Lotta Hitchmanova

By Ruth Pearce, April 2009

Lotta Hitschmanova might not recognize the Unitarian Service Committee (USC) she founded so long ago to help feed and clothe war-devastated Europe, but she would be proud of the latest incarnation of her dream and her untiring work. This is a special year, as we will be celebrating the 100th year of Lotta’s birth. It is an appropriate time to remember the past, to update to the present, and look forward to the future of the USC: the continuing legacy of this petite, remarkable woman.

At 56 Sparks St., David Rain is diligently working to collect memories of Lotta from Unitarian Universalist congregations all over Canada. Hopefully, these will be published as a further tribute. He has been surprised at the marvelous response he has already received - particularly from the west.

Indeed, there has been a long and memorable connection between our Unitarian Universalist congregation in Winnipeg and the Unitarian Service Committee of Canada, now better known as USC Canada. Indeed, this bond was firmly in place long before my husband, myself and our children (Ruth and Ken Pearce and six kids) joined the church during the 1960s. Thanks to Dr. Lotta Hitschmanova, both adults and children in the congregation were well informed of USC Canada’s programs, and many were actively involved in supporting one of Canada’s very first internationally-focused Non Governmental Organizations (NGO).

Our congregation held a celebration on November 22, 2009. Steve Lennon and Ruth Pearce coordinated this very special anniversary. Visit DrLotta.ca to find out more about this remarkable woman.

Lotta’s biography, memories, and USC Today

Lotta Lotta Hitschmanova was born in Prague, Czechoslovakia November 28, 1909. Although born to a poor family her father, Max Hitschmann, had become wealthy as a malt merchant; her elegant and socially ambitious mother, Else Theiner, was fluent in several languages. Lotta and her younger sister Lilly enjoyed a privileged childhood with parents who were determined that their daughters would be well-educated. Lotta’s intensive studies in languages, political studies and journalism at the University of Prague and the Sorbonne in Paris culminated with a Ph.D from Prague University. During this period she gained diplomas in five languages, used her training to work as a free-lance journalist and entertained hopes of a career in diplomacy.

But war clouds were looming. The strong-willed Lotta had expressed her anti-Nazi opinions too openly and too often to remain in her homeland following the Munich Agreement of September 30, 1938, when Hitler seized a third of Czechoslovakia. Warned by the Czech government, Lotta joined the stream of fellow Czechs heading initially to Belgium and then to France as the German assault continued. Working in Marseilles with an immigration service that assisted refugees, she fainted from fatigue and hunger. Seeking help, she turned to the medical clinic run by the Boston-based Unitarian Service Committee - her first contact with this organization. In 1942, she joined others aboard a refugee ship headed to New York. Granted a visa to Canada, she quickly departed the United States, but only after visiting Boston to deliver a report to the Unitarian Service Committee head office. Within a short time, she was working in Ottawa as a postal censor for the Department of War Services - likely helped by her multilingual ability.

It is difficult to imagine the devastation of post-war Europe: the carnage of bomb-destroyed cities, heaps of rubble that had once been homes and factories, the appalling shortages of all basic necessities of life. But Lotta was keenly aware, and by 1945, with the support of the American USC in Boston, as well as the Unitarian Church in Canada, she began to organize a Unitarian Service Committee in Canada to help with the desperately needed relief and reconstruction work. Although initially affiliated with the Unitarian Church in Canada as well as the American Unitarian Service Committee in Boston, circumstances gradually led to the amicable dissolution of formal ties with both organizations. Within a short few years, the two committees acknowledged that USC in Boston and USC in Ottawa had begun to go their separate ways. Accordingly, they mutually agreed to dissolve those founding ties, with each thus freed to pursue their own directions. Further, fund-raising regulations in Canada limited any church affiliated charity to that denomination only. So in 1948 the Unitarian Service Committee of Canada (USC Canada) pragmatically declared itself independent of all other organizations: both USC in Boston and the Unitarian Church. Although today working with those of all faiths, USC Canada’s close ties to Unitarians have continued in our minds, hearts and deeds.

Those historic close ties are still fresh in the memories of many in our congregation today, and extend to the general public. Lotta put her many talents to good use as she toured first war-torn Europe, then moved on to war-ravaged or developing countries world-wide, telling their stories in her distinctive Czech accent by every means possible: speaking tours across Canada (including Unitarian Congregations); newspaper, radio and television coverage brought the needy of the world into everyone’s living rooms. Her journalistic instincts were incomparable, she knew what made a good story, lived up to her reputation with editors and reporters, who dubbed her “The Atomic Mosquito”, and made 56 Sparks Street the second best known address in Canada. Mention USC today and a common response (especially among Baby Boomers) remains Lotta Hitschmanova and memories of hearing her on radio or seeing her on television.

