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Archival description
South Afican History Archive (SAHA) Johannesburg
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Hilda and Rusty Bernstein Papers

Rusty (Lionel) Bernstein's Papers include personal correspondence to family and comrades, professional documentation relating to his career as an architect and inventor, and a large collection of writing, including drafts and material for his political biography "Memory Against Forgetting" as well as articles, essays and literature relating to prominent events in the liberation struggle (the 1946 Mine Workers Strike, The Freedom Charter and the Rivonia Trial). The collection also includes written material relating to his political career in the Communist Party and involvement with the ANC and as editor/contributor to journals like Fighting Talk and The African Communist and a lecture series given in Moscow to young militants of the ANC. Hilda Bernstein's papers include a series of journals dating from 1967 to 2001 and personal diaries written whilst in prison, and on travels throughout South Africa and Europe. A large part of the collection marks her involvement with women's rights and work for the ANC Women's League. There is also a considerable collection of art records documenting her career in London and Europe. The bulk of the collection is comprised of records relating to Hilda's extensive writings - books, articles and political literature. Of particular prominence is material collected for her most recent book "The Rift", which captures the experiences of South African exiles. There is also a large collection of correspondence both personal and professional and political brochures relating to her position as City Councillor for the Communist Party in Johannesburg from 1943 to 1946. The records kept by Hilda (viewed as 'evidence' of Hilda's activities) far outnumber those kept by Rusty. It would be misleading to presume that this is in any way a complete archive of the Bernstein's activities.

Records directly related to the Rivonia Trial are:
D1.2 Sketches, Rivonia Trial done by Hilda on scraps of paper in black pen during the trial. There are drawings of the judge, Special Branch policemen, court scenes and the back of the heads of the accused.
F2.18 Article by Hilda: "The Rivonia Trial" (1 December 1963), 4 pages of a reflection on the trial
F2.23 Article by Hilda: "The Men Who Many Die" (8 March 1964)
F2.25 Article by Hilda: "Rivonia" Landmark in SA Liberation Struggle" (24 June 1964) detailing what happened at Rivonia
F3.36 Article by Hilda: "The Trials of Nelson Mandela" (undated)
R3.1 Article in Sechaba 1989: "Rivonia: Telling it as it was"
V2.1 Transcript of Judge's remarks when passing sentence in the trial (photocopy)
V2.2 "Rivonia: The Story of Accused No. 11" by Bob Hepple. Memoirs (manuscript) with letters from Sisulu and Joffe as appendix.

Minor references to the Rivonia Trial are:
B2.1 Diary notes where Hilda refers visiting Rusty in jail, going to court and consulting with lawyers amongst other things
I11.1.2 Letter addressed to Rusty from Hilda in Pretoria Jail. Aside from address, not reference to trial or Rivonia events.
N4 Correspondence re his inventions and other business between Rusty and Hilda while he was in prison during the Rivonia Trial
Q1 Draft Novel by Rusty written in Pretoria Local Prison during the trial in 1963/4. Content not related to Trial in any way.

Bernstein, Robert L

Julie Frederikse Collection

Sound recordings and interview transcripts. Julie Frederikse worked as a journalist for National Public Radio (NPR) in the USA covered politics in South Africa. The collection includes a taped interview with Denis Goldberg and a file on him. The file contains newspaper clippings of his release in 1985; stickers re his release and release of all political prisoners; transcript of the interview (mostly on his life including rationale behind joining armed struggle) and a biography. The interview does not go into detail about the Rivonia Trial itself.

Fredrickse, Julie

Records of the United Democratic Front (UDF)

Established in 1983 to coordinate opposition to the Apartheid State's reforms, the UDF promoted links between various organisations, region and parties. The UDF Collection was created by adding together material from various sources: individuals, the UDF Information Office and UDF offices from around the country. Gaps are evident. The National Reception Committee which was created to deal with the release of the Rivonia trialists operated from the UDF offices. There is a small amount of material related to this: A1.13.4 Statements and Press Releases (1988, 1989) including on the release of Rivonia leaders (1 file, 10 items) and A1.18.8 Profiles of various people including of Rivonia leaders (1 file, 8 items).

United Democratic Front (UDF)

South African History Archive

SAHA is a human rights archive located at Constitution Hill, Johannesburg. The Struggles for Justice Programme, though mainly concentrating on South African organisations and people, also contains materials of international AAMs.

South African History Archive Photograph Collection

Forms part of Struggles for Justice Archival Collection at SAHA. This collection was opened by Julie Frederikse whilst researching her book The Unbreakable Thread. The 1210 photographs she collected, form the bulk of this collection. SAHA photographs are incorporated into the broader Historical Papers photograph collection stored in the Ephemera room. A few individual photographs relating to the Rivonia Trial are in this collection under 21A including the front page of "The Argus" newspaper with a report on the verdict (21A.10).

South African History Archive (SAHA)

South African History Archive Poster Collection

Forms part of Struggles for Justice Archival Collection at SAHA. In the formative years, SAHA was managed by non-archivists, who applied library techniques to their collection, arrangement and description activities. Materials were catalogued by subject and/or physical medium, with very little attention paid to preserving documentation in accordance with its original context or what is referred to as ‘provenance’ in archival discourse. This approach saw the emergence of six collections one of which was the Poster Collection. The collection dates mainly from the 1980s and 1990s. There are duplicate copies for a substantial proportion of the items. Posters acquired by Historical Papers are also included in this collection. All items are retrievable on a database. The book Images of Defiance: South African Resistance Posters of the 1980s (Raven Press, Johannesburg, 1991)
reproduced 327 items from the collection. Slides of the latter are also available
(see AL2432). A few individual posters relating to the Rivonia Trial are: Poster 181 (SN1096) "Release Mandela Campaign Remembers Rivonia Trial" from 1985 (?) from Release Mandela Campaign and Poster 1049 (SN599) "We remember Rivonia and life-serving prisoners: Release all political prisoners" from Release Mandela Campaign, UDF, COSATU, SAYCO from 1987 (?).

South African History Archive (SAHA)