Lidia

In 1921, at the age of seventeen, Lidia had finished the eighth year of the Modem School for Girls. She received good - but not excellent - marks in chemistry, physics, astronomy, natural sciences, Latin, German, history and drawing; and satisfactory marks in Polish, French, geography and the dreaded mathematics. She was accepted into the University of Warsaw and began her studies there. One of her mother's wishes, at least, was fulfilled, for she studied law. But Lidia could not give her heart to the subject; years later she revealed to a friend that she did not like law.

Lidia's university years were a period of political and social unrest in Poland. The first democratically elected president of the nation was assassinated two days after taking office in November 1922, because he had been elected by the vote of the National Minorities Bloc, which was led by a Jew. Some churches held masses of thanksgiving that the 'President of the Jews' had been killed.

At the University of Warsaw Lidia had to face the ugly reality of anti-Semitism, which was at a peak in the early 1920S. Because Jews traditionally valued education, they worked hard to get into university. Thus, there was a larger number ofJews in the universities than their proportion in the population. Angered by this, anti-Semitic Polish students and nationalist political parties called for restrictions on the number of Jewish students. The same year Lidia entered college, quotas limiting Jews were introduced at one Polish university in the Schools of Law and Medicine. Although this quota was struck down, anti-Jewish agitation continued in the universities, and unofficial quotas were introduced a few years later. 'At all times and at all universities', Celia S. Hellerhas stated, 'Jewish students wereheckled, humiliated, and attacked by some of their Polish fellow students and helpers from anti-Jewish terrorist groups outside the university.'

Seven years had passed since Ludwik Zamenhof s death, and new graves now surrounded his humble resting place in the Jewish cemetery. Among all the grand tombstones, his was the only simple marker. The Esperantists had organized an international committee to collect funds to raise a monument, and a local committee in Warsaw was to arrange for its construction. They chose a simple design created by Warsaw sculptor M. Lubelski: blocks of granite surmounted by a globe of the world. The monument was to be carved in Aberdeen, Scotland, of gray Scottish granite. Klara was distressed when by the summer of 1924 it was still not completed.

Klara Zamenhof had tried to carry on her husband's Esperanto work as best she could. For many years she kept up his correspondence with the Esperantists, but at last she became too ill to answer the mountain of letters that continued to arrive from all over the world. Every year she attended the Esperanto congresses, and it became a tradition to greet her formally in the opening ceremony. In August 1924 Lidia accompanied her mother, who was by now very ill, suffering from liver cancer, to the Sixteenth Universal Congress of Esperanto in Vienna. Over three thousand Esperantists were there. On Sunday, the tenth of August, the congress opened in the Konzerthaus. One of the speakers was Edmond Privat.

He spoke of Vienna's past, when centuries ago medieval knights going off to battle had gathered in the Cathedral of Saint Stephen. 'In those days knights waged war by force. But times have changed,' he said. The world war had killed not only millions of youths, it had also put an end to ancient knighthood, to the old era. 'A new time, a new epoch for mankind has begun,' said Privat. 'Also a new knighthood.

'The knighthood of the new era is no longer the heroes of force and arms. They are no longer covered by shining silver or gold armor. Their hands no longer hold iron weapons. The new heroes are the knights of the ideal and of love for mankind. Their strength, the spirit; their arms, convictions and example.

'The mysterious force, of which Zamenhof sang, unites them and sends them throughout the entire world to fulfill their task and bring humanity toward more light, more peace, more justice. Our task is very clear: we must slay the dark dragon of misunderstanding among peoples, we must spread that language in which dwells the youthful spirit of the new humanity.'