She was delighted when the Baha'fs of Chicago, Wilmette and Maywood, Illinois, asked her if she would give Esperanto courses in their cities.
Sometime during that year, Martha Root, who was in India, wrote to the American Baha'fs: 'I am so happy that Lidia Zamenhof is in our country. Every letter from the friends praises her splendid work - I always wish her loved ones in Warsaw could see these letters; they love her so deeply and appreciate what a great soul she is. I am so proud of our Lidia -1 cannot be home to welcome her, help her, but every day I pray that you all will show her the love of your hearts.'
TWENTY-FOUR
Who Can Foresee?
Lidia's classes in America were not as large as she had hoped they would be, but the money she was receiving from them was sometimes even less than it should have been. The local groups deducted their expenses - for advertising the course and renting the classroom - from the tuition paid by the students, and although occasionally individuals offered contributions to help offset the expenses, sometimes by the end of the course less than a third of the tuition money was left for Lidia. Some groups deducted more of their expenses from the tuition than other groups did. Since Lidia did not do her own bookkeeping for the classes, she did not know, until it was too late, what was being deducted or whether the students were even being charged the correct amount for the course.
Lidia accepted what she was given without complaint, but Della was alarmed that she was receiving so little money. It seemed just one difficulty too many to bear, and Della began to think it might be better ifLidia returned to Europe. She suggested to Lidia that it was too great a sacrifice for her to remain in America since she wasn't earning much from her classes. Lidia replied that she 'did not come to the land of dollars to get rich' and that as long as she had no expense for food and lodging she did not mind that her earnings were not great. 'But even if I went back to Europe,' she pointed out, 'I could not count on great earnings with growing misery in the whole world . . .' Although things had not gone smoothly for her so far, Lidia hoped to extend her stay in America at least six months.
But Lidia was beginning to worry that when the time came for her to leave, she might not be able to go home. A law had been passed in Poland after the Anschluss of Austria when many PolishJews who lived in Austria had tried to return to Poland. According to the new law, Polish citizens who had lived more than five years abroad could be stripped of their citizenship. The law was aimed at Jews: the Polish government feared that Germany would soon expel the thousands of Polish Jews who lived there, and it wanted to prevent them from entering Poland.
Lidia had only made three short visits home during the last five years, and she was worried that those three visits would not be enough to satisfy the requirements ofthe new law. Ifshe lost her citizenship she would be unable to remain in America yet unable to retum to Poland - a person without a country, in a world on the brink of war. The thought of Europe chilled her. 'One can hardly even dare think about that unhappy continent,' she wrote Della. 'I have my family and many friends there. My heart is oppressed when I think about them.'
Lidia's sister Zofia had written her from Warsaw that the new law did not apply to her, but Lidia was not so sure. She asked Della to telephone the Polish Consulate in New York to find out. But, she added, i beg . . . that under no conditions say for whom you need that information.' To do so might attract the danger, she feared, rather than ward it off.
While in Wilmette, Lidia had confided to Mrs Jeanne Bolles of New York City her fears about losing her citizenship. Mrs Bolles had suggested Lidia try to become an American citizen. 'And she said that President Roosevelt made some kind of call to the refugees, making it easier for them I don't know whether only to come to America or to become citizens. * This question of Mrs Bolles took up my thoughts,' Lidia told Della. 'An American passport would be much more convenient than a Polish one. Furthermore, who can foresee what will be the fate of the Jews in Poland in the near future?' She wrote to Shoghi Effendi for his advice.
Lidia left Detroit for Lima, Ohio, on May 21. She arrived in Lima ill from fatigue, and no doubt worried about the Green Acre course on which she placed so much hope. Because of financial problems, Della could not go to Green Acre to help Lidia, and she had asked Josephine Kruka to take over. But Josephine suddenly announced that she intended to go to Finland for the summer and would not be there to help. Della was frantic. Lidia, learning ofJosephine's plans, cautioned her not to go to Europe without telegraphing Shoghi Effendi to ask his advice. Josephine dashed off a brief cable to him, but without mentioning the Esperanto responsibilities she would be giving up in order to undertake the trip.
Meanwhile, Della tried to talk Josephine into changing her mind. Lidia would need someone to help her at Green Acre: to enroll students, to distribute materials, but most important, to act as her aparato. Without the aparato to translate, Lidia could not give the Cseh course at all. 'If you do not go and I cannot go,' Della pleaded with Josephine, i do not see who is to help her.'
• After the Anschtuss in March 193 8, President Rooscvelt had called an international conference, which was held m July in Evian-les-Bains, France, to seek resettlement of thejewish refugees facing Nazi pcrsccution. He pledged to opcn up to full use the United States immigration quotas for Gcrmany and Austria (totaling onlv about 27,000), but he never planned to increase the numbers. At the Evian Conference, allof the thirty-two nations present excused themselves from accepting refugees, except for the Dominican Republic.
The course already seemed plagued hy troubles. The publicity had not gotten out on time. And the announcement that had appeared in Bahd'i Neivs was incorrect. Lidia wroteJosephine, 'If you also will not come, the outlook for the course, already dark because of the delay, looks darker and darker.'
Just as Lidia was preparing to leave Detroit, she learned that Josephine had received her answer. Shoghi Effendi had cabled her: 'APPROVE FINLAND. PRAYING.'
Lidia despaired. 'When I was coming to America,' she told Josephine sadly, 'I dreamed about that Cseh teachers' course which could be so important for the Esperanto movement in America, and I believed that it would be perhaps the most important service I could do for Esperanto in America. Well, apparently this plan and hope did not meet God's approval. There are moments when I am truly discouraged about Green Acre and would willingly give up that enterprise. But I won't do that and will persevere.'
Shortly after that, Shoghi Effendi's answer to Lidia's last letter arrived. The Guardian saw no objection to changing her citizenship and left the decision to her. Shoghi Effendi added: 'The friends, no less than mysejf, feel deeply indebted to you for your splendid and historic achievements. Persevere in your historic task, and never feel dis- couraged. My prayers accompany you wherever you go and serve.'
In Lima, Lidia stayed part of the time at the home of Frank and Charlene Warner, and part of the time at the home of Frank and Dorothy Baker at 615 West Elm Street. Louise Baker Matthias, who was seventeen at the time, recalled that summer of Lidia's visit. Lima was a city of about fifty thousand, but it was a metropolitan center for the area and a hub for petroleum distribution. The previous year, the pastors of the three largest churches had launched an attack on the Baha'fs, and Frank Baker feared his business might go bankrupt when his bakery was boycotted. Local Baha'1's were fired from their jobs or threatened with being fired. The attacks ended a short time later when Lima got its first radio station, and questions about the Baha'i Faith were answered on the air.