Memory Against Forgetting: Memoir of a Time in South African Politics 1938 - 1964

Lionel ‘Rusty’ Bernstein was arrested at Liliesleaf Farm, Rivonia, on 11 July 1963 and tried for sabotage, alongside Nelson Mandela, Walter Sisulu, Govan Mbeki and other leaders of the African National Congress and Umkhonto we Sizwe in what came to be known as the Rivonia Trial. He was acquitted in June 1964, but was immediately rearrested. After being released on bail, he fled with his wife Hilda into exile, followed soon afterwards by their family. This classic text, first published in 1999, is a remarkable man’s personal memoir of a life in South African resistance politics from the late 1930s to the 1960s. In recalling the events in which he participated, and the way in which the apartheid regime affected the lives of those involved in the opposition movements, Rusty Bernstein provides valuable insights into the social and political history of the era.

Rusty Bernstein was a member of the South African Communist Party and played a crucial role in drafting the 1954 Freedom Charter. He was arrested in 1963 and tried with Nelson Mandela and other leaders in what became known as the Rivonia Trial. Rusty was acquitted through lack of evidence and later went into exile. He returned to South Africa in 1994 to run the ANC press office during the first democratic election. He died in 2002.