Lidia's hosts in Detroit were Robert and Mabelle Davis. The Davises were Baha'i Esperantists and Mrs Davis frequently translated for Lidia at the many public talks she gave while in Detroit. Lidia had hoped to hold one of the Esperanto courses in the black YWCA, but all the classes were held in a store-front on the ground floor of the Convention Hall. She was disappointed that 'we have not one Negro in the courses'. She had also hoped to speak before the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, but this never came about. She was told that their programs were 'too full'.
All the publicity had an effect: seventy-two students enrolled in her course, with fifty-seven completing the lessons. Afterward, the Esperanto Society of Detroit reported: 'Miss Zamenhof s work was preeminently satisfactory. Her pupils retained their interest during the course, made remarkable progress and at the end had a desire for more. Miss Zamenhof more than fulfilled all expectations. Her teaching ability has not been as yet fully appraised, much less has it been adequately announced to the American public. Moreover, Miss Zamenhof is more than a teacher, is more than a celebrity. To her, Esperanto is not a possibility to be demonstrated, but a triumphant reality to be exemplified. It is not a mere academic subject to be taught, but a part oflife to be unfolded.'
At the close of the course in May, the Detroit Esperantists held a farewell picnic in Lidia's honor at Lake Orion. Dr Charles Simon of Cleveland recalled meeting Lidia that day. He had come to Detroit to talk to her about the upcoming EANA congress and was 'immediately impressed with her dynamic personality and with her unmistakable charm'.
The moment of her arrival, he recalled, was 'dramatic'. 'As Miss Zamenhof entered the hall where the picnic was being held, all present rose to their feet and quite spontaneously began to sing La Espero. She stood quietly during the singing, a slight but imposing figure, dressed in quiet good taste, with a black fur piece around her shoulders. Afterward she acknowledged the greeting in quite a dignified manner, and the picnic program continued, with singing of more Esperanto songs to the accompaniment of an accordion.'
'An intimate, vivid word picture of the "Majstro" as she knew him was her parting gift to us,' Robert Davis, secretary of the Esperanto Soriety, wrote in the official report. 'Howenviablethisopportunity of ours! How precious these hours with nia kara lingvo [our dear language] and the daughter of the "Majstro!'"
Even while she was in America Lidia was defending her father's legacy in Europe, where it was under attack from nationalists. In an article she hotly refuted a suggestion that the name of Esperanto should be changed to 'European'. In answer to allegations she had read of in an Esperanto joumal claiming that the intemationalism of Esperanto was not current, Lidia replied that the original name of Esperanto had been 'International Language'.'When and where did the Majstro say that his language should serve only for Europeans?' she demanded. 'It is, to be sure, based on the European languages. But the reason for that was that its author was closest to the European cauldron of languages, to the European Babel. That doesn't mean that he wanted in any way to give privilege to the European languages. If they wish to look for deficiencies in Esperanto, they may find one in that very fact: that it is too European and does not sufficiently reflect oriental roots.' As the language evolved further, Lidia suggested, perhaps it would take on oriental influences in the degree to which Esperanto spread in Asia and the people of various Asian countries added their contributions to the language.
But the real question at hand, Lidia emphasized, was not linguistic. To try to use Esperanto, 'which had been created in order that all nations and all cultures should be equal on its foundation,' in order to proclaim the superiority of one part of mankind, would be 'completely contrary to the idea of Esperanto', she exclaimed. Zamenhofhad not been willing to compromise about his ideas. He did not follow the trends of the times. Chiding the Esperantists not to 'follow the changeable winds of political opinion like weathervanes' or 'like chameleons obediently adapt to the ruling colors', she pointed out that had Ludwik Zamenhof been just 'one of the many sheep in the hopeless flock', he never would have created Esperanto.
As the year 1938 went on, the news from Europe was ever more ominous, the rhetoric of the dictators ever more hysterical and threatening. Discrimination, boycott and violence against the Jews were growing more widespread in Europe, not only in Germany and Poland, but in other countries as well. 'We are back in the Middle Ages,' one American Jewish leader observed after a visit to Europe.
On March 12 Lidia read in the morning paper that Austria had been taken over by Nazi Germany in what came to be known as the Anschluss. The Austrian government was dismantled and the nation ceased to exist, becoming a province of the Third Reich. With the Anschluss came a frenzy of violence against thejews in Vienna more terrible than anything Germany had yet seen. 'Is it possible', Lidia wrote Della, 'that the great Drama is already beginning? More than ever one must turn to Baha'u'llah in these moments.'
She was glad that the National Spiritual Assembly had voted to have her give a course to train Esperanto teachers in the Cseh method at the Green Acre Baha'i Summer School. Lidia knew that there was not much time left before war broke out in Europe, and she wanted to see the Cseh method spread as much as possible in America. When Europe was in chaos, she hoped that new ranks of American Esperantists might keep the movement ali ve - free of the divisions that had afflicted Esperanto in Europe. She wrote Della: 'The new war, which Europe will not escape, will silence the warring Esperantists in Europe. Then the American samideanoj will have to take up the call and begin to work for the Cause.'
Della also felt a sense of urgency. She confided her fears tojosephine Kruka: 'In view of the European situation, I feel more than ever how important it is that Lidia teach as many Esperantists as possible the Cseh method. When that volcano erupts, as it may any moment, it will be the end of Esperanto in the continent for many years to come. If there were only some other means by which one could do as much for Esperanto here, I would urge that also. But I do not see anything, anywhere that compares with it.'
Lidia shared that fear. 'Unfortunately', she wrote, 'I agree with you, that probably nothing will remain - not only of the Esperantist organizations but of Europe at all, in the near future. So we must exert our efforts here in America.'
When Lidia learned that Harold Foulds had begun teaching an Esperanto course to the Baha'is in Cleveland, she wrote him, 'I cannot tell you how happy that news made me ... I hope that they will help you more and more on your new way of search . . . and on your part, you will help them get closer to Esperanto and to get to know that language which - I am profoundly convinced - was created directly under the influence ofBaha'u'llah, although the author ofthe language was unaware of it.'
That the dark clouds which had spread over Europe were weighing heavily on Lidia was evident in a frightening dream she described in a letter to Harold Foulds. The dream would turn out to be chillingly prophetic.
'Coming back from a walk', she wrote, 'in the crowd I lost my little mother, who was not strong, and searching for her I found myself in a corridor. At the end ofthat corridor stood a large baptismal font. From there branched two roads, to the right and to the left. Crowds ofpeople were going through that corridor, and, on reaching the baptismal font, they divided and without stopping they kept on going: part of them went to the right, the other part to the left. But wherever they went, whether to the right or to the left, they were making their way with the same effort, and I saw large beads of sweat on their foreheads . . .