Missing Nazi Code Machine Becomes Mystery

L O N D O N, Oct. 11 -- An Enigma machine — the device the Nazis used toencrypt top-secret messages during World War II — has becomewrapped in a riddle.

Since it was stolen on April Fool’s Day, Bletchley Park MuseumDirector Christine Large has been issuing appeals through the mediaand fielding middle-of-the night phone calls in an attempt toarrange a clandestine meeting with a letter-writer who says hedidn’t steal the machine, but wants a lot of money to give it back.

Two weeks ago, the museum received a letter demanding $36,000for the safe return of the machine that resembles a clunkytypewriter in a box. The writer claimed to be acting for a thirdparty who had bought it innocently.

Destroying a Record of History?

According to police, the letter-writer said the Enigma machinewould be destroyed if the money were not paid by midnight lastFriday.

The museum agreed to hand over the sum, donated by an anonymousbenefactor, but the deadline passed without word from theletter-writer.

On Saturday at 4:30 a.m., Large got a phone call from a personclaiming to be the writer.

“I felt pretty confident that we had reached a businesslikeagreement,” said Large. “But since then, nothing. We just have towait and see what happens next.”

More than 70 Enigma machines are known to survive, according toa list compiled by data-security researcher David Hamer.

But the stolen one — serial number G-312 — is a rarer andespecially complex encoding machine used by Abwehr, German militaryintelligence. The only other one on public display is at theNational Security Agency’s National Cryptologic Museum in FortMeade, Md.

G-312 was one of several key exhibits at Bletchley Park, the countryestate 50 miles northwest of London where an eclectic assortment ofmathematicians, chess masters, linguists and crossword-puzzleexperts labored throughout World War II to crack Nazi codes.

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