Lidia

To Lidia, his closest companion seemed to be his typewriter. 'It stood on a little oak table near the window in our dining room,' she later wrote. 'In the evenings it was pushed toward the light ofthe lamp that hung over the table. In the daytime it worked only a few hours, but its real life began in the evenings. The clatter of its little keys was almost a lullaby for me; something seemed missing when it was silent.

'I became used to its monotonous melody, in which the rapping of the keys was interrupted by a lovely ring announcing the end of a line, and the grating noise of the carriage return; my dolls always found its wooden cover a very convenient pram.

'I hardly remember the time when it took up its place in our house. Years flowed by - it always worked on tirelessly, being not only a machine but almost a friend to my father. A never-impatient, never- despairing friend, but always faithful, always hopeful.

'At first I regarded it as an old, serious friend of the family. I would stand nearby and, with interest, gaze at the working of its mechanism. At last I became brave enough to sit on the stool and hit the keys, rejoicing that the letters were much more beautiful than those my awkward hand wrote in a notebook. But my first real joy was when I typed an exercise and proudly showed it to my teacher. I am sure that was the only reason she did not scold me much about mistakes which on another occasion might have elicited her severe criticism.'

The Zamenhof house was often full of Esperantists. Many came from other countries to visit Dr Zamenhof, almost as an act of pilgrimage. Lidia could not help observing the deep respect these strangers showed to her father, although it must have seemed rather mysterious to her at first. On one occasion in 1909 Lidia amused the guests attending a celebration for her father's fiftieth birthday. Klara had brought her into the room to introduce her to the gathering, which included many eminent Esperantists. Then they sat down to listen to a succession of speeches in Esperanto complimenting the Majstro and his family. Suddenly Lidia jumped up, indignant, exclaimed in Polish, 'What are they jabbering about? I don't understand a word!' and marched out of the room.

On the shelves in Zamenhofs excellent library were Esperanto books sent by their authors from all over the world. Once Lidia heard a visitor say that those books, more than any statue of marble or granite, would be a lasting monument to her father's greatness. She never forgot those words.

But her main interest in Esperanto at that time was as a source for her stamp collection, as she rescued from the wastebin the many colorful foreign postage stamps on letters sent to her father.

Though Lidia's family werejews, they were not religiously observant. While orthodox Jews did no work on the Sabbath, not even cooking, at the Zamenhof home Saturdays were little different from the rest of the week. In fact, Saturday had always been the day when great arm- loads of packages were taken to the post office - the books ordered by Esperantists all over the world. Pious Jews followed the dietary laws carefully, but the Zamenhofs did not separate dairy products from meat in their home, and, Lidia's cousin Stephen recalled, on occasion they ate ham.

Very early Lidia leamed the values her father cherished, especially: to regard each human being as a member of the family of mankind, whatever his race, religion, language or class. Though this was the way of things in the Zamenhof home, Lidia soon leamed that in the world beyond their courtyard on Dzika Street not everyone shared those ideals of brotherhood and tolerance.

Secularized Jews like the Zamenhofs, who did not follow orthodox ways, were a people apart. Although they might live in the Jewish quarter, they did not participate in traditional Jewish society. In appearance and speech they were more like Poles, yet Poles did not accept them. Although Ludwik Zamenhof knew Yiddish and had spoken Russian at home, by the time Lidia was born the home language of the Zamenhofs was Polish - though the older Zamenhofs often used Esperanto. Lidia was enrolled as a Jew at birth, but by her own account she never took part in Jewish religious activities or community life. To most Poles, however, people like the Zamenhofs were little different from the other Jews.

In his 1920 biography, The Life of Zamenhof the Swiss professor Edmond Privat evoked the anguish it must have caused young Lidia to be difFerent - neither orthodox Jew nor Polish Catholic:

'She . . . very early showed herself to be thoughtful and of independent will. Her father respected her character. The little girl noticed everything with clear-seeing eyes. For the evening meal at home there was tea, with slices of ham. By thejewish faith this was a sin against God. Religion forbade the use of pig's flesh. With Catholics it was the same about eating meat on Friday. But father was a free- thinker. Why?