Genevieve Grotjan Feinstein

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Genevieve Grotjan Feinstein
Signals Intelligence Service
Decoding machine, right, built based on Grotjan's insight, being used to decode Japanese messages in WW II

Genevieve Marie Grotjan Feinstein (April 30, 1913 – August 10, 2006) was an American

Purple, and later worked on the Cold War-era Venona project
.

Career

Feinstein discovered a passion for mathematics at a young age and aspired to become a math teacher. She graduated from the

Signals Intelligence Service (SIS). For eighteen months, she worked with other SIS codebreakers to analyze the encryption system used in the Japanese Type B Cipher Machine, code named Purple by the SIS[3]: p. 8  She played a key role in cracking the cipher,[4] discovering cyclical behavior in the code on September 20, 1940.[5]
: 99  This enabled the construction of an equivalent machine by the SIS which in turn enabled the interception of almost all messages exchanged between the Japanese government and its embassies in foreign countries.
Hiroshi Oshima, the Japanese ambassador in Berlin, were a main source of intelligence about Axis plans.[5]
: 102 

In 1946, she was awarded the Exceptional Civilian Service Award from Brig. Gen. Paul Everton Peabody for her wartime service.[2]

She was later assigned to the

one time pad cipher was (improperly) reused. After the conclusion of World War II, Feinstein continued to work at the SIS, as the Cold War began, but resigned in 1947.[6] After resigning from government cryptanalysis, she joined the faculty of George Mason University, where she briefly served as a professor of mathematics.[4][2]

Personal life

In 1943, Genevieve Grotjan married the

National Bureau of Standards. They had a son named Ellis,[4] who died of a heart condition at age 22.[2] Widowed in 1995, Genevieve Grotjan Feinstein died in 2006, aged 93.[6]

Legacy

Genevieve Feinstein Award in Cryptography (George Mason University)[2]

Her breakthrough in deciphering the Purple machine has been called, in the Encyclopedia of American Women at War, "one of the greatest achievements in the history of U.S. codebreaking".[4] NSA posthumously inducted her into the NSA Hall of Honor in 2010.[6] In 2018, the University at Buffalo's alumni magazine featured her as "An American Hero".[2]

References

  1. ^ U.S., Social Security Death Index, 1935-2014
  2. ^ a b c d e f Gentzke, Ann Whitcher (April 10, 2018). "An American Hero-Genevieve Grotjan applied her dazzling mathematical skills to unraveling enemy codes during World War II". At Buffalo. Retrieved 2022-11-02.
  3. ^ Friedman, William F. (October 14, 1940). "Preliminary Historical Report on the Solution of the Type "B" Machine" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on April 4, 2013.
  4. ^
    ISBN 978-1-59884-443-6
    .
  5. ^
    ISBN 978-0-316-35253-6
    .
  6. ^ a b c d "Genevieve Grotjan Feinstein: 2010 Hall of Honor Inductee; Women in American Cryptology Honoree". National Security Agency. April 6, 2011. Retrieved 2022-11-02.
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