In 1929–32, the shop on Warsaw's New World Street, ten minutes' walk from the General Staff building, was transformed into the AVA Radio Company.
The Poles' reading of German ciphers laid the foundation for the western Allies' Ultra cipher-breaking operations, beginning seven years later, during World War II.
Two days later, the Germans abruptly invaded the French Free Zone, putting an end to the collaborationist but semi-autonomous Vichy regime and, on 12 November, occupying Cadix.
On 13 March 1943 one such expedition, which included Cipher Bureau chief Colonel Langer, Major Ciężki, Antoni Palluth and Fokczyński, were arrested near Perpignan by the Gestapo.
The two officers were sent to Frontstalag 122 at Compiègne, France, and on 9 September 1943 to the SS concentration camp, Sonderkommando Schloss Eisenberg, in Czechoslovakia; they were liberated by American forces on 10 May 1945.