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Hilda Bernstein

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The Resume

    (May 15, 1915-September 8, 2006)
    Born in London, United Kingdom
    Birth name was Hilda Watts
    Anti-apartheid activist
    Married to fellow activist Lionel Bernstein
    Founding member of the Federation of South African Women (1956)
    Fled with Lionel to Botswana (1964) followed by exile in Great Britain
    Returned to South Africa for its first multiracial elections (1994)
    Wrote 'The World That Was Ours' (1967) and 'The Rift: The Exile Experience of South Africans' (1994)

Why she might be annoying:

    She joined the South African Communist Party.
    She left her four children behind when she went into exile. (She was eventually able to arrange for them to come to Britain.)
    She admitted that she considered going into exile a 'desertion' of her country.
    She was depressed during her first years in exile: 'I had a breakdown of sorts and suffered a real loss of identity.'

Why she might not be annoying:

    She and Lionel were married for 61 years.
    She was arrested for helping to organize a strike by mine workers (1946).
    She was one of the organizers of the Women's March on Pretoria to protest South African pass laws (August 9, 1958).
    The South African government banned her from writing or publishing (1958).
    She was arrested and detained without charges during a state of emergency (1960).
    She joined the Communist Party partly because it was the only political party in South Africa that was not segregated.
    She left the Communist Party after the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia (1968).
    When Lionel was imprisoned, they exchanged short messages by hiding notes in the collar of shirts he was allowed to send to her for laundering.
    In exile, she launched a second career as a graphic artist, designing posters and book covers for the African National Congress and other anti-apartheid groups.
    She said, 'You can't ever plan how you will react. But I know now that I am able to confront very difficult situations.'

Credit: C. Fishel


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Year In Review:

    In 2023, Out of 125 Votes: 53.60% Annoying