Lidia did confide her anguish to Shoghi Effendi, telling him her situation was *very difficult' as prominent Esperantists and her family were against her 'because of the Baha'i connection'. Odo Bujwid had warned her, she said, 'not to mix the two', especially before the Krakow congress, as he feared it could be damaging to the Esperanto cause.
While some Esperantists, like Professor Bujwid, were openly disapproving of Lidia's Baha'f activities, not all the Esperantists were unsympathetic. Martha Root considered Andrei Cseh 'a true friend' of the Baha'i Faith. Dr Edmond Privat, who shared Zamenhof s ideals, increasingly recognized their similarity to Baha'f teachings. Many years later, in 1955, he would speak out in the Swiss press against the wave of persecution by the Muslim clergy against the Baha'is in Iran. Soon after the Krakow congress, Privat attended the funeral of August Forel, former Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Zurich, where Forel's philosophical will was read. Privat later remarked that 'it was a very impressive moment when the conclusion came telling all his friends about his belief in the Baha'f Message and his conviction that it is the one needed by the suffering world.'
But Lidia Zamenhof was, after all, the daughter of the Majstro. To some this meant that, while her private beliefs were her own affair, she should not speak out publicly for any other movement. But to those who understood her better and had known Dr Zamenhofs own dedication to his ideals, it meant she could not do otherwise. Around 1931 the great Hungarian Esperanto poet Kalman Kalocsay published a collection of Rhyme Portraits of famous Esperantists, subtitled A Gallery oJEsperanto Stars. It included a verse portrait, a rondel, ofLidia:
Lidia Zamenhoĵ, kor' fervora Vartante patran sent-heredon, Jen, serĉas sorĉan sav-rimedon Por mond' amara kaj dolora.
Kaj kun entuziasmo kora Servadas la Bahaan kredon, Lidia Zamenhoĵ, kor' fervora, Vartante patran sent-heredon.
E1 sent' profunda, pens' valora, En sino havas riĉan bedon, E1 ili plektas flor-bukedon: Novelojn kun enhav' trezora, Lidia Zamenhof, kor' fervora.
(Lidia Zamenhof, fervent heart, heir to her father's tenderness, seeks healing spells to save and bless this suffering world in bitter smart;
and passionately plays her part, of Baha'f a votaress, Lidia Zamenhof, fervent heart, heir to her father's tenderness.
From thoughts and feelings set apart, her garden in the mind's recess, she makes a treasure to possess, a bunch of stories by her art,
Lidia Zamenhof, fervent heart.
Knowing ofthe disapproval surely caused Lidia pain. Ofcourse, she would never have done anything she felt might endanger Esperanto. Like the other Esperantists, she knew how quickly Esperanto could become tainted in the minds of others for its supposed connection to some unpopular movement or religious group. In Poland Zamenhofs Jewishness had been enough to cause most Poles to dismiss it; in Germany Hitler had already denounced it; in some other countries, Esperanto was suspected of ties to leftist movements. The very nature of the movement - outside the mainstream of society - and the variety of people who were attracted to it, as well as the almost cultic veneration of Zamenhof and the sometimes excessive use of Esperantist green stars and green flags, led some tojudge it a collection of cranks. The Esperantists would continue to suffer from this stereotype up to the present day, and many still wince at the idea of being identified too closely with groups like the vegetarians or the Baha'is.
But Lidia sincerely did not believe her actions as a Baha'i could jeopardize Esperanto. After all, the doom-sayers who had warned Dr Zamenhof not to promote Homaranismo had been proven wrong. Though Homaranismo had failed as a movement, Esperanto had prospered — and the connection had done it no lasting harm. Although it must have been difficult for her, Lidia refused to bend to pressure.
'Lidia has stood firm,' wrote Martha Root proudly. fiut doing so set Lidia apart, even in her beloved Esperantoland.
In August 1931 Lidia went to Krakow for the Esperanto congress. The streets and buildings of the city were decorated with the green star, and overhead the green banners flapped in the warm summer air. But the congress, Lidia wrote Agnes Alexander, 'because of the general economic crisis, which prevented many from coming, was not so well attended as one might hope in other times.' Even so, she told Shoghi Effendi, it proved to be more satisfying than she had expected.
To the Esperantists' delight, some ofKrakow's restaurants and cafes had menus printed in Esperanto and a number of the city's tram conductors, postal workers, shopkeepers and waiters had learned enough of the language to serve the nine hundred congress-goers. In one restaurant the Esperantists were so highly esteemed as patrons that, one observer reported, when the waiters saw a green star on a lapel, they rushed to fall into line, military style, and shout 'Bonan tagon!' (Good day).
A few of Krakow's policemen had even learned some Esperanto. They wore green stars to identify themselves, affably gave directions to the foreign visitors, and, an Esperantist noted wryly, 'They didn't arrest any ofus.'
But one evening's program - all in Polish - irritated the Esperantists, who had come all the way to Poland to hear the international language. The public had been invited to attend the festivities, and the Krakow audience 'was very gay and laughed a lot all evening', an observer wrote, 'apparently because for the first time in Esperanto history the wearers of the green star understood nothing, in spite of their boasts of mutual understanding'. 'There was a moment', he added, 'when the congress-goers had their revenge and brightened up. That was at the end of the evening, when they were allowed to leave.'
The editors of Literatura Mondo organized a 'literary morning' during the congress, with speeches and poetry readings by some of the most famous Esperanto writers. Lidia was asked to participate, and she read with emotion from Mickiewicz's epic poem Pan Tadeusz in Esperanto translation. One day, after the speeches, Lidia played a rare cylinder recording of the voice of Ludwik Zamenhof. In spite of the 'technical difficulties' they had getting the ancient machine to work, and the deficiencies of the aged recording, the sound ofDr ZamenhoPs voice resounding through the congress hall 'caused much emotion' among the listeners.
A Baha'f session was held at the congress, and more than fifty attended. In spite of Professor Bujwid's displeasure, Lidia gave a speech at the meeting. Her talk, about the development of mankind since ancient times, was entitled 'Man and Mankind on the Way of Progress'. The report in La Nova Tago said Lidia's 'eloquent' speech 'captured the attention of all'.
After the Krakow congress, there were post-congresses in Warsaw and Bialystok. In Warsaw the Zamenhofs - Lidia, Adam and Zofia - invited some of the Esperantists to a reception at their home. They entertained them with tea and cakes and home movies of Adam's young son Ludwik, and a rare film of his namesake, Dr Zamenhof.
Julio Baghy, the novelist and poet ofthe Budapest School, described a visit he made to the Zamenhofhome, possibly on this occasion. Lidia and Zofia led him through the little museum of their father's study with all its relics and memories. Baghy, who had been devoted to Zamenhof, was impressed that they did so in such an easy, uncere- monious manner, explaining the various objects simply and without the extravagance with which many Esperantists referred to the Majstro. But Baghy recognized that 'this very spontaneity proves that the father's soul lives on in both'. They 'remind one ofthe modesty' of their father, he wrote.
Baghy surveyed them with curiosity. 'To which one did fate give more of the father's riches?' he wondered. 'Not possible to know,' he decided. He found them equally kind and equally modest. Only in temperament did he perceive a difference. It seemed to him that Lidia had a 'more dreamy nature' and a readiness to 'do battle for beautiful ideals'.