As Rommel advanced into Egypt in June 1942 after the fall to Tobruk, to within 100 km of Alexandria, Cairo was evacuated. She was living at the National Hotel. Many of her contemporaries left for Palestine but she refused to leave and carried on working for the Polish Red Cross until everyone else had left and there was nothing more that she could do. She was ordered to leave for Palestine by the Polish Legation. She refused and instead set off defiantly for the front, to Alexandria, to be near the troops within earshot of First Battle of El Alamein. There she stayed in an hotel, as the only guest, all others having fled. As Rommel's advance was halted, she returned to Cairo in July 1942 to welcome the returning evacuees.