Wonderful Persephone cover, as always ( )

"Bernstein offers a tremendous insider view of the beginning of governmental strictures that heralded the beginning of full apartheid by clearly detailing the numerous ways intimidation can silence an entire population."
read more:http://likeiamfeasting.blogspot.co.uk/2013/07/the-world-that-was-ours-hilda-bernstein.html ( )

The World that was ours, originally published in 1967, and was written at a time when Hilda Bernstein had to disguise certain names and incidents to protect some of the people she had left behind her in South Africa. Amendments were then made later to the original text when it was safe to do so. This is an extremely well written political memoir by the wife of Rusty Bernstein, one of the men in the Rivonia trial, tried alongside Nelson Mandela and Walter Sisulu – he was later acquitted – but only after having suffered months of mistreatment and isolation in prison.
Hilda Bernstein details the everyday lives of people like her, who had a home and family, had work to do, children to raise, but who lived everyday with the fear of the Special Branch and possible arrest.
“11 July 1963
There was a sense of unease all afternoon. It was true there had been many such days and nights and the premonition is only recalled in its full oppressiveness after disaster has been realised; many, many such times; the precise cause, the months and even the years of them have silently blurred, lost consequence.”
Yet the thought of leaving South Africa for people so committed to their cause was extraordinarily hard – do they leave their friends and colleagues? – Or stay and risk being separated from their children? Imprisoned within a system that becomes harder and harder to fight. The Bernsteins risk everything; they are under enormous pressure and frequently know a very real and almost paralysing fear – which Hilda Bernstein describes brilliantly. The tension and claustrophobia of the South African regime is absolutely palpable. Yet through it all Hilda’s love for her husband sees her through these unimaginably difficult times.
“I held on to Rusty, touched him, kissed. We sat clasping each other, alone together. There was nothing in the cell except the narrow bench against the wall. At first we could barely talk, then we began softly, intimately. It was sheer, unbelievable happiness. I thought if I could sit for an hour a day close to you like this, Rusty, just holding on to your hands and talking, life would be completely bearable. That’s all I want – just an hour a day in close, quiet contact, alone. At that moment it seemed like the fulfilment of all ambition.”
I found the first part of this book where Hilda describes the lives she and her family are leading, both fascinating and poignant. It is almost inconceivable that these things were happening within living memory. I wonder if I would be able to hold quite so fast to my principles in the face of such fear and intimidation. For me however the details surrounding the actual Rivonia trial were rather less exciting than I had expected them to be – but were interesting, thorough and complex. I did find myself frequently horrified and incensed by the prosecutor Yutar, an often nasty tempered, irrational man.
After Rusty’s eventual release – Hilda is the one who now must fear for her freedom. It becomes clear that the Bernsteins must leave. However that is rather easier said than done. To leave involves great secrecy. It is not possible to just go, Hilda needs to judge it just right, she will be leaving her children behind, at least in the short term. However while keeping one eye on the road outside and the garden path, ready to flee; she gets on with her washing. Such is the life of a woman living with the threat of arrest in 1960’s South Africa. The details surrounding Hilda and Rusty’s flight steps the action up considerably. I found it unimaginable – to be driven through the dark at great risk to an unknown destination – into an unknown fate, no guarantees when or even if, they will see those they love again.
The World that was ours is an enormously readable memoir which highlights brilliantly the evil injustices that were practised in South Africa – and the extraordinary men and women who stood up for what was right. ( )

'This has survived as a South African classic not just because it's beautifully written,' wrote Anthony Sampson in the Spectator, 'but because it conveys the combination of ordinariness and danger which is implicit in any totalitarian state.' The World that was Ours is about the events leading up to the 1964 Rivonia Trial when Hilda Bernstein's husband was acquitted but Mandela and the 'men of Rivonia' received life sentences. 'This passionately political memoir,' observed The Times, 'is vibrant with the dilemmas of everyday family life, quick-witted dialogue, fast-paced adventure and novelistic detail.' Yet the political background is not dwelt on: it is simply taken for granted that civilised South Africans fought apartheid and the uncivilised propped it up. The main strength of the book is as an outstanding personal memoir; in this respect it bears comparison with autobiographies by Nadezhda Mandelstam and Christabel Bielenberg. 'It reads like a thriller page after page... The loveliest of Hilda Bernstein's works about the ugliest of her times' said Albie Sachs in the Independent. ( )