Uncle Etienne's Radio Transmitter

Inspired by Anthony Doerr's novel "All the Light We Cannot See," this interactive website recreates the bravery of Uncle Etienne and his niece, Marie-Laure, as they risked their lives to broadcast encoded messages to the French Resistance during German occupation of France in World War II. Mimicking their usage of an old radio trasmitter in their attic, this experience allows you to encrypt and decrypt Vigenère ciphers just as they might have done.

Vigenère Cipher

A polyalphabetic encryption/decryption method, meaning each plaintext letter may map into a separate copy of the alphabet. It uses keyword letters to shift each plaintext letter:

• Each letter in the keyword corresponds to a shift number (A=0, ..., Z=25)
• Keyword is repeated to match the length of the message
• Each letter in the message is shifted by the corresponding keyword letter's number
• Use a cipher wheel or Vigenère table to encrypt and decrypt
• Decryption is the reverse of encryption