By the tenth ofjune Lidia had not yet heard from the chairman of her organizing committee. Although time was growing short, she still had not been able to make any real plans for her journey.
As she had discovered often during her years of traveling, her own plans could not always be realized. Lidia was aware of the racial problems in the United States, and she was eager to introduce black Americans to Esperanto. Twice she wrote Della Quinlan that she wished to give a Cseh course in Harlem, the black district of New York. But apparently this idea was never seriously considered by those in the US who were responsible for organizing her classes.
InJuly Lidia, still in Paris, received tragic news. Her close friend and 'adopted mother' Marie Borel had died in Lyon after a long illness. Lidia hurried south to attend Mrs Borel's funeral in Arles. Then she went sadly home to Warsaw.
Poland was still rebuilding from the devastation of the First World War. In Warsaw, on one of the main thoroughfares stood an ominous giant bomb, with an admonition to all to work to keep the peace. But as the decade of the 1930s moved toward its close, the attention of many Poles was focused not on the great looming threat of war from its neighbor Germany, but rather on Poland's own Jews.
Anti-Semitism in Lidia's homeland was growing more intense. During the years Marshal Pilsudski had ruled Poland as dictator, from 1926 to his death in 193 5, overt anti-Semitism had been kept somewhat under control. But although Pilsudski was not anti-Semitic himself, the attitudes of the rest of the country had not changed. Poles continued to blame the Jews for the nation's troubles, and two years after Pitsudski's death, in 1937, the new leaders of Poland adopted an official government policy of anti-Semitism. They had concluded that the way to solve Poland's economic problems was to force the Jews out of theirjobs. In what has been called a 'cold pogrom', laws were passed directed at squeezing Jews out of their livelihoods, and there were anti- Jewish boycotts, made easier by a law requiring that all shop signs carry the owner's name.
But the Polish government aimed at a more drastic 'solution' than removing the Jews from Polish economic and cultural life. They intended to force the Jews out of Poland altogether and had demanded the League of Nations give them a colony where it could deport them. Throughout the late 1930S, while the attention of the rest of Europe was riveted on the menace of Hitler, Poland - lulled by the nonaggression pact it had signed with Germany - felt its most serious concern was how to get rid of its Jews.
The Universal Congress of Esperanto in August 1937 was to be a Jubilee celebration in honor of the fiftieth anniversary of the publication of the language. For once Lidia did not have to travel to attend the congress, for it was to be held in Warsaw. While other cities, even Krakow, had welcomed the Esperanto congresses, if only for the tourist income that the Esperantist visitors provided, in Warsaw in 1937 the reception was distinctly cold. The congress, Lidia wrote to Shoghi Effendi, had 'many difficulties', for Esperanto had never been popular in Poland, where many considered it 'ajewish affair'. Someof the newspapers, Lidia told him, printed distortions and falsehoods against the Esperantists, and one of the articles contained an attack on the Baha'i Faith. As a result of this, however, she added, one of the Warsaw Esperantists had become very interested in the religion.
During the congress, a special visit to the birthplace of Dr Zamenhof in Bialystok had been arranged. Afterward, at lunch, one Esperantist from England found himself seated near Zofia and Lidia. The restaurant was tiny, the Esperantists many and the tables were crowded so closely together that there was hardly space to move between them. A band played as they dined, and every other tune seemed to be La Espero. Upon hearing it, the Esperantists traditionally would stand in respect, as for a national anthem. It was difficult to balance the soup and stand up in the cramped space, but every time the anthem was played the Esperantists respectfully rose to their feet, or tried to. When a waitress passing with a bowl of soup spilled it all over the English Esperantist, he recalled that it was Zofia and Lidia who came to his rescue and helped him present himself as a 'decent citizen' afterward.
At the congress, Lidia met Samuel Eby, the chairman of her organizing committee. They discussed her plans for coming to the US, and he attended her Baha'i talk. It apparently had considerable effect on him but in a way no one would have expected.
While the Esperantists were gathered in Warsaw, Adam Zamenhof presided at a conference held in the Zamenhof home to try to bring together the two international organizations, the Universal Esperanto Association and the International Esperanto League, which had split the year before. The meeting was unsuccessful, and the schism continued.
Twenty years had passed since the death of Ludwik Zamenhof. Commemorating the anniversary, La Praktiko praised his daughter, Lidia, for carrying on the Majstro's lifework. It was a great and unusual favor of fate, commented the article, when a child continued the work ofthefather 'with fervor and success'. Calling Lidia 'a tireless pioneer', a 'true apostle of the world language', the article noted she had recruited and taught thousands of new Esperantists. 'Lidia propagates not only the language of her father,' added the article, 'she also fervently works for his ideals.' Now, twenty years after the Majstro's death, 'his worthy daughter intrepidly holds his place'. From 1932, when she had first left home to begin her travels, until now Lidia had given some fifty Cseh courses to approximately three thousand students.
The time was approaching for Lidia to leave for America. Although she had been traveling constantly for five years, the journey ahead of her was so long and important to her that, she confessed in a letter to Della Quinlan, she felt worried about it. 'I know that up to now they [the Baha'is in the US] are perhaps a bit too skeptical of Esperanto,' Lidia wrote Mrs Quinlan, 'but because my trip is by invitation of the National Assembly and through the encouragement of Shoghi Effendi, I am encouraged to hope for their good will.'
Lidia was disappointed that she would not see Martha Root in America. Martha was traveling in the Orient, and had written to Lidia from Shanghai. In the last speech Martha would ever give in America she had mentioned Lidia. 'I learned Esperanto because I found that most nations preferred a neutral tongue,' she told a gathering at the Baha'f Nineteen Day Feast in San Francisco. 'Lidia Zamenhof is one of the greatest Esperantists in the world. She is a profound Baha'f... I will not be here to welcome her, but you will take care of her.'
On September 20 or 21, the Polish ship MS Batory sailed from the harbor of Gdynia with Lidia Zamenhof on board. She was on her way to America at last.
In New York, Della Quinlan awaited Lidia's arrival with some anxiety. Samuel Eby had returned from Warsaw with a disturbing report for Della. He told her that Lidia could not and would not speak English. Furthermore, he said that her Baha'f talk at the Jubilee Congress had been a poor one. The impression Mrs Quinlan gained from him was that they would not be able to count on Lidia as a public speaker after all. Even as the Batory plowed through the Atlantic toward New York, no doubt Della wondered if inviting Lidia to America would prove to have been a terrible mistake.