Like the language to which she devoted her life, the message of her life was one of hope, of hope and faith — that one person can make a difference; that through the peaceful efforts of many, giving their 'widow's mite' to the cause of peace, the peoples of the earth would come together in brotherhood and would speak to each other in one universal language. That no matter what terrors and destruction the immediate future might hold, 'the later, no longer very distant future will see the triumph of the Word of God, the glory of the day of God . . . Let us be happy and confident,' she had said, 'that behind the densest clouds the sun is shining, that the Most Great Peace will come.' Faith, she had leamed, might be only a gossamer thread, but it could triumph over all the forces of darkness. For, like the tiny spider on the threshold of the Shrine, 'whoever can still find in his heart a single ray of faith, as delicate and tiny as a spider's thread, will not perish in the abyss, but even if all the powers of this world rise to struggle against him to push him down, even in the fall itself he will stop, and by this ray, as by the biblical ladder, even out of the abyss will ascend to heaven.'
A Note on Sources
The following is offered as a general guide to the major sources that provided information for this biography. Those seeking an extensive, annotated bibliography of the international language movement in general, and Esperanto in particular, should consult Humphrey Tonkin's Esperanto and International Language Problems: A Research Bibliography, Washington, DC, 1977. An essential, comprehensive work about the Esperanto movement (in Esperanto) is Esperanto en perspektivo (London and Rotterdam, 1974), but readers of English will find much information in Peter Forster's The Esperanto Movement (The Hague, 1982).
Several archival collections contributed significant material for this book. Material from the International Auxiliary Language Committee Records, Julia Culver Correspondence, Della Quinlan Correspondence and Martha L. Root Papers, in the National Baha'i Archives, Wilmette, Illinois, provided insight into the relationship of Lidia Zamenhof and Martha Root as well as details of Lidia's trip to the United States. Other material on various subjects was found in the National Baha'i Archives of Switzerland; letters of Lidia Zamenhof to Shoghi Effendi in the Intemational Baha'i Archives, Haifa, Israel; those to Agnes Alexander, in the National Baha'i Archives of Japan. Another group of Lidia's letters as well as some letters of Zofia Zamenhof are located in the International Esperanto Museum, Vienna; most of Lidia's letters in this collection have been published in facsimile in Lidja Zamenhof: Vivo kaj agado by Isaj Dratwer (Antwerp/La Laguna, 1980).
Personal letters, reminiscences and interviews given me by dozens of people who had known Lidia Zamenhof, and who are mentioned by name in the preface, covered their acquaintance with her over various periods in her lifetime. Many details of Lidia's childhood and later life were gleaned from her own articles and reminiscences published in Heroldo de Esperanto, Ligilopor Vidantoj, Pola Esperantisto, L'Esperantiste Sisteronnais, Le Phare de 1'Esperanto/ Lumturo de Esperanto and IVorld Order. Accounts in the Esperanto press, particularly The British Esperantist, Heroldo de Esperanto, Esperanto, Pola Esperantisto, and Literatura Mondo provided much information about the Esperanto congresses and various other events mentioned in the text, as well as contemporary attitudes and commentary on issues of the time. Local newspapers including Der Bund (Bem), Bemer Tagblatt, The Scotsman (Edinburgh), The Oxford Mail, Le Tribune de Geneve, Le Petit Havre and Le Progres de Lyon provided another perspective of the congresses, interviews and somerimes even the weather.
Information about Baha'f Esperantist activities induding the meetings at the Esperanto congresses was found in La Nova Tago, Sonne der Wahrheit, Baha't Nachrichten, The Baha'i Magazine/Star of the West and volumes of the series The Baha'i World.
Details about Lidia's Cseh courses and lectures in Sweden, France and America were found in joumals such as: Svenska Esperanto-Tidningen, La Praktiko, Entre Nous (Perpignan), Normanda Esperanto Bulteno, Franca Esperantisto, Ĉis Mil (Lyon), Nia Gazeto (Nice), Amerika Esperantisto, Esperanto Intemacia, Heroldo de Esperanto and Bahd't Neu/s, as well as in Dr Andre Vedrine's book, L'Esperanto et le mouvement esperantiste a Lyon des originesa 1950 (Lyon, 1983).
Sources for the life of Ludwik Zamenhof and the history of the Esperanto movement, as well as some details about Lidia herself, include the following:
Boulton, Maijorie. Zamenhof Creator ofEsperanto. London, 1960. Courtinat, Leon. Historio de Esperanto (movado kaj literaturo). 3vols. Bellerive-
sur-Allier, 1964-65. Dratwer, Isaj. Pri internacia lingvo dum jarcentoj. Wembley, 1970.
Lidja Zamenhof: Vivo kaj agado, Antwerp/La Laguna, 1980. Forster, Peter G. The Esperanto Movement. The Hague, 1982.
Garis, Mabel. Martha Root: Lioness at the Threshold. Wilmette, 111., 1983. [Harris, Isidore]. 'Esperanto and Jewish Ideals.' The Jewish Chronicle
(London), September6, 1907. Holzhaus, Adolf- Doktoro kaj lingvo Esperanto. Helsinki, 1969. Lapenna, Ivo; Lins, Ulrich; and Carlevaro, Tazio. Esperanto en perspektivo.
London and Rotterdam, 1974. LalastajtagojdedoktoroL. L. Zamenhofkaj lafunebraceremonio. Cologne, 1921. Maimon, N. Z. La kaŝita vivo de Zamenhof: originalaj studoj. Tokyo, 1978. Privat, Edmond. Vivo de Zamenhof. Rickmansworth, 1920.
Life of Zamenhof. London, 1931.
—Historio de la lingvo Esperanto. 2 vols. Leipzig, 1923-27.
Aventurojdepioniro. La Laguna, 1963. Waringhien, Gaston. Lingvo kaj vivo. La Laguna, 1959. Wiesenfeld, Edvardo. Galerio de Zamenhofoj. Horrem/Cologne, 1925. Zamenhof, L. L. Leteroj de L. L. Zamenhof. 2 vols. Ed. Gaston Waringhien.
Paris, 1948.
Originala verkaro. Ed.J. Dietterle. Leipzig, 1929.
Zamenhof Leteroj. Ed. Adolf Holzhaus. Helsinki, 1975.
Among the many published sources consulted conceming the historical period covered in the book, the following provided spedfic details:
Ainsztein, Ruben. The Warsaw Ghetto Revolt. New York, 1979. Der Baha't-Glaube in Deutschland: Ein Riichblick. [Langenhain], 1980. Churchill, Sir Winston S. The Gathering Storm, London, 1948. Czerniakow, Adam. The Warsaw Diary of Adam Czemiakow. Eds. Raul
Hilberg, Joseph Kermish and Stanislaw Staron. New York, 1979. Dawidowicz, Lucy S. The War Against theJews: 1933-1945. New York, 1975. Dobroszycki, Lucjan, and Kirschenblatt-Gimblett, Barbara. Image Before My
Eyes: A Photographic History ofJewish Life in Poland, 1864-1939. New York, 1977.
Donat, Alexander, ed. The Death Camp Treblinka: A Documentary. New York, 1979.
Heller, CeliaS. OntheEdgeofDestruction:JewsofPolandBetweenthe Two Wars. NewYork, 1977.
Ringelblum, Emmanuel. Notes from the Warsaw Ghetto. Ed. and trans. Jacob
Sloan. New York, 1958. Sereny, Gitta. Into that Darkness: An Examination of Conscience. London, 1974. Sharp, Samuel. Poland: White Eagle on a Red Field. Cambridge, Mass., 1953. Shirer, William L. The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich: a History of Nazi