to persecute

They were persecuted.

The witch hunt has begun.

In spite of the tyrant’s persecution, the hero valiantly carried on the struggle.

What I’m getting at is that Zamenhof not only built a linguistic object, but that behind that was an idea — an idea of brotherhood, a pacifist idea. That strength of an ideal — for which Esperantists were even persecuted under Nazism and Stalinism — is still conserved by the community of Esperantists. One cannot say that it has failed, but one thing needs to be said: the reason why any language is successful is always indefinable.