American Experience

The Codebreaker

Based on the book The Woman Who Smashed Codes: A True Story of Love, Spies, and the Unlikely Heroine Who Outwitted America's Enemies, The Codebreaker reveals the fascinating story of Elizebeth Smith Friedman, the groundbreaking cryptanalyst whose painstaking work to decode thousands of messages for the U.S. government.

William Friedman: Cryptologist

1m 14s

William F. Friedman married Elizebeth Friedman in 1917 and the two began a life of codebreaking for the U.S. Government. During WWI, they invented new methods of codebreaking and laid the foundation for modern cryptology.

Previews + Extras

  • Elizebeth Friedman: Cryptanalyst Pioneer: asset-mezzanine-16x9

    Elizebeth Friedman: Cryptanalyst Pioneer

    S33 E1 - 1m 6s

    Elizebeth Smith Friedman was an American codebreaker from Indiana. During Prohibition, her decrypts and testimony brought down international drug rings and liquor smugglers. Friedman’s codebreaking in WWII enabled the US to win the “Battle of the Atlantic” and smash Nazi spy rings.

  • Extended Trailer | The Codebreaker | American Experience: asset-mezzanine-16x9

    Extended Trailer | The Codebreaker | American Experience

    S33 E1 - 1m 25s

    The Codebreaker reveals the fascinating story of Elizebeth Smith Friedman, the groundbreaking cryptanalyst whose painstaking work to decode thousands of messages for the U.S. government would send infamous gangsters to prison in the 1920s and bring down a massive, near-invisible Nazi spy ring in WWII.

  • Trailer | The Codebreaker | American Experience: asset-mezzanine-16x9

    Trailer | The Codebreaker | American Experience

    S33 E1 - 30s

    The story of Elizebeth Smith Friedman, the groundbreaking cryptanalyst whose painstaking work to decode thousands of messages for the U.S. government would send infamous gangsters to prison in the 1920s and bring down a massive, near-invisible Nazi spy ring in WWII.

  • Chapter 1 | The Codebreaker: asset-mezzanine-16x9

    Chapter 1 | The Codebreaker

    S33 E1 - 7m 25s

    The fascinating story of Elizebeth Smith Friedman, the groundbreaking cryptanalyst who helped lay the foundation for modern codebreaking today.

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