Dr Lotta (as she is known), was a refugee from Czechoslovakia during World War II, fleeing to Belgium, southern France and Portugal, before finally coming to Canada. She began to work on behalf of refugees with the Unitarian Service Committee in Boston. Three years after arriving in Canada, she founded the Unitarian Service Committee of Canada in the basement of The Church of Our father, Unitarian, with the help of another Czech refugee,Lotte Heim, and the people of the Ottawa Unitarian Congregation.
In recognition of her work she has received awards from various governments, and Canada has made her a Companion of the Order of Canada, the nation's highest award.
Members of this Congregation are proud to have helped at the beginning and now to have her bust as a reminder of our present obligation to help those in need - a reminder each time we enter this building.
Don Saxon, then President of the Congregation, learned that Harold Pfeiffer had his original sculpture of Dr. Lotta Hitschmanova, founder of the Unitarian Service Committee (USC), in his basement. After a visit to Dr. Pfeiffer's, a bronze was commissioned and presented as a gift to the church on December 9, 1979 by Don and Renee Saxon and the sculptor. |
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Unitarian Universalist History