Великобритания отметила смерть Хейзел Гольдрейх — героини борьбы против апартеида, которая в 1963 году выдержала допрос у «самого Гиммлера» в Лилис-лиф

On an ordinary Wednesday morning, September 2 2026, Hazel Goldreich (Berman) passed away in the UK after a long life marked by extreme courage and humility. Born on November 5 1929, Hazel moved to London in 1966, though not by choice. South Africa’s liberation struggle is broadly characterised by the sacrifices of successive generations of people who committed themselves to the removal of the apartheid state and its replacement with a rights-based order. In this mass struggle, which eventually took on global proportions, we know of and learn about key figures, the famous personalities, and the larger-than-life men and women from across the political milieu. What we don’t often hear of are the experiences of people, particularly women, the wives, mothers and daughters who faced extreme adversity and who remain largely forgotten on the periphery of history. Hazel Goldreich is one such unsung heroine of the liberation struggle. Together with her husband Arthur Goldreich, a founder member of Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK), and her sons Nicholas and Paul, they took up residence at Liliesleaf Farm, Rivonia, in late 1961. This was to be no ordinary life journey, for earlier that year the South African Communist Party had purchased Liliesleaf to function as a secret meeting place. They asked Arthur to front, with his family, as the tenant of the farm. At great risk, Hazel agreed. Nelson Mandela was in residence, hiding there when the family arrived. In Long Walk to Freedom, he described how his children would visit and play with Nicholas and Paul, “in this idyllic bubble”. On one such day Mandela bragged to Hazel about his marksmanship, and she jokingly replied that he would never hit his target perched high in a tree. Mandela shot the bird, only to be chastised by “this small boy” Paul, which for Mandela was an epiphanic moment. In 1962, when Mandela was about to leave for Natal, Hazel pleaded with him not to go, for she had experienced a sense of great dread of what lay ahead. Hazel watched the car leave filled with foreboding, and within a week Mandela was captured by the police’s security branch. On July 11 1963, the world came crashing down when the security branch raided Liliesleaf, capturing key MK members engaged in a meeting. Hazel was collecting her sons from school when the raid struck, and she drove home into chaos and pandemonium. Of all those there that day, Hazel was the only person who demanded to see a search warrant, which was produced. Later, with her husband, she was led into her bedroom and stood before the head of the security branch seated on their bed, a monster once described as South Africa’s own Heinrich Himmler. Pointing to their children outside beyond the window, he taunted Hazel that her sons would be orphans as she and Arthur would be hanged. The two were then separated, and while Hazel prepared dinner, other policemen standing in the kitchen said: “Look at her; she is so calm; she must be the ringleader.” Later, when she took a meal to Arthur, the police tried to stop her. Undeterred, she shouted at them, “It is his right to eat a meal,” so they relented. Arrested and separated from her sons, Hazel spent at least 90 days in detention. Lord Joel Joffe, who went on to defend the accused at the Rivonia Trial which followed, arranged an exit permit on a one-way ticket. Hazel and her children flew to Israel, where she and Goldreich divorced, after which she and the boys flew to the UK as refugees. She raised Nicholas and Paul alone in exile. Hazel rarely spoke of her experiences at that time and avoided any public mention of her role. Yet it was an important one, at a key milestone in South Africa’s history. Hazel Goldreich is one of a generation of people who stood up for their values and principles in the face of tyranny and who risked their lives by doing so. Her memory survives on through Nicholas and Paul, their wives Vivienne and Natasha, and grandchildren Matthew and Sophie, Anna, Sam, Rosy and Jack, and all who knew her. - Dr Garth Benneyworth is a senior lecturer at Sol Plaatje University. He specialises in the heritage of conflict, focusing on the South African War (1899-1902) and the War for Southern Africa (1960-1994)