Unbreakable
Recommended Ages: 10-14
“Never repeat something that you want kept secret” (19).
Cautionary note at the end.
Unbreakable: the Spies Who Cracked the Nazi’s Secret Code is a great nonfiction read for anyone interested in code breaking and World War II. The book is structured in four parts with 50 chapters in all and centers primarily on Polish, English, and French cryptologists. Barone does a wonderful job explaining the connections between different spies, cryptologists, and scientific and technological breakthroughs that lead to cracking the Nazi Enigma.
Germany’s Enigma machine and codes were almost unbreakable, but through the daring and creative ingenuity of several Polish, English, and French men, as well as high-ranking German traitors, codes were able to be deciphered, lives saved, and the war won.
The German Enigma machine “was immensely complicated. Though it was the size and shape of an ordinary typewriter, it was actually an instrument designed to maul coherent messages into incomprehensible clumps of letters” (16). It utilized electrical signals and rotors as part of its complicated system. Barone provides great detail into the technology of the Enigma and the technology created to help try to break it. A budding engineer or student interested in math, would certainly find the machine and the methods to break it interesting. Of particular interest is that it was more a matter of mathematical computations and patterns than linguistics in order to break the coveted code.
The Polish team included Marian Rejewski, Henryk Zygalski, Gwido Langer, Maksymilian Ciezki, Antoni and Jadwiga Palluth. The British team included Alan Turing, Gorgon Welchman, Harry Hinsley, Hugh Alexander, and Joan Clarke. The French team included Gustave Bertrand, Paul Paillole, and Rodolphe Lemoine. The focus on particular Germans included Karl Donitz, Wilhelm Canaris, and Hans-Thilo Schmidt. Throughout the book, Barone introduces and discusses the connections, interactions, success, and set-backs that their work encountered. As can be imagined, she discusses a bit of what led to Hitler’s rise to power and mentions of people being killed. Any gruesome details are omitted, so you don’t have to worry about graphic descriptions that might be too much for your reader.
I certainly learned a lot from this book and really enjoyed the pictures included and details of life on a U-boat, as well the intricacies of politics and the role women played in helping to decipher and run machines. The foundations of what would become digital computers was laid during this time as creative geniuses worked to break Enigma.
There is mention of suicide in the book and in particular related to Hans-Thilo Schmidt when was arrested and imprisoned for his part in giving away German secrets. While in prison, he asks his daughter to get him cyanide pills in order to kill himself. He is eventually successful in obtaining the pills, though not by his daughter. Additionally, it is explained that the mother and brother of Schmidt’s daughter had likewise attempted suicide, and Gisela, Schmidt’s daughter, found and rescued both of them (218). This may be a topic you want to discuss with your reader.
Additionally, in the epilogue, Barone sums up what happened to men and women discussed in the book. When discussing Alan Turing, who was part of the British team, she shares that in 1952 he was prosecuted for being gay, which was a crime in England. Instead of facing prison time, Turing underwent “female hormone treatment that was designed to reduce or eliminate sexual desire. Two years later, he was found dead in his apartment from cyanide poisoning” (230).
In addition to all the great information Barone conveys in your story about the attempts to break the Enigma code, she includes a timeline of events and seven pages of bibliography for anyone interested in further research or reading.
As Proverbs 16:18 says, “pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall.” Pride and overconfidence was the German weakness that allowed the work, effort, and sacrifice of many to achieve victory when the darkness seemed most overwhelming.
