern can be seen on his mum’s outfit. Apart from an elegant, lacy blouse and a skirt, Maria is wearing a jacket with dark stripes against a white background in the place where the arms and sleeves are. Was the similarity between the pattern on Maria’s dress and the one on Henryk’s outfit intentional? We do not know this but their outfit definitely refers to the naval style.

The next photograph depicts the siblings playing in front of the wicker beach chair. Henryk is dressed in a white shirt and knee-long shorts and he is holding a wooden boat. We can infer from the photo that he was a rather quiet child. His sister might have had a completely different personality. She is pictured wearing a white dress with polka dot and a large black bow on her head. She is briskly holding a small shovel and digging. She probably built the sand castle whose outline is visible right in front of her. The two photographs seem to reflect the contrasting personalities of the brother and sister. Looking at Henryk Zygalski as a child we can see a quiet, a bit withdrawn boy who stays close to his mother’s side. In contrast, his sister is depicted in the photo in front of them lying relaxed on the beach, smiling and looking straight at the camera; sand falling through her hands. In the photo we can see the confidence and the energy of this young girl. It stands in stark contrast to her brother – a cryptological genius who only later in his life began to smile broadly and honestly at the camera.

 

The role of photography

For centuries artists worked on registering the surrounding world which keeps changing in the blink of an eye. Photography is one of the ways of documenting reality. It was invented circa 1827 and then functioned in the form of a daguerreotype (Radwaniak 2023). In 1917 only few had access to it. It was expensive and, thus, having a photograph of oneself was a rarity. At first, paintings served the function of a visual recording. Only later did cameras begin to oust them.

The holiday photos of the Zygalski Family in Kołobrzeg from 1917 are posed family portraits because the family members are carefully positioned in front of the camera. These photographs were not spontaneous but they were clearly taken by a professional whose work was still expensive at the time. The photos were probably taken by a photographer working on the beach who offered tourists this kind of a souvenir from their visit. Such photos could also become postcards, as in the case of the Zygalski Family’s photos from Kołobrzeg. There is a note on the back of the photos saying: ‘Greetings from Kołobrzeg. Michał, Maria and children.’ The postcard is addressed to Bolesław Zygalski, the brother of Henryk Zygalski’s father.

On the first glance, the photograph does not seem to show anything surprising. However, that is not true. The high-performance camera lens managed to capture one more intriguing figure – a boy who was probably of a similar age as the siblings. He is shyly peeking out from behind the wicker beach chair, looking at the camera lens. Who was he? Nobody knows. Perhaps he was someone from the Zygalskis’ inner circle or just a curious boy who wanted to catch a glimpse of the camera, as such devices were rarely encountered.

Another important aspect is the place where the photos were taken. In the photograph presenting the siblings the camera lens captured some ladies in white summer dresses walking along the beach. Behind them there is an architectural structure – a high brick wall with a smooth surface at the bottom of the sandy bed, and, above it, divided regularly by low columns. Behind it there are trees and a fragment of a building. Today this wall does not exist in the coastal landscape of Kołobrzeg. The pre-war photographs show that the coastal strip was not developed. There was a road surrounded by lush vegetation leading from the Coastal Palace (Strandschloß) to the lighthouse. The dunes overgrown with tall grass merged with tall trees. Despite coastal architecture, the beach retained its own wild character. The only place where the wall strengthened the dunes and the surface was the wall separating the beach from the Coastal Palace. The photograph was probably taken there: closer to the northern façade of the Palace and its western corner, near the wooden pier.

Innocent sea of tremendous importance

A wooden boat held by nine-year-old Henryk Zygalski may seem an innocent toy but it can also be viewed as a symbol of a journey. The longest journey that Zygalski embarked on in his life began at the outbreak of the Second World War. His escape from the country was not easy: first he travelled by train, then crossed the mountains on foot to reach France and finally got to England where he settled and started a new life.

Why was this episode from Zygalski’s life his biggest journey? Because it was extremely dangerous due to the threat of being captured by the enemy and revealing the secret of the breaking of the Enigma code. Physical exhaustion, deceitful guides and an arrest warrant for the three cryptologists issued by the Germans in the 1940s did not help (Turing 2019: 146-148, 152-154, 249-251, 254-256). There was no time to rest on the beach. Only when the mathematician settled in England for good did he return to spending time by the sea. Henryk Zygalski’s rich collection of photographs includes many photos of him by the sea. The sea returned to his life.