She had established a routine of spending four months overseas every year, personally monitoring and supervising USC Canada projects in the various countries involved. This included visiting the offices of the local staff USC Canada had retained and the communities USC Canada partnered with, consulting with local people in the projects they deemed priorities themselves, inspecting the progress that had been made and what further needed to be done. Such partnerships were essential to the USC Canada approach, as the communities themselves were best able to judge what was most needed and most importantly, how they could participate in achieving the goal - with USC Canada providing crucially needed but otherwise unavailable resources. With this first-hand experience “on the ground”, she brought a sense of immediacy to her appeals: the hardships, the successes, the desperate needs - and hopes - came to life under the spell of this compelling storyteller. These fund-raising appeals extended beyond media coverage to personal treks across Canada, visiting local groups and organizations, speaking to community organizations in various halls and centres, including, of course, Unitarian churches.

Winnipeg Congregation and USC Canada

For many in our Winnipeg congregation, memories are linked to the Fire Hall across the street from the Banning Street Church, and for the Sunday School kids, the Korean orphan they adopted.

Why a fire hall? With cooperation of the firemen, it became the central depot where needed clothing was collected, sorted and packed for shipment overseas. I vividly recall husband Ken taking off for his regular stint, with other men joining the hubbub of activity as they helped baling the packed boxes for overseas delivery. As USC Canada is busily preparing for Lotta’s birthday celebration, they are looking for Fire Hall memories to collect and possibly publish. I have already contacted Bob Ferguson for his memories and assistance, so if you are of “a certain age”, don’t be surprised if he buttonholes you after church one day. At that time I stayed home looking after all those kids, so I’m still searching for any women who were active: how did those clothes get sorted and packed?

Still on the hunt, I phoned daughter Diane Pearce, one of those Sunday School kids - now with daughters of her own. She immediately recalled the Korean girl the Sunday School supported, even her name: Kwang Kung Cho. They delighted in the photos they were sent, along with several letters every year. When Kwang Kung Cho graduated from high school, she wrote of her dream to become a nurse - could the Sunday School kids possibly consider extending their support so she could realize her dream? Of course they did, and celebrated her graduation.

USC Canada continues to work with adolescents, although no longer with foster children. USC Canada had been working in Bangladesh since 1971, but it was not until the mid-1990s that families told USC about their concern for their adolescent daughters. In many of the more impoverished countries, boys will have priority for any family funds available for education; the girls often remain uneducated, ill-prepared for adulthood and often married when very young. With community participation, USC Canada responded by establishing the Adolescent Development Program (ADP) in 1996, which in later years became known as LEAD, Life Skills Education for Adolescent Development. Although Lotta had retired, another committed and capable advocate of USC Canada emerged when Friederike Knabe joined USC Canada in 1991. Building on the well-laid foundation, she continued Lotta’s practice of world wide travel to monitor USC Canada programs in various countries, then trekking across Canada to raise funds and awareness. Raised in Germany, Friederike was fluent in three languages, and she eloquently recounted the remarkable achievements of far-flung communities and individuals with her own distinctive accent. Friederike became a special friend of the Winnipeg congregation, and of mine as well. I provided accommodation, there was lively conversation during breakfasts as we debated her most recent ventures abroad, and I then chauffeured her to numerous speaking engagements throughout the city. I recall sitting engrossed in a small hall on Selkirk Ave as she told of the obstacles and the successes surrounding USC Canada’s work with adolescent girls. The work of NGO is often challenging, with cultural difficulties and other obstacles intervening.

This was certainly the case with Bangladeshi girls. Some parents were worried that if their daughters were educated no eligible man would consider marrying them - and a good marriage had top priority. One father was so incensed and concerned with the shame of his daughter attending ADP classes that he forced his reluctant daughter to withdraw: no daughter of his would be educated! But he changed his mind a short while later when, at the local market, she quietly informed her illiterate father that the merchant was cheating him. She returned to school. The benefits extended beyond the basic literacy and numeracy that was taught. Slides showed a proud graduate, now married, in her own small home with her equally proud husband at her side. The looms enabling them to earn their livelihood were on the porch; they would limit their family to two children because education is essential. These graduates of ADP became highly desired as wives, their education was an asset, and now there was a demand to include boys, too.

Pat Lane continued our Religious Education (RE) tradition of working to help needy young people, dating back to Kwang Kung Cho, when she introduced the Youth Helping Youth program. Students themselves, the Youth Group Pat was leading could relate to the needy young people so far away in Bangladesh. They became keenly interested in helping the adolescent Bangladeshi girls attend USC Canada’s sponsored schools to learn basic literacy and numeracy, thus providing the opportunity to escape poverty - and indeed, change society, as Frederic had reported. They set to work, crafting attractive pins to sell. These were highly popular and, at $2.00 each, were soon in demand among their schoolmates in the public school system, with the added benefit of expanding the program beyond the confines of our congregation. The next step involved taking the pins and kits with needed supplies to a UUA conference, spreading the program even further to Youth Groups across Canada and the US. This innovative work in fund raising ($6,200.00), expanding awareness of the program and assisting adolescent girls in Bangladesh and Nepal was recognized when Pat and her Youth Group won the inaugural Human Rights Youth Award for Manitoba in 2003.

