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World War II Honoree

Civilian on the Home Front

Genevieve Marie Grotjan

Hometown

Buffalo, New York

Honored By

Pearl Thomas

Branch Seal
Activity During WWII

She was hired to work as a junior cryptanalyst for the Army's 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. She played a key role in cracking the cipher, discovering cyclical behavior in the code on September 20, 1940.