Lidia Zamenhof

But these successes would not have been possible without the money from the dowry of Ludwik Zamenhof's wife, Klara Silbernik, who came from a wealthy Jewish family from Kaunas. Her father owned a soap factory. His future father-in-law considered Ludwik a genius. Klara married Zamenhof in 1887. She bore him two daughters and one son. The turning point for Esperanto came in 1905, when the first World Esperanto Congress was held in France. Zamenhof had difficulty finding money for the trip. There was also controversy surrounding his speech. The congress organizers did not want to highlight his Jewish origins. However, Louis delivered his speech without censoring it. He delighted the audience with his wisdom and modesty. On this occasion he received the French Legion of Honor. Subsequent congresses were held in large European cities. Ludwik relinquished his copyright to Esperanto to help it develop worldwide. He was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize eight times. Less popular was his idea of ​​creating a new religion. In 1901 he developed Hilelism, which later evolved into Homoranism. They were primarily concerned with the assimilation of Jews. In 1912 he wrote to the organizers of the eighth World Esperanto Congress in Kraków: "If you absolutely must speak about me, you can call me a son of the Polish land, because no one can deny that the land where both my parents are buried and on which I constantly work and intend to work until my death is my home, although I am not a nationalist, but do not call me a Pole, so that it will not be said that – in order to receive honors – I have put on the mask of a nation to which I do not belong." Ludwik had a sensitive psyche and suffered from anxiety. Shortly before his death, he received the tragic news of his youngest brother's suicide. Alexander was a doctor. He had a hard time during his participation in the Russo-Japanese War of 1905. He didn't want to be re-traumatized when he was called up to the front during World War I. Ludwik Zamenhof died on April 14, 1917 of heart disease. He was buried, like his parents, in the Warsaw Jewish cemetery on Okopowa Street. After his departure, his wife took up the promotion and teaching of the Esperanto language. She died in 1924 of liver cancer. In the interwar period, there was an international cult of Zamenhof, which caused him great stress during his lifetime. Many streets and squares around the world are named in his honor. There were also two asteroids among them. Lidia was the youngest child of the Zamenhofs. She was born on January 29, 1904 in Warsaw. Her mature 40-year-old parents spoiled her a lot. The family's financial situation was also better than that of her older siblings. Every year Lidia and her parents went on family holidays to the countryside. She loved playing football with her father. Unfortunately, his health deteriorated. Despite this, he did not slow down his very intensive medical practice. Lidia recalled: "From my childhood, I remember waiting rooms for patients, some of whom came with fiery red eyes, others covered their sore eyes with a piece of cotton wool"... Unlike her siblings, who studied medicine, she devoted her entire life to Esperanto. As a child, she collected stamps from the numerous international correspondence that arrived for her father. She learned the language created by her father at the age of 9. Her parents used a trick here. They declared that they would take her to an Esperanto conference in Lausanne, Switzerland, only if she learned the language. Another draw was the opportunity to meet a brother and sister who worked there. The pretty, fair-haired and charming girl attracted the attention of the press, who eagerly photographed her with her parents. After returning from Switzerland, she went to the Modern School for Girls. Previously she was homeschooled. In 1915, the Zamenhof family moved to a larger apartment outside the Jewish quarter. They lived in the center of Warsaw, at 41 Królewska Street, opposite Saski Park. Ludwik was deeply affected by World War I. In his essay "After the Great War" he called for the creation of a United States of Europe. As a teenager, Lidia translated classic works of Polish literature into Esperanto. In 1925 she graduated with a law degree, which she disliked very much. Her cousin Stefan recalled: "Lidia, as a teenager, was thin and not beautiful, but she had an interesting face. Always busy translating literature into Esperanto. She believed she had to fulfill her father's mission in life." After her mother's death, she took up the promotion and teaching of Esperanto, "the youngest, but the most promising." She was active in the Warsaw Esperanto Society. She also regularly attended the annual World Congresses. During another visit in Geneva in 1925, she met a 50-year-old American, Martha Rooth, who led Lidia to become a follower of the Bahá'í faith. The Bahá'í Faith was a monotheistic religion founded in 19th-century Persia that promoted the spiritual unity of all humankind. Its founder, Bahá'u'lláh, who died in 1898, taught that all religions come from one divine source.  The main goal of his religion was to lay the spiritual foundation for a new global civilization of peace and harmony. Man's task is to know God and develop spiritually. There was a connection between this religion and the Esperanto language. It was believed that the language invented by Ludwik Zamenhoff could promote the Bahá'í religion as its international language in order to overcome misunderstandings between nations. But Lydia's new, exotic faith was not welcomed by her Jewish family, which was not Orthodox. The siblings adopted a stance of benevolent neutrality towards her new fascination.