Ludvikas Lazaris Zamenhofas (1859–1917), the creator of the Esperanto language, lived in Veisiejai since 1885. He was born in Białystok, in the family of a Lithuanian Jewish (Lithvak) teacher of foreign languages. While studying at the gymnasium, he diligently studied foreign languages, he learned as many as 12 foreign languages. When he graduated from high school, he created the first international language project, but his father did not approve of LLZamenhof's choice - he burned the manuscript of the language project and sent him to study medicine. After completing his studies in Moscow and Warsaw, Ludvikas came to live with his sister's husband in Veisiej. In Veiseije, LL Zamenhof practiced as a doctor and restored the Esperanto language manuscript. Therefore, Veisieja is rightfully considered the birthplace of the Esperanto language.
LL Zamenhof settled in Veisiejai in a rented house on the shore of Lake Ančias. Unfortunately, the house has not survived to our days... In 1924, Veisiei town was destroyed by fire. Then 70 barrels burned. Among them, a pharmacy, a post office, a wooden synagogue, a Jewish school. By the way, this is the only known photo of the house he lived in from that time. And the one-story wooden house, where the author of the Esperanto language lived, burned down the next year, in 1925...
In 1989, when the winds of revival blew, on the eve of LL Zamenhof's 130th anniversary, Krantos street in Veisiejai was named after Zamenhof. The city council marked the place of the house where he lived with two memorial stones of pink color (architect V. Margėlka). They were engraved with the same text in Lithuanian and Esperanto (unfortunately with a few mistakes): "In this place there was a house where the creator of the Esperanto language Ludvikas Zamenhof lived and worked in 1886-1887". Both texts still have the mistake that Zamenhof lived here in 1886-1887!
The error history is as follows. Three dozen years after L. Zamenhof's stay in Veisiei, in the spring of 1922, the first Lithuanian Esperantist Adam Jakštas - Aleksanders Dambrauskas ( Prelate Aleksandros Dombrovski to Esperantists), then still a third-grade student at the Western Gymnasium, and later a famous traveler, Antanas Poška, visited the town of Veisiei. Here he interviewed several old men who still remembered the brown-bearded Zamenhof. He wrote that Zamenhof also talked to his patients in a little Lithuanian. According to Poška, Zamenhof practiced in Veisiejai in 1886, and in 1887, already living in Warsaw, he spent the summer with his sister Fania.
After arriving in Veisiej, A. Poška did not meet Fanė Zamenhofaitė. After all, she could have told the most about her brother's presence in Veisiei! She herself was still alive in 1924, but then and later she no longer lived in Veisiejai. After looking through the books of the rabbinate of Jews who died in Veisiejai (1924-1939 11), I did not find her death record there. According to A. Poškas, Zamenhof spent the few months before his wedding here, and then went to Kaunas from here. A. Dambrauskas published such knowledge brought back by the young high school student in the article "Dr. Liudas-Lozorius Zamenhofas" (Aleksandras Dambrauskas-Jakštas. Užgesė žiburiai , Kaunas, 1930). He noted that the knowledge about L. Zamenhof was provided by Abram Ausser-Miller, the owner of the house where he lived, and confirmed by Rabbi Merdechel Leizer Smolski. In this way, the years 1886-1887 even entered the Lithuanian encyclopedia.
LL Zamenhof lived in Veisiejai from February 1985 to May 1885.
Source: http://mokslolietuva.lt/2014/09/garsiusias-pasaulio-litvakas-veisiejoes/
Author of the photo of the house: https://www.facebook.com/senosfotografijos/photos/a.10150112444141976/10153496314726976/?type=3&locale=hi_IN
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