Lidia

Now, Zamenhof had his mornings free to work on the project dearest to him, Homaranismo, for he saw patients only two hours in the afternoon. Although he no longer had to sit at his desk long into the night, to his family's chagrin he still worked the whole day without rest, and often without leaving the house. In vain Klara tried to get him to go outside and breathe some fresh air. But there was no suitable place to walk in the neighborhood of Dzika Street in the noisy and crowded Jewish quarter. To find some greenery and clean air, one had to travel a long distance by tram or droshki. The family thought it would be good for Ludwik if he lived somewhere near a garden.

In July 1915 the Zamenhofs moved to flat number 7 at 41 Krolewska Street, in a fashionable section of Warsaw, just outside the Jewish quarter and opposite the Saxon Gardens and the Warsaw Stock Exchange. Krolewska Street was a rather nice wide boulevard for

Warsaw, and lined with trees, cousin Stephen Zamenhof recalled. The Saxon Gardens were a good-sized park with flowerbeds, benches to sit on in the shade of horse-chestnut trees, fountains, a small lake, summer theater, coffeehouses, a little orangerie with tropical plants, and lots of space for children to play. Vendors of sweets sold their wares in the park, while horse-drawn droshkis ran along the thoroughfare.

The new Zamenhof flat was quite comfortable, cousin Stephen remembered. It was 'a rather expensive apartment at that time, with an outside, glass elevator which didn't always work. There were several rooms, with a huge consultation room which had all kinds of dark cubicles to look in the eyes.'

Here Dr Zamenhof could work more tranquilly and might be able to forget the fact that he could no longer accomplish as much as he once had. Adam made sure that his father saw only a few patients.

Although some Esperantist friends came to visit, the enforced isolation was difficult for Zamenhof to bear. Still, Adam remembered, 'never did my father cease to be an optimist and till the last moment of his life strongly believed that soon the terrible war would give way to the strong and brotherly cooperation of all peoples'.

At the beginning of the war Zamenhof began work on an essay he hoped would help make this happen. It was called'After the Great War - Appeal to the Diplomats'. He was able to send it abroad and it was published in England, Hungary and Switzerland in 1915. In the essay Zamenhof appealed to the statesmen who would remake the map of Europe after the war. Zamenhofsaw clearly the importance ofthe task before them and warned: 'It will depend on you whether the world is to have. . . an established peace for a very long time and perhaps for ever, or whether we shall have only a short period of quiet which will soon be interrupted again by the breaking out of fresh racial conflicts or even new wars.'

Zamenhof called on the diplomats to ensure that each country belonged equally to all ofits citizens, and to see that each race had equal rights. He added that it would be better if instead of the diverse small and large nations, there were a 'United States of Europe' and that a pan-European tribunal should be established to settle disputes.

He concluded: 'Gentlemen, diplomats! After the terrible war of extermination which has set mankind lower than the most brutish beasts, Europe looks to you for peace. It looks not for a briefinterval of pacification, but a permanent peace, such as is alone fitting for a civilized human race. But remember, remember, remember, that the only means by which such a peace can be attained is to abolish for ever the chief cause of wars, the barbarous survival from the most remote pre-civilized antiquity, the dominance of one race over other races.'

More and more frequently Dr Zamenhof s heart disease interrupted his work at the typewriter, and he would be forced to rest in bed for several days. 'But', Adam wrote, 'he could not rest even one day without work . . . Even ill, he made notes in a small pocket calendar which was always found on the nightstand. And if sometimes we discreetly wanted to enter his room to see whether he was sleeping or perhaps needed something (he himself never called on anyone) we almost always saw him with a pencil in his hand.'

On days when Zamenhof was too ill to work and was forced to lie and rest, Lidia and Adam might play music for him, Adam playing the cello while Lidia accompanied him on the piano. When he was well enough to leave the house, Lidia might go for a droshki ride with him in the park.