Zygalski’s great love, Bertha Blofield, accompanied him on his journeys to the sea. They were often photographed together, laughing, walking along the beach and sailing a boat. Two photos taken at Harlech in Wales in 1946 present them separately but we can see they both managed to dip their feet in the Irish Sea. Although the photo was taken in June, it must have been very cold that day. There is fog in the background which hides the mountains. Judging by the expression on their faces, the water was too cold for Bertha. Henryk, on the other hand, is sending a broad smile towards the photographer.

From Zygalski’s War Diary we can infer that he and Bertha met at the beginning of 1944. Suddenly, his short, meticulous notes began to mention dinners, bike trips and classical music concerts they attended together. Photos from the Irish Sea are probably their early pictures because they were taken two years after they first met. In an article titled ‘My uncle Enigma’ (published in a magazine The England) Bertha’s nephew Jeremy Russell admitted that how they met is still a mystery. I think it is not the only one in Henryk Zygalski’s life.

Other coastal photographs of the couple present cheerful moments, for example, in La Couarde-sur-Mer in France in 1953 when they made three attempts at riding a water bike. The note on the back of the photo left by Zygalski indicates that there were many obstacles, including even big waves which made it impossible to sail to the sea. The note makes us feel as if the author himself was telling us this story. The photography was taken by Bertha Blofield who was the author of many coastal images of the cryptologist.

Some of the photos were taken spontaneously like the one in which Henryk Zygalski is captured with his friend Sylwester Palluth surfing on a board. Zygalski’s friend is barely visible in the photo frame. Because of that Zygalski seems to be floating alone on water, sitting on the edge of the board. On the back of the photo he wrote: ‘When Mrs B. is taking a photo, you never know where you are going to end up. This time Sylwek was the unlucky one.’ At the time of analogue cameras the result of photos remained a surprise until the moment they were developed. Sometimes it was a funny surprise.

Nevertheless, Bertha had a knack for photography, especially for composition. If we look closely at Zygalski’s photo taken in the Italian town of Castiglioncello in September 1966, we can notice something interesting. On the left-hand side of the photo there is a wall which divides the composition in two due to its structure and texture. Closer to the right edge it is coarse and fills the whole frame. In the middle of the photo, however, its texture changes and it becomes smooth. Besides, the structure begins to resemble stairs, its edges are visible and run down to the bottom of the photo. In front of the wall, in the middle of this difference in texture, is standing Henryk Zygalski. His right hand is resting on his hip. The structure of the wall forces the eye of the person looking at the photo to move diagonally, from left to right. In the distance we can notice the sea – the essence of this photo. This composition provides some space for the person looking at the photo. It directs his or her eye to the place the author intended. Henryk Zygalski probably did not even think that his pose made him look like a host introducing the person looking at the photo into his own show. He wrote: ‘How this sun is burning. I am standing at the top of stone steps – stairs leading down to the beach.’ He probably is standing aside so that the camera lens could capture the landscape. However, for the people looking at the photo the fact that they can take part in this trip to the beach through visual tricks is a nice touch.

Coastal photographs encourage us to look deeper bearing in mind the perspective of Zygalski’s biography. We need to look at the sea as a symbol. For Henryk Zygalski it could be a nostalgic reference to his family memories and holidays like the one in Kołobrzeg in 1917. But not only that.

The Zygalskis liked to spend time by the Baltic Sea, which at the time was already Polish. Two family photographs taken in Hel in 1930 prove that. In one of them the family, dressed in bathrobes, is walking confidently probably towards the beach. On the left-hand side there is young Henryk Zygalski. His sister Monika is walking by his left arm.

The time when the photo was taken is important because back then Zygalski was already working as a mathematician at the Poznań branch of the Cipher Bureau. What is more, the figure emerging from behind the siblings – a serviceman in uniform – is also interesting. He is probably captured in the photo by accident but, remembering Zygalski’s biography, this anonymous figure could remind us of the breaking of the Enigma code, which was a military and national secret, as well as of the suffering connected to the Second World War, which young Henryk had to endure.

After the war, when Henryk settled for good in England, he was separated from his family by numerous seas. Nevertheless, he never forgot about his relatives. He kept up a correspondence with them, telling them about his everyday life and some interesting facts which had not reached Poland as well as enquiring about their lives and health. In the letter from which this analysis began he described pepper: ‘It is a green, yellow or red fruit – a little bit like tomatoes – but slightly bigger (two times longer and thicker!).’ He sent his family parcels with treats and gifts. Jeremy Russell mentions them in his memoir. He remembers that Henryk Zygalski carefully wrapped them in beautiful colourful paper (Russell 2024: 34-37).

