The RSHA cryptogram: an unsolved crypto-mystery from the Second World War
An encrypted (?) document from World War II has turned up in an archive. Can a reader decipher it?
Last Sunday I blogged about a coded carrier pigeon message from the First World War. Already on Monday morning, blog reader Max Bärtl presented the solution. This makes blogging fun!
Today there is another encrypted (?) document. Unfortunately, I’m afraid that this time things will be a bit more difficult.
The RSHA cryptogram
The cryptogram in question today was provided to me by Marek Grajek. Marek is the leading Polish expert on crypto history and author of several books. In the following picture he can be seen on the left side of the Enigma monument in Poznan (on the right side I am standing, the other two are my Dutch friends Paul Reuvers and Marc Simons):
Quelle/Source: Schmeh
Marek came across a document in a Polish archive that he could not make sense of. This document is believed to belong to records from the German Reichssicherheitshauptamt (RSHA), which were seized shortly after World War II. The RSHA was an agency of the Nazi government. Presumably, the document was created during World War II. Marek could not find out more about it.
Here is a scan of the document:
Quelle/Source: Grajek
The annotations in the lower right corner (above the round stamp) are not part of the original text. They were inserted by the Polish archive. Since the image quality is quite poor, Marek has kindly made the following transcription:
Quelle/Source: Grajek
If you want to analyze the strings, you can use the following transcription:
UHG. Yc. 002 Ya.009 56543487899729654567467895453327 85947334927535622768936487783252 1186543543434 8341911434229 6567413411545 4563871199241 2626547114711 5454571171162 6118656451922 6547198113367 1156785373133 8436861196412 3546789654321 8711453792388 6543961176711 5165438671711 1876543456567 9898787316113 54765211811865 7564133218784 87654391 11956436 87654115 11546532 54522219 54561311 18765893 54643181 76567878 Ya. 100 00 87 55 76 72 32 65 98 39 78 56 42 45 76 49 78987651154576568 76119896581132844 88191435462211266 56438761153112983 65436534387911861 11436576936154314 9878989511453431187 23118657434111432 65654671 23232589 67565477 65742119 FF ZT AA RT RE IU UHV, Y. Pal. 002 thuuokiurbhklmlie poutfdcvbhwasftzy gdsrtzhhjkuedyncs zhjklopuzrvbnjhes tzhbvcfcscxdcykds poioprfgbfriideby xfrfewswiuzhgnkmd fftgewsaaycsychzr srsrttzdeaacyblkc erfztghbstdcztgzz asasdfgtrbcxxysyn drtzhbnmcxysdfhgz tredfgbvcvcvxytrf zhbvbnjhfgressycxde ztrvcfcfybxyujklo zcxxyscztvxcxffko iuzuikvcfsxcfrtsa raserfdcxxfgdfuam uztghbnmfdretzucy sdsredsyxcfgztcxc khjijiuzjgmncewsa dertgzhjkrcxdcssa drtzhjitrewscxyst bhztredcxcfhmnkzr ztredfvcvnhgdxyde edcvgtzujewstzbvx sdretzhbvcvyxdtvb rfghzujiurfdcxysc wsxcderfvukjhbmxc etziojhbnxcxsyfss rrederfcxvgvswuht trfgbvzujhuedvtgh sertfbvcxdcxysdda eet hgfnuzzaa
What is behind it?
Unfortunately, it is completely unclear what this document is all about. Is it an encrypted text? What do the various abbreviations mean?
According to Marek’s estimation, the letter sequences in the lower part of the document do not represent an encrypted message. They could rather be random sequences created with a typewriter keyboard. Perhaps these were used as keys. It is unclear whether the number sequences in the upper half are decipherable.
Can any reader say more about this document? Marek and I would appreciate comments.
If you want to add a comment, you need to add it to the German version here.
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