In Memoriam 1992-1997/Johannes “Hannes” Palu

JOHANNES “HANNES” PALU

1913—1993

ohannes Palu was born on May 27, 1913, Jthe elder son ofJuhan and Elsa Palu. He lived a very simple life with his family in Méisak'tila, a small town in the south of Estonia. His father was employed as a smith for the Estonian railroad. Johannes started his schooling in Méisakiila and went on to high school in Pirnu and finally entered the University of Tartu, where he studied law for several semesters.

In 1930 Johannes enrolled in the first Esperanto class in his school, and in the following year he joined and became a very active member of the Esperanto Club. He liked the logic and the structure of the Esperanto language and devoted his life to its propagation through teaching, translation, and writing.

In 1938 Johannes moved to Tallinn where he met and married Raia Taal, a secretary and translator at the Tallinn Paper factory. Raia was also an ardent Esperantist. Together they made their home in Némme, a suburb ofTallinn.

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The threat of World War I] put an end to his studies. He was mobilized into the army, entering the Estonian Military Academy and eventually reaching the rank of officer. Following the communist takeover Johannes became an officer in the Red Army. A cultured and kind—natured man, Johannes had shown kindness to his army subordinates and had brought down the wrath of his superiors who, in jealousy and anger, accused him of treason. In 1940 he was among the thousands of Estonians who were casualties of the Soviet deportations, and he was exiled to the labor camps in Siberia for fifteen years. During his years in exile he became dangerously ill, and he would have died had he not been cared for by a kindly doctor. In 1955 Johannes was released From Siberia and cleared of all accusations with the words, “All this was an error, forgive us.” He returned to Raia and they lived the rest of their lives together.

Johannes taught Esperanto to students at first, and then he went on to become a teacher of teachers. He introduced Esperanto into the school curriculum during the difficult Soviet times and wrote textbooks for the schools. He also wrote articles that were presented for discussion at conferences abroad, and when possible he attended the congresses and seminars. He frequently organized those that were held in Estonia. I

In 1968 Johannes learned about the Bahá’í Faith from Alice Dudley, an Esperantist from the United States who visited Tallinn. That same year, Johannes and Raia attended an Esperanto Congress in Helsinki and later visited Alice Dudley at her home in Turku, Finland. Alice wrote about this visit:

On Sunday, 3 August, . . . we returned to my apartment . . . and I played “words for the world . . .” As the music stopped

jo/mnnes “Hamlet” Pal"

they began asking questions. They asked what the requirements were to be a Bahá’í—what particular laws and ordinances were in the Faith. On the third day they accepted Bahá’u’lláh and said that only a Divine Being could have such knowledge . . . and how necessary these modern teachings were for mankind.

At the time Johannes and Raia said that they would like to teach the Faith in Estonia which was still under Soviet rule. They knew that they could not do so openly and that they would have to wait for the easing of represssions.37

Johannes translated Baz/azi’zt ’lla'b and the New Em from Esperanto into Estonian, secretly typing the manuscript and giving it, chapter by chapter, to visiting Bahá’í’s to be taken to Finland, where it was finally published in 1989.

In 1990 Johannes was elected to the first

37 Antonina Apolla, the third Bahá’í in Estonia, was taught by Johannes and Raia I‘alu. See pp. 41—42.

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Spiritual Assembly ofTallinn; he was elected a second time but resigned because of ill health. In spite of his poor health he found time to write articles, to assist the translation work and to support the activities of the Bahá’í community, always with the special love and dignity that he possessed.

Maintaining correspondence with more than two hundred individuals, Johannes was well known, respected, and loved by Esperantists all over the world. In 1992 he was made honorary member of the Esperanto—Asocio de Estonio (Estonian Esperanto Society), which he had served for many years.

He passed to the Abhá Kingdom on June 26, 1993, at the age of eighty. The Department of the Secretariat wrote in a letter to the Regional Spiritual Assembly of the Baltic States dated August 5, 1993:

Hannes and his clear wife Raia Palu who, according to the records at the Bahá’í World Centre, were the first two inhabitants of Estonia to accept the Message of Bahá’u’lláh, rendered imperishable services to the Cause by keeping its banner hoisted through so many years before the doors to widespread teaching opened in those lands. Mrs. Antonina Apollo, who learned of the Faith from them in 1977, became a faithful and devoted believer, collaborating with them and with the successive visiting teachers and pioneers in building up the community ofTallinn.

The Universal House of Justice requests you to convey to Mrs. Raia Palu and to Mr. Valeri Apollo its loving sympathy in the loss that each of them has suffered. It will pray at the Sacred Threshold for the progress of the souls of these two

dearly loved followers of Bahá’u’lláh, who have earned an immortal place in the annals of the Cause in the Baltic States.

Johannes is buried at the Hiiu Cemetery in Némme near his last home. The Regional Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the Baltic States had a befitting memorial stone placed and inscribed with words which so poignantly described him:

The lovers of mankind, these are the superior men, ofwhatevet race, creed, or

colour they may be. . . — ‘Abdu’l-Bahá.

Adapted from an article by Brigitte Lundblade