In Memoriam 1992-1997/Vuk Echtner

VUK ECHTNER

1905—1994

he name of Vuk Echtner is familiar

not only to many Bahá’í friends in the Czech and Slovak Republics and in Austria to whom he imparted a knowledge of the Faith; not only to the people of Domailice (Czech Republic), where the local press seldom missed an opportunity to congratulate its distinguished native;

[Page 114]114 THE BAHA’I’ WORLD

Vuk Ec/mler

not only to the blind and visually impaired for whom he prepared more than fifty textbooks printed by the State Pedagogic Publishers; not only to the innumerable Europeans he came to know thanks to his outstanding linguistic talents and the six languages he had mastered; but also to countless Esperantists around the world with whom he became a friend.

The Universal House of Justice, after it learned that his soul had ascended to the realm on high, wrote on February 6, 1994, to the Regional Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the Czech and Slovak Republics:

DEEPLY GRIEVED TO LEARN OF RECENT PASSING OF VUK ECHTNER, STALWART SERVANT BAHA’U’LLAH AND ONE OF FIRSTTO EMBRACE HIS CAUSE CZECHOSLOVAKIA. WE REFLECT WITH ADMIRATION UPON HIS ILLUSTRIOUS SERVICES SPANNING ONE—HALF CENTURY COMPRISING VALUABLE TRANSLATIONS LITERATURE INTO

CZECH AND EXTENSIVE PROCLAMATION FAITH IN CONJUNCTION HIS WORK AS ESPERANTIST. HE CONTRIBUTED IMMEASURABLY TO CONSOLIDATION Bahá’í COMMUNITY DURING ITS EARLIEST STAGES THAT COUNTRY AND REMAINED STEADFAST THROUGHOUT HARDSHIP, INCLUDING TWO—YEAR INCARCERATION LATE FIFTIES FOR HIS BELIEFS. CONFIDENT HIS SACRIFICES WILL BE ABUNDANTLY REWARDED IN ABHA KINGDOM AND WILL DRAW UNTOLD BLESSINGS ON FOLLOWERS OF BAHA’U’LLAH IN CZECH AND SLOVAK REPUBLICS.

KINDLY ASSURE HIS DEAR WIFE AND TWO CHILDREN OUR SUPPLICATIONS AT SACRED THRESHOLD FORTHE EXALTATION OF HIS SOUL IN ALL THE WORLDS OF GOD AND FOR THE ALLEVIATION OF THEIR SORROW AT THIS TIME OF LOSS.

Vuk was born on July 10, 1905, in southern Bohemia (Pobéioviee as one of ten children in a working—elass family. He learned of the Bahá’í Faith from the wellknown pacifist Jindfiska Wurmové when he was seventeen. Jindfiska’s son, for whom streets are named in Brno and Olomouc, was one of the first Czech Bahá’ís.

In 1925, La Nova Ego (The New Day), the international Bahá’í’ Esperanto gazette was launched, founded by Friedrich Gerstner and Hermann Grossman in Hamburg, Germany. Vuk was among its contributors along with Martha Root, Lidia Zamenhof, John Esslemont, Adelbert Mühlschlegel, and Auguste Forel. When Lidia began to translate Babzi’u’lla’la and the New Era into Esperanto, Vuk assisted her. Photographs and newspaper articles of the time testify to his work with these

[Page 115]IN MEMORIAM 1992—1997 115

luminaries of the Bahá’í and Esperantist worlds.

Vuk is also credited with organizing an international symposium in Prague in 1927, the theme of which was “Peace Through Instruction.” Held at Charles University it was attended by Edvard Benes, then foreign minister.

His life was characterized by a multiplicity of activities. For sixty—five years he collaborated with the Esperanto Museum in Vienna, and for forty—seven years (1928—1975) he was chief editor ofAurara, the Esperanto journal for the blind. Of his work with the visually impaired he wrote, “My work for the blind is ‘word and deed devoted to the Glory of God and the good of one’s fellows’,w citing the Czech edition of Baba’it’llzi/a and the New Em.“

At the age of fifty he completed his studies at the Pedagogic Academy in night classes and taught at the famed Jan Deyl Conservatory and Secondary School for the Visually Impaired in Prague. He also created a Czech—Esperanto braille dictionary.

For many years Vuk was in contact with the eminent Czech orientalists Dr. Sommer, Dr. Ivo Spoutil, and Dr. Vincenc Lesny.” The latter is a noted indologist often quoted in the Czech media today and by whom tributes about our Faith were penned. Vuk was also a friend of Dr. Jan

7‘ Dr. }. E. Esslemont, Balzd'u Y/a'lj a noun 51064, p. 91. Ba/Jd'u’lM/J and the New Em, p. 112. “Bahá’í prayer is not, however, confined to the use of prescribed Forms, important as those are. Baha’u’llzih teaches that one's whole life should be a prayer; that work done in the right spirit is worship; that every thought, word, and deed devoted to the Glory of God and the good of one’s fellows is prayer, in the truest sense of the word."

72 Director of the Oriental Institute in Prague,

1945—52. For his tribute see “Appreciations of the

Bahá’í Faith,” 7776’ Baku"! W/or/d, vol. VlIi.

Rypka,75 dean of Charles University in Prague, a recipient ofa letter from Shoghi Effendi, and a person who had met many Bahá’ís and who, in 1948, had written an article entitled “My Bahá’í Friends.”74

The Communist regime was particularly repressive during the 19505, and from 1951 Vuk had been a target because of his Faith and his work with the Esperantists. He was imprisoned for these "enemy activities” in 1956 and was given amnesty two years later. During his incarceration he transcribed twenty—two textbooks from various languages into braille. Over the course of his life, he transcribed a total of fifty—two textbooks into braille.

He was again in contact with the Austrian Bahá’í community in 1985, and during the Riḍván period of1989 he was visited by Bahá’í friends from Austria for the first time in many years. In the course oflater visits, a two—hour video was made with the Echtner family. It was a particular joy for him to meet Bahá’í friends from all over the world during the opening of the Townshend International School in Hluboka, and it seemed to his wife as if he had been rejuvenated, although on his return home his legs failed him.

Vuk was an example of constancy and steadfasmess to many. He gave his Visitors an inkling of the spiritual nobility ofwhich ‘Abdu’l-Bahá spoke. Despite his physical infirmities he had a very clear vision, was well read, and well informed, even in his advanced age.

He strove for perfection. He used to recount that when he was editing the Czech Bahá’í—News, Babjske’ sefz'ty, he used to count the letters for a long time so that the verses

75 Oriental scholar, one of the Founders of the Oriental Institute in Prague and a world-recognized expert in Persian and Turkish literature.

74 Navy orient, vol. 111, no. 1, 1948.

[Page 116]116 THE BAHA’I’ WORLD

of the prayer on the title page would appear exactly in the center. He had qualities of a highly gifted educator complemented by forbearance and gentleness. Few of the Bahá’í friends who met him will forget his touching “Allah—u—Abhá.”

Vuk Echtner quietly passed away on January 20, 1994, in the eighty-eighth year of his life. On his bedside table his relatives found the Czech Bahá’í prayer book, which had been published in Austria in 1981. His wife, Antonie, who had supported him throughout their eventful life together, died shortly after on February 11, 1994, at the age of eighty—four.

Adapted in partfiom a translation of cm article written in German by Ham: Sadeyfi