Given name: Rachela Family name: Zonn

She came from a Vilnius merchant family. The home was emotionally cool. She finished her studies at Vilnius University. Married a Protestant, Włodzimierz Zonn, and was baptized before marriage. They had one daughter, Lidia. In 1938, moved to Warsaw. The husband began working at the observatory, and the family lived there. The husband was mobilized in 1939, and was sent to an oflag in Munrau. Rachel and her daughter lived on the observatory grounds until 1941. As a result of the actions of the observatory manager, Prof. Kaminski, they had to move out. Prof. Pienkowski rented them a room at the Institute of Physics on Hoża Street. They were under special care there. They supported themselves with the pay their husband sent them from the oflag, and the money he would get as a university employee. The secret university was organized by Prof. Pienkowski and paid Rachel a small amount of money. This was enough for a modest living. She taught her daughter at home to read and write. In 1943, when the Germans occupied the institute, they moved out on Malczewskiego Street to the villa of her husband's friend from the oflag, Jerzy Soltan. There they lived in one of the rented rooms, the villa was managed by Hanna Borucińska, Soltan's fiancée. There they lived there until the Warsaw Uprising in August 1944. During the uprising, they hid with all the residents in the basement of the villa. After being displaced, they ended up in Pruszkow, and then in Wolbrom, under the care of the RGO (Main Welfare Council). They were sent to the countryside, to Zagorow, where they lived to see liberation. Rachela died in 1948.