Lotta Hitschmanova and the Middle East: a Voice from the Past cries out for Peace

From the 1940s to the 1970s, Lotta Hitschmanova was perhaps the most famous Canadian woman. And yet, few today are aware of her personal story — that she was a Jewish refugee to Canada who in turn spent decades helping Palestinian refugees in Gaza, the West Bank, Lebanon and Syria.

Lotta and the Middle East, gift of layette to Palestinian refugee

Lotta and the Middle East, gift of Canadian layette to Palestinian refugee, 1970

[NB: the Middle East photos in this article were all taken by Lotta’s photographer friend, John Buss, and were published in 1970 in “The USC Story: A Quarter Century of Loving Service by the Unitarian Service Committee of Canada in Europe, the Middle East and Asia, 1945-1970.”]

Amidst the horrors of the unimaginable death and destruction in Israel and Palestine, and the grieving and the fear, and the anger and the hatred, I find myself reaching out for the spirit of one of Canada’s most beloved humanitarians, Dr. Lotta Hitschmanova (1909-1990).

Why turn to Lotta, you say? She’s been dead for three decades. What could she possibly offer us today in these troubled times?

The answer lies in her own personal history, which was filled with heart-wrenching tragedy, despair and hopelessness. And we have to ask: how did Lotta manage to overcome her own feelings of grief, fear and anger? And how could she manage to channel these very same emotions, away from hatred, and towards compassion, kindness and love for all peoples around the world, and especially the Middle East? Continue reading

Lotta Hitschmanova to appear on the new Canadian $5 banknote?

As we celebrate the 113th birthday of celebrated humanitarian Lotta Hitschmanova today, Dr. Lotta’s fans will be pleased to know that her name still finds itself on the short list of 8 notable Canadians to appear on our new $5 banknote.

The pace of government can often seem incredibly slow, and yes, it has been over 2 years since the short list was created, after more than 600 nominees had been submitted by Canadians from coast to coast to coast.

I suspect it may be challenging for Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland to choose a single individual to appear on the banknote, and I have thus proposed a creative solution to the problem:

To select Terry Fox, Lotta Hitschmanova and Isapo-muxika (Crowfoot) to appear together on our next $5 banknote.

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How about this iconic trio for our next Canadian $5 bill?

It was 2 years ago (January 2020) that a call went out to nominate iconic Canadians to appear on our next $5 banknote, and it was 14 months ago (November 2020) that a shortlist of 8 candidates was released.

Selecting a single individual, as was the case for Viola Desmond and the $10 banknote, can be a very challenging task, with so many worthy candidates.

So to help move things along, I’d like to offer the following suggestion to Finance Minister Chrystia Freedland and her advisers at the Bank of Canada and the Department of Finance:

To select Terry Fox, Lotta Hitschmanova and Isapo-muxika (Crowfoot) to appear together on our next $5 banknote.

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No Stamp for Lotta!

Dear fans of celebrated humanitarian, Dr. Lotta Hitschmanova, CC (1909-1990), I have some disappointing news to share.

A couple of years ago, I started a “Let’s put Lotta on a Stamp” petition that has now grown to include 1,420 signatories. In June of 2020, I made a proposal to the Stamp Advisory Committee of Canada Post as follows:

That Canada Post create an ongoing “Refugees to Canada Who Made a Difference” commemorative stamp series, launching this series in 2022 with a stamp honouring Dr. Lotta.

Today I have received an official response from Canada Post thanking me for my proposal and announcing Canada Post’s 2022 Stamp Program. Continue reading

Remembering Lotta on International Women’s Day

Hear Lotta’s voice again: “Development often starts with a woman. Support leadership programs for women through the USC, 56 Sparks Street, Ottawa.”

March 8 is International Women’s Day, a time here in Canada to celebrate the achievements and lasting legacy of remarkable women like Lotta Hitschmanova (1909-1990), currently one of the eight nominees to appear on the new Canadian $5 bill.

Lotta’s story is heart-wrenching: Born in 1909, she grew up in a Jewish family in Prague. A journalist by profession, and an outspoken critic of the Nazis she had to flee her Czech homeland in 1938. For four years she was forced to wander about Europe, eventually finding her way to Marseilles, where she worked with refugee support groups.

She lost both parents in the Holocaust, and in 1942, after a 46-day voyage on a converted banana boat, she arrived penniless in Montreal – “with an unpronounceable name, [feeling] completely lost.”

In the depths of her personal tragedy, she could have given up. Instead, just three years later, in 1945, she founded the organization to whose humanitarian mission she would dedicate the rest of her life: the Unitarian Service Committee (USC Canada, now called SeedChange).

Something sparked her, deep inside. She was driven by an indefatigable energy to make the world a better place, and inspired thousands of Canadian supporters to join her in this crusade.

