Lidia Zamenhof | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Lidia Zamenhof before the Nazi Germaninvasion of Poland | |
| Born | (1904-01-29)29 January 1904 Warsaw,Congress Poland, Russian Empire |
| Died | 1942 (aged 37–38) Treblinka extermination camp, Nazi-occupied Poland |
| Other names | Lidja |
| Known for | Activity in Esperanto movement andBaháʼí Faith |
| Parent(s) | L. L. Zamenhof (1859–1917) Klara Zamenhof (1863–1924) |
Lidia Zamenhof (Esperanto:Lidja Zamenhofo; 29 January 1904–1942) was aJewish Polish writer, publisher, translator and the youngest daughter ofKlara Silbernik andL. L. Zamenhof, the creator ofEsperanto. She was an active promoter of Esperanto as well as ofHomaranismo, a form ofreligious humanism first defined by her father.
Around 1925 she became a member of theBaháʼí Faith.[1] In late 1937 she went to theUnited States to teach that religion as well as Esperanto. In December 1938 she returned to Poland, where she continued to teach and translated manyBaháʼí writings.[2] She was murdered at theTreblinka extermination camp duringthe Holocaust.[3]
Lidia Zamenhof learned Esperanto as a nine-year-old girl. By the age of fourteen, she translated fromPolish literature; her first publications appeared several years thereafter. Having completed her university studies inlaw in 1925, she dedicated herself totally to working for Esperanto. In the same year during the 17thWorld Congress of Esperanto in 1925 inGeneva she became acquainted with theBaháʼí Faith. Lidia Zamenhof became secretary of thehomaranistic Esperanto-Society Concord inWarsaw and often made arrangements for speakers and courses. Starting at theVienna World Congress of Esperanto in 1924 she attended almost every World Congress (she missed the 1938 Universala Kongreso in England). As an instructor of theCseh method of teaching Esperanto she made many promotional trips and taught many courses in various countries.
She actively coordinated her work with the student Esperanto movement — in the International Student League, in theUEA, in theCseh Institute, and in the Baháʼí Faith. Additionally, Lidia wrote for the journalLiteratura Mondo (mainly studies on Polish Literature), and also contributed toPola Esperantisto,La Praktiko,Heroldo de Esperanto, andEnciklopedio de Esperanto. Her translation ofQuo Vadis byHenryk Sienkiewicz was published in 1933 and is very well known.
In 1937 she went to the United States for a long stay. In December 1938 she had to leave the United States because that country'sImmigration Service declined to extend her tourist visitor's visa because of her allegedly illegal "paid labor" of teaching Esperanto. She refused offers of marriage that could have permitted her to remain or eventually to naturalize. After returning to Poland, her homeland, she travelled around the country teaching Esperanto and the Baháʼí Faith.
Under the German occupation regime of 1939, her home in Warsaw became part of theWarsaw Ghetto. She was arrested under the charge of having gone to the United States to spread anti-Nazi propaganda,[4] but after a few months, she was released and returned to her home city where she and the rest of her family remained confined. There she endeavored to help others get medicine and food. She was offered help and escape several times by Polish Esperantists but refused in each case. To onePole, well-known EsperantistJózef Arszennik, who had offered her refuge on several occasions, she explained, "you and your family could lose your lives because whoever hides a Jew perishes along with the Jew who is discovered."[5][6] To another, her explanation was contained in her last known letter: "Do not think of putting yourself in danger; I know that I must die but I feel it is my duty to stay with my people. God grant that out of our sufferings a better world may emerge. I believe in God. I am a Baháʼí and will die a Baháʼí. Everything is in His hands."[7]
Eventually in the end she was swept up in the mass transport heading to the extermination camp inTreblinka in the course of theGrossaktion Warsaw. She was killed there sometime after the summer of 1942.[8]
In her memory and honor, a meeting was held in 1995 at theUnited States Holocaust Memorial Museum inWashington, D.C. The meeting called attention to Esperantists' efforts to save persecuted Jews duringWorld War II.
The documentary dramaNi vivos! (We will live!) byJulian Modest depicts the Zamenhof family's fate in theWarsaw Ghetto.[9]
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