Friederike’s next trek was to Nepal in 1996, but this was scarcely a holiday tour. There was a central office located in a plateau, but most of the villages partnered with USC were small clusters of houses located high in the mountains. As these were accessible only by climbing narrow, winding trails in altitudes ranging from 10,000 to 12,000 feet, advance training while wearing the requisite heavy boots was essential before tackling the five hour ascending and descending trails to reach some of those tiny settlements.

USC Canada. stresses the importance of involving local people in a true partnership with every project. The people themselves know what they need. As partners in making the decisions and in doing the actual work, they gain dignity, motivation and a sense of responsibility; they also learn how to maintain the project. The villagers we saw in Friederike’s slides had two priorities: running water and electricity. Both were possible, given numerous mountain streams tumbling down the slopes. Plastic pipe bringing water to the village could save the women many arduous trips, and further provide water to irrigate small gardens and thus ensure crops. Slides showed narrow perforated plastic hose frugally dribbling water to now flourishing individual plants, and proud villagers beaming with the success of their efforts. In subsistence farming communities such as this, assistance in ensuring the viability of these small crops planted on the steep, terraced mountainsides contributes significantly to the health of the local population. Similarly, a micro hydro generating system captured the power of a swiftly flowing stream, and one light bulb was installed in the main living room of each tiny house. There was an unexpected benefit beyond extending the hours for socializing, eating, and family concerns. The dirt in the houses could now be seen, so clean-up time and improved hygiene. And water was more readily available for cleaning, too. Two USC Canada coordinators are still involved in the area.

USC Canada Evolves

But time passes, and USC Canada continues to evolve. Although they continue with their educational program in Bangladesh (now extended to include boys), and to work in partnership to build civil societies, the main thrust of their work focuses on poor subsistence farmers, whose farms are located in lands of varying fertility, diverse climates and terrains. These farmers have struggled with drought, thin, stony soil, erosion, widely varying temperatures, and other calamities that can plague agriculture. Yet over the centuries they have developed crops that best survive the conditions of their particular area, further refined them and diligently saved the best seeds for next year’s planting. More recently, however, this diversity of seeds adapted to local conditions - and indeed subsistence farming itself - has been threatened by the modern agricultural practices promoted by huge Agribusiness corporations. Local governments became convinced that the increased productivity promised by the “Green Revolution” would feed the growing population. Accordingly, they urged the small farmers to adopt the new seeds and methods. But this required both purchasing expensive seed and fertilizer rather than continuing with the time-honoured practice of saving their own seeds. Many farmers were forced off the land, and too often the imported seeds failed to thrive under the extreme conditions. Further, it is now recognized that inappropriate seed and continuous, intensive use of artificial fertilizers leads to increasingly poor yields and land infertility.

Beginning in Ethiopia in 1989, USC Canada collaborated with the Ethiopian Gene Bank to save traditional seeds - bred through the years to survive local conditions, and to encourage small farmers to return to traditional farming methods appropriate to their area. Rather than a retrograde movement, however, this Seeds of Survival (SoS) program was developed in collaboration with farmers and with scientists. By harnessing the traditional knowledge of farmers with the research skills of the scientists, reliable seeds and seed storage have been developed for use by small-scale farmers. Methods for selling produce in local markets is also considered - an approach that has some similarity to the growing movement for organic local produce in Canada. This pioneering approach has spread, with partners in many parts of the world.

Regular international meetings are held to encourage training and information sharing. These meetings bring together farmers, scientists, government and NGO staff. SoS has become USC Canada’s most recognizable program, its unique contribution to the needs of hard working farmers in so many countries. It has been credited with inspiring similar programs undertaken by other reputable organizations as well as governments. Also noteworthy, in 1999 the Canadian Council for International Cooperation (CCIC) awarded USC Canada their International Cooperation Award for the Seeds of Survival program.

Most importantly, knowledge sharing remains an essential component of USC Canada’s program, and young farmers are also involved.

Closer to home, last June I was asked to attend the annual meeting of the Manitoba Council for International Cooperation (MCIC) as USC Canada’s official delegate. As a member of MCIC, USC Canada receives significant funding from our own Manitoba government to support its international work. This also makes it eligible for matching grants elsewhere, so the Manitoba grant grows exponentially. A further connection between Winnipeg and USC Canada is embodied in Susan Walsh, USC Canada’s current Executive Director and a strong proponent of SoS. She lived and worked here for over a decade in the 1990s and early 2000s, with the Canadian Lutheran World Relief. Susan had been a program officer for USC Canada in the late 1980s, and returned to become Executive Director in 2005.

While Lotta might not recognize the Unitarian Service Committee she founded so long ago, she would indeed be proud of this latest incarnation of USC Canada.

You can read more about Dr. Lotta Hitschmanova through the USC Canada website.

< Prev

First Unitarian Universalist Church of Winnipeg