Zofia Hertz (1910-2003), born in Warsaw, daughter of Ludwik Neuding and Helena, née Nisenson. In 1928, she matriculated at the R. Konopczyńska-Sobolewska Female Gymnasium in Łódź. She then took up studies at the Faculty of Law in Warsaw, but dropped out after a year. In 1933, she passed the exam to become a notary public. She was the first woman in Lodz to obtain this qualification. In 1939, she married. She worked as a notary until 1939. In 1940, she (together with her husband) was arrested by the NKVD. They worked for fourteen months clearing the forest in the village of Tsinglok. In 1941, she and her husband joined the Polish Army. Zofia Hertz worked in the Propaganda and Information Department - Cultural and Press Branch of the APW and 2nd Corps. From April 1942, the department was headed by Józef Czapski. From 1943, she was secretary and collaborator of Jerzy Giedroyc. Together with him, her husband Zygmunt Hertz and Józef Czapski, they founded the Literary Institute. This place became one of the most important centres for Polish émigré authors and publicists, as well as for authors who had been censored in communist Poland and Central and Eastern Europe. The Institute published the periodical Kultura and the series Biblioteka Kultury. Zofia Hertz was in charge of administration and publishing at the institute, and from 2000 she was its director.