Halina Weinstein (4 January 1902–1942) was a Polish teacher, poet, linguist and

Esperantist An Esperantist () is a person who speaks, reads or writes Esperanto. According to the Declaration of Boulogne, a document agreed upon at the first World Esperanto Congress in 1905, an Esperantist is someone who speaks Esperanto and uses it for ...

. She was murdered by Nazi occupying forces.

Biography

Weinstein was born in

Warsaw Warsaw, officially the Capital City of Warsaw, is the capital and List of cities and towns in Poland, largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the Vistula, River Vistula in east-central Poland. Its population is officially estimated at ...

in 1902.Halina Weinstein
''United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.'' Retrieved 28 March 2025. Her mother Anna Weinstein was also an Esperantist. Weinstein was educated at the

University of Warsaw The University of Warsaw (, ) is a public university, public research university in Warsaw, Poland. Established on November 19, 1816, it is the largest institution of higher learning in the country, offering 37 different fields of study as well ...

's Faculty of Philosophy from 1921. After graduating, she taught

Esperanto Esperanto (, ) is the world's most widely spoken Constructed language, constructed international auxiliary language. Created by L. L. Zamenhof in 1887 to be 'the International Language' (), it is intended to be a universal second language for ...

courses for students of the University. She was a deputy delegate to the Universala Esperanto-Asocio (UEA). Weinstein also headed the publishing department of the Student Esperanto Association and wrote both poetry and prose in Esperanto. Esperantysci u Slominskiego

Esperantists were considered an "anti-Reich element" by the

Nazi Party The Nazi Party, officially the National Socialist German Workers' Party ( or NSDAP), was a far-right politics, far-right political party in Germany active between 1920 and 1945 that created and supported the ideology of Nazism. Its precursor ...

, as "to consider Esperanto merely an auxiliary language for international communication would be incorrect. The artificial language Esperanto is part of Esperantist, the weapon of the Jews." Weinstein died in 1942, one of the Nazi murder victims of the occupation of Warsaw.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Weinstein, Halina 1902 births 1942 deaths Polish Esperantists Polish women educators Polish women poets University of Warsaw alumni Polish people who died in the Holocaust