KEY DATES
1908 Born on 18 January in Warsaw.
1920 Lives with his parents in Łódź.
1926 Passes his matriculation examinations and is sent to England to study economics.
1938 Meets Zofia Neuding.
1939 Marries Zofia Neuding. Called up in August, he joins the 1st Anti-Aircraft Artillery Regiment in Warsaw. Dismissed from the army. Searches out Zofia in Stanisławów (now Ivano-Frankivsk, Ukraine).
1940 Both are arrested by the NKVD and deported into Soviet Russia, where they spend 14 months felling trees as labour camp prisoners.
1941 The Hertzs are freed as a result of the Sikorski-Mayski Agreement and both join the Polish army forming in the USSR.
1942 Evacuated with the Polish army to the Middle East, Hertz serves in the 8th Heavy Anti-Aircraft Artillery Regiment of the 2nd Polish Corps, with which he sees action right up to the Italian campaign.
1944 Takes part in the Battle of Monte Cassino.
1946 Joins the team of the newly formed Literary Institute in Rome.
1947 On 13 October Hertz arrives in Paris with his wife. They take up residence with Jerzy Giedroyc and Józef Czapski in Maisons-Laffitte near Paris, and resume working for the Institute.
1948 Demobilized. Recognized by the French authorities as a political émigré.
1979 Dies on 5 October after a prolonged illness. Buried in the cemetery at Le Mesnil-le-Roi. Literary prize instituted in his name.
