Bram Fischer
Encyclopedia
Abram Louis Fischer, commonly known as Bram Fischer, (23 April 1908 Bloemfontein
- 8 May 1975 Bloemfontein) was a South Africa
n lawyer
of Afrikaner
descent, notable for anti-apartheid activism and for the legal defence of anti-apartheid figures, including Nelson Mandela
at the Rivonia Trial
.
Nelson Mandela
wrote, Fischer was one of the "bravest and staunchest friends of the freedom struggle that I have ever known." From a prominent Afrikaner family, he gave up a life of privilege, rejected his heritage, and was ostracized by his own people, showing "a level of courage and sacrifice that was in a class by itself.
In Country of My Skull
, Antjie Krog
writes, "He was so much braver than the rest of us, he paid so much more, his life seems to have touched the lives of so many people - even after his death.”
In her account of her detention and solitary confinement by the South African Security Branch in 1963, Ruth First
writes about being questioned about Fischer during an interrogation. She told her interrogators: "Bram is a friend, a very dear friend of mine, a wonderful man, and - thank God for the reputation of your people that you have at least one saving grace - he's an Afrikaner."
Fischer was awarded the Lenin Peace Prize
in 1967.
In 2003 Fischer became the first South African ever to be posthumously reinstated to the Bar.
In 2004, despite opposition from alumni and management, Fischer was awarded a posthumous honorary degree by Stellenbosch University
.
New College (University of Oxford), where Fischer was a student, holds an annual Bram Fischer Memorial Lecture to honour his legacy.
, and his grandfather was Abraham Fischer
, a prime minister of the Orange River Colony
and later a member of the cabinet of the unified South Africa.
Prior to studying at Oxford University (New College
) as a Rhodes scholar during the 1930s, he was schooled at Grey College
and Grey University College
in Bloemfontein
, he was a resident of House Abraham Fischer which is named after his grandfather Abraham Fischer
. During his stay at Oxford, he travelled on the European continent, including a trip in 1932 to the Soviet Union
. In a letter to his parents during his trip, he noted similarities between the position of Russian farmers that he encountered along the Volga river and South African blacks.
In 1937, Fischer married Molly Krige, a niece of Jan Smuts
; the couple had three children. One of their sons died of cystic fibrosis in adolescence. Molly herself became involved in politics and was detained without trial in the state of emergency declared after the Sharpeville massacre
. In 1963, Bram and Molly were driving to Cape Town for their daughter's 21st birthday. Bram swerved the car to avoid hitting a speeding motorcyclist on the road. The car veered off the road and overturned into a river, causing Molly to drown. Bram was devastated and inconsolable, devoting himself more than ever to his secret life as a leader of the South African Communist Party
(SACP).
(SACP) in the 1940s and soon rose to leadership positions within the party. The SACP had a close relationship with the African National Congress
(ANC) and in 1943, Fischer co-authored revisions to the constitution of the ANC. In 1946 he was charged with incitement arising out of his position as a leader of the SACP and the African Mine Workers' Strike
of that year.
Alongside Issy Maisels and others, Fischer played an integral role on the defense team in the Treason Trial
of 1956-1961 where Mandela and many other anti-apartheid activists were acquitted on 29 March 1961. In his autobiography
, Mandela affectionately recalls Fischer reading the left wing publication New Age at his table during the trial proceedings.
Fischer led Nelson Mandela
's legal defense team at the Rivonia Trial
of 1963-1964. By a coincidence, Fischer had not being present at the raid on Liliesleaf, although he had in fact been part of the trusted Rivonia inner circle. A number of documents seized by authorities were in his handwriting.
Mandela and co-defendants were sentenced to life imprisonment sentence instead of the death penalty, which the state prosecutor Percy Yutar
had been asking for. This was considered a victory for the defence. International pressure also played a role. At this time, Fischer's role as leader of the SACP was unknown even to his closest white friends.
After the verdict, Bram Fischer visited the Rivonia trial prisoners on Robben Island
to discuss the question of an appeal in their case. Wishing not to protect the prisoners, he did not tell them of his wife’s death one week earlier. After the meeting, Mandela learned about Mrs Fischer's death and wrote to Fischer, a letter that his prison guards never delivered. A few days later Fischer was himself arrested, held in solitary confinement for three days and then released. On 23 September 1964, he was again arrested and joined the 12 white men and women facing charges of being members of the now illegal South African Communist Party.