Half the year she was travelling. She personally visited all the USC programs overseas: first in post WWII Europe, then the middle East, Asia and in the 60s and 70s, newly-independent countries of Africa. And she made a gruelling, annual tour across Canada, to share stories with volunteers and donors on how the money was being spent overseas.

She had many nicknames, including the Soldier of Peace, for she always wore a distinctive army nurse’s style uniform wherever she went.

She was sometimes called the Atomic Mosquito. She never took “no” for an answer, and by her sincerity and the force of her personality, she was able to gain the support of people from all walks of life: homemakers, farmers, civil servants, newspaper publishers and even prime ministers.

Quite remarkably, as a refugee to Canada, Lotta became the most prominent woman of her generation! Her TV and radio PSAs in the 60s and 70s were legendary and made USC’s Ottawa office at 56 Sparks Street the best known address in the country.

But more than that, she pushed hard for women’s development around the world, decades before this became a common approach of international development agencies.

In particular, she felt strongly about young women and girls. Once their basic food, shelter and clothing needs were satisfied, Lotta and USC were at the forefront of ensuring that they were offered meaningful educational opportunities, skills training and leadership training.

She also mobilized and empowered a whole generation of Canadian women (including my own grandmother Mary Rain in Winnipeg), who joined her cause and indeed made it all possible, through the thousands of volunteer hours that they put in for USC.

Here is how Lotta’s biographer, Clyde Sanger, so aptly put it:

“Before many other agencies, [Dr. Lotta] was particularly concerned with the improvement of the position of women….

“I doubt that Dr. Lotta would ever have described herself as a feminist at any stage of her life….

“But it is intriguing that the staff she worked with in Ottawa for 25 years were all female, that most of the USC representatives she chose in Asia were women…and that a surprisingly high number of project leaders were also women.

“As well, the USC branches and working groups across Canada were mostly women, while men cheerfully headed for the background and basement where the packing cases were. It is not that men found it difficult to work with such a strong-willed ascetic woman….

“Rather, it seems to have been an instinctive desire on her part to bring out the leadership qualities she knew were in so many talented women she met, and an intuition that their ideas on human development would match her own.”

Thank you Lotta, for your inspirational and ground-breaking leadership, and Happy International Women’s Day!

David Rain

 

Video: Bob Carty celebrating the life of Dr. Lotta Hitschmanova in Word and Song

“I never met Lotta, but I do remember 56 Sparks Street, I do remember that voice.”

In 2009, more than 50 events were held coast to coast to mark the 100th anniversary of the birth of Dr Lotta Hitschmanova (1909-2009). In Ottawa, USC Canada (now SeedChange) organized a special “Lotta 100” event to honour their founder.

The M.C. for this event was Bob Carty (1950-2014), an award-winning CBC documentary producer and justice-seeking singer-songwriter.

As a tribute to Lotta during his introduction, Carty leads the audience in the singing of his haunting anthem of hope, “Desert Eyes.”

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Lotta was nominated for Nobel Peace Prize!

I made a recent discovery: humanitarian Lotta Hitschmanova was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize, not once, but twice, in 1961 and in 1962!

A second discovery, the name of the nominator: Calgary resident, Arthur Smith, at the time a Conservative Member of Parliament.

Here is how he framed the nomination: Continue reading

56 Sparks Street — a new song is born!

A new song is born today, in celebration of the 111th birthday of humanitarian Dr. Lotta Hitschmanova C.C. (1909-1990), who was recently nominated to appear on the new Canadian $5 banknote.

Thanks to her heart-felt TV and radio PSAs in the 1950s through to the 1970s, Lotta single-handedly made 56 Sparks Street in Ottawa the most famous address in Canada.

Happy birthday Lotta! 

Angus Reid banknote survey – what happened to Lotta?

Yesterday, the Angus Reid Institute published survey results asking respondents which of the eight Bank of Canada nominees should appear on our next $5 banknote.

As I have suggested in an earlier article:

All eight are worthy nominees and should be honoured in different ways. That said, two candidates have so much in common that I feel they would make an “ideal couple” to grace our next $5 bill: Lotta Hitschmanova and Terry Fox.

It is no surprise that a high percentage of the Angus Reid survey respondents (57%) would like to see Terry Fox on the next $5 bill. It is, however, very surprising to learn that Lotta scored so very low (9%) on this survey, and even more surprising that “Quebec residents are also more likely than others to choose Lotta Hitschmanova.” Continue reading

Celebrating Lotta’s legion of loyal supporters: Dr. Vernon Burrows, OC (1930-2020)

Canadian plant breeder, Dr. Vernon Burrows, died peacefully in Ottawa on November 8, 2020.

He achieved world renown for his research on oats and was a pioneer in developing hull-less, “naked” oat varieties.

He was also a big fan of Dr. Lotta Hitschmanova, who inspired him when he first heard her giving a talk in the 1970s at the Unitarian church in Ottawa.

A year after Lotta’s death in 1990, he honoured her by naming a naked oat variety he had developed: AC Lotta! Continue reading