Arthur Goldreich
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Arthur Goldreich was an abstract painter born in 1929 in Johannesburg, South Africa, and a key figure in the anti-apartheid movement.
Goldreich settled in Israel. In time he became a leading figure at Bezalel Academy in Jerusalem. In 1966 he became the head of Industrial and Environmental Design Department., which he helped transform into an internationally recognized center for design.
By the age of 33, Goldreich had moved to South Africa where he became one of the country's most successful artists. In 1955, he won South Africa's Best Young Painter Award for his figures in black and white, but to the Prime Minister Hendrik Verwoerd's regime, he was a key suspect in the Claudestine operations of the anti-apartheid underground. Arrested in July 1963, as a political prisoner, he escaped in August of the same year and made his way to either Swaziland or Tanzania. Shortly thereafter he settled in Israel.
Escape from jail
Arthur Goldreich and Harold Wolpe, a lawyer, used SA Communist Party funds to buy Liliesleaf, a key location at the Rivonia Trial. The two also helped locate sabotage sites for Umkhonto we Sizwe, and draft a disciplinary code for guerrillas.
Wolpe, father of Nicholas Wolpe, the administrator of the new Liliesleaf Trust, was arrested shortly after the Liliesleaf raid. He was taken to Marshall Square prison in the city, where he was held along with Goldreich.
The two met up with Mosie Moola and Abdulhay Jassat, members of the South African Indian Congress, allied to the ANC. Moola and Jassat had been held in solitary confinement, where they had been tortured (they were believed to be the first political activists tortured in South African jails). Wolpe had represented them and the charge had been withdrawn, but they had been arrested again immediately after their release.
The four men plotted an escape, which required the assistance of a prison warden.
The four men escaped successfully, splitting up outside the prison. They made their way to India, where they lived for some time, before returning to South Africa.
Wolpe and Goldreich spent several days hiding in and around Johannesburg's suburbs. They were driven to Swaziland, and from there were flown to Botswana, disguised as priests.
- "The tragedy is that this was scheduled to be the last meeting there. We'd been worried for some time, and everything was due to be moved away from the house."
External links
- The last meeting at Liliesleaf Farm (http://www.joburg.org.za/april2002/liliesleaf.stm)
- http://www.anc.org.za/ancdocs/history/mkcode.html