Exciting news for Lotta Hitschmanova fans across the country.

The humanitarian agency that she founded in 1945, the Unitarian Service Committee (USC Canada), has just announced a very special project at its headquarters, still located at the famous 56 Sparks Street address in Ottawa:

We’re organizing decades worth of Lotta archives with a special project in mind.

And there’s a lot to go through: from albums of black and white photos taken in all corners of the globe and stacks of handwritten notes from dedicated supporters, to patches from Lotta’s famous uniform and tokens of thanks from people whose lives she helped to change.

To help with this undertaking, Gaelan Coffin, a library and information technician student, is spending a few weeks in our Ottawa office.

If you have a Lotta-related memory, photo or item you want to put forward for this special project, please email Gaelan at archives@usc-canada.org.

I encourage anyone who has memorabilia related to Lotta to participate in this project. Or if you know a relative or older friend who might have known Lotta, go have a chat with them and see what comes up.

Let’s keep history alive! And especially this remarkable, unique story of a WWII refugee who arrived penniless in 1942 and yet who changed her adopted Canadian society in ways that we still should be grateful for.

David Rain