Zygalski never stopped missing his family. In a letter to his sister Monika from 28^th October 1967 he engages in an emotional inner monologue. The siblings were in a difficult and sad situation when one of their parents fell gravely ill. It is clear that they needed each other at that difficult time. In the letter Henryk says: ‘You are telling me, Monika, that you often feel the absence of your brother who could advise you.’ The close bond between the siblings is highlighted. Each of them misses the other. However, after the quoted words, Zygalski enlists a series of reasons why he did not return to Poland. These reflect his internal conflict between what he should do and a rational assessment of the political situation in the post-war Poland. The situation was difficult, not easy to find a solution to. The distance between the siblings made it even worse.

The sea was also a source of pain for Zygalski. It took his best friend Jerzy Różycki who worked with him on the breaking of the Enigma code. On 6^th January 1942, when he was returning to France from a secret centre in Algiers, Różycki came aboard the steamship Lamoricière. During that journey, a storm broke and the ship sank (Szczuka 2023: 107). Thanks to the accounts of the Polish cryptologists who accompanied Różycki we know that the ship began to sink just after 10 p.m. The last information about Jerzy says that he wanted to go outside to the hull (Turing 2019: 224-225). The Mediterranean Sea claimed many lives that day. Henryk Zygalski was the one who broke the tragic news to Różycki’s wife in a letter (Szczuka 2023: 110).

‘Is it in Pomerania – somewhere near Kołobrzeg?’ This is a question which Henryk Zygalski asked his sister in a letter in 1959. It is also the question which inspired me to ask another: how did he know about this place? The mystery was solved thanks to Mrs Anna Zygalska-Cannon. Photos from the private family archive she shared present the nine-year-old cryptologist spending holiday with his parents and sister in a coastal resort quite different from the one we know today. Family photos from Kołobrzeg were the missing element in our analysis of the connection between Zygalski and the sea. Many of the photos of Zygalski taken then prove that the cryptologist liked to spend time by the sea. On the other hand, the sea may have had a symbolic meaning in his life. It may have symbolised all that was distant, like his family, or lost like his friend.

Let the final glance at the photograph of Henryk Zygalski at the Walmer Castle, taken in 1957, help me sum up my analysis. It presents Zygalski posing for a photo with old, historic cannons. He is standing behind one of them, leaning against it with folded arms. Between the cannons there are two piles of cannonballs resembling small pyramids. The landscape of the faint outline of the North Sea completes the picture. The battle elements bring to mind historical battles, fighting and defence. In the context of Zygalski’s life they may highlight his story of leaving the country in 1939. The sea only emphasises the distance between him and his country and family. It is said that everything the sea takes, it gives back. The water may not have returned to Henryk Zygalski what it took but by crossing the sea to reach Great Britain, he met Bertha Blofield.

Finally, where did Henryk’s sister Monika spend holiday with her family in 1959? What was this ‘backwater’ on the Polish coast? After so many years the cryptologist’s niece Mrs Maria Bryschak, Monika’s daughter, still remembers it well. The answer is simple: in Trzęsacz. The family spent holiday on the beach in Trzęsacz with the remains of an old medieval church on a cliff.

 

Kamila Pluta / Enigma Cipher Centre

 

Bibliography

1. Dziemba, Robert. 2018. Historia Kołobrzegu dla średniozaawansowanych [The history of Kołobrzeg 2.0]. Kołobrzeg: Kamera.
2. Turing, Dermot. 2019. Prawdziwa historia złamania szyfru Enigmy [XY & Z. The real story of how Enigma was broken]. Poznań: Dom Wydawniczy Rebis.
3. Szczuka, Elżbieta. 2023. Jerzy Różycki. Jeden z pogromców „Enigmy” [Jerzy Różycki. One of the Enigma codebreakers]. Warszawa: Oficyna Wydawnicza RYTM.
4. Russell, Jeremy. “My uncle and Enigma”, This England, Autumn 2024: 34-37.

 

Sources

1. Henryk Zygalski’s letter to his sister Monika from 1959. The Enigma Cipher Centre.
2. Henryk Zygalski’s letter to his sister Monika from 28^th October 1967. The Enigma Cipher Centre.
3. Henryk Zygalski’s War Diary. The Enigma Cipher Centre.

 

Online sources

1. Radwaniak, Barbara. Początki fotografii: jak powstały pierwsze zdjęcia? [The beginnings of photography: how were the first photos taken] (https://histmag.org/Poczatki-fotografii-jak-powstaly-pierwsze-zdjecia-25276) (date of access: 15th October 2024).
2. The official website of the city of Kołobrzeg (https://kolobrzeg.eu/historia-miasta) (date of access: 10th September 2024).
3. Photo of the coast from the 1920s, Kołobrzeg (https://fotopolska.eu/929292,foto.html?s=1.44&cx=852&cy=690) (date of access: 10^th October 2024).