Fischer was arrested in September 1964 and charged with the crime of membership of the SACP. He was released on bail to handle a patent case in London
. He applied for bail to attend to his case. In his appeal to Court in the bail application he stated:
Fischer returned to South Africa face trial despite pressure put in him to forego his £5,000 bail and go into exile. One day, after proceedings began, he did not arrive at Court and instead sent a letter to his counsel, Harold Hanson
which was read out in court. He wrote:
Fischer went underground to support the liberation struggle against apartheid. In doing so, went against the advice of Mandela, who had advised him to support the struggle in the courtroom, "where people could see this Afrikaner son of a judge president fighting for the rights of the powerless. But he could not let others suffer while he remained free. [...] Bram did not want to ask others to make a sacrifice that he was unwilling to make himself."
Fischer was struck off the advocate's roll in 1965 in a trial completed in his absence. Advocates Harold Hanson
, Sydney Kentridge
and Arthur Chaskalson
defended him at the hearing.
During his incarceration, he contracted cancer. A fall induced by the effects of the cancer in September 1974 left Fischer with a fractured neck, femur, partial paralysis, and an inability to talk. It was not until December of that year, that the authorities had him transferred to a hospital. When news of his illness was publicised, the public lobbied government for his release. Fischer was placed under house arrest
at his brother's home in Bloemfontein
in April 1975. He died a few weeks later. The prisons department had Fischer's ashes returned to them after the funeral and they have never been located.
, a novel by Pulitzer prize
and Nobel prize
winner and fellow South African, Nadine Gordimer
, is based on the life of Bram Fischer's daughter; he is the "Burger" of the title. Fischer is also the subject of Stephen Clingman's Bram Fischer: Afrikaner Revolutionary, which won the Alan Paton Award
in 1999, and Martin Meredith's Fischer' Choice. South African director Sharon Farr's documentary, Love, Communism, Revolution & Rivonia - Bram Fischer’s Story, won the Encounters Film Festival Audience Award for Best South African Documentary in August 2007.
Bloemfontein
Bloemfontein is the capital city of the Free State Province of South Africa; and, as the judicial capital of the nation, one of South Africa's three national capitals – the other two being Cape Town, the legislative capital, and Pretoria, the administrative capital.Bloemfontein is popularly and...
- 8 May 1975 Bloemfontein) was a South Africa
South Africa
The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...
n lawyer
Lawyer
A lawyer, according to Black's Law Dictionary, is "a person learned in the law; as an attorney, counsel or solicitor; a person who is practicing law." Law is the system of rules of conduct established by the sovereign government of a society to correct wrongs, maintain the stability of political...
of Afrikaner
Afrikaner
Afrikaners are an ethnic group in Southern Africa descended from almost equal numbers of Dutch, French and German settlers whose native tongue is Afrikaans: a Germanic language which derives primarily from 17th century Dutch, and a variety of other languages.-Related ethno-linguistic groups:The...
descent, notable for anti-apartheid activism and for the legal defence of anti-apartheid figures, including Nelson Mandela
Nelson Mandela
Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela served as President of South Africa from 1994 to 1999, and was the first South African president to be elected in a fully representative democratic election. Before his presidency, Mandela was an anti-apartheid activist, and the leader of Umkhonto we Sizwe, the armed wing...
at the Rivonia Trial
Rivonia Trial
The Rivonia Trial was a trial that took place in South Africa between 1963 and 1964, in which ten leaders of the African National Congress were tried for 221 acts of sabotage designed to overthrow the apartheid system.-Origins:...
.
Tributes
Fischer is widely acknowledged as a key figure in the anti-apartheid struggle.Nelson Mandela
Nelson Mandela
Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela served as President of South Africa from 1994 to 1999, and was the first South African president to be elected in a fully representative democratic election. Before his presidency, Mandela was an anti-apartheid activist, and the leader of Umkhonto we Sizwe, the armed wing...
wrote, Fischer was one of the "bravest and staunchest friends of the freedom struggle that I have ever known." From a prominent Afrikaner family, he gave up a life of privilege, rejected his heritage, and was ostracized by his own people, showing "a level of courage and sacrifice that was in a class by itself.
In Country of My Skull
Country of My Skull
Country of My Skull is a 1998 nonfiction book by Antjie Krog primarily about the findings of the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission...
, Antjie Krog
Antjie Krog
Antjie Krog, born October 23, 1952 in Kroonstad, Orange Free State, South Africa, is a prominent South African poet, academic and writer. In 2004 she joined the Arts faculty of the University of the Western Cape.- Early life :...
writes, "He was so much braver than the rest of us, he paid so much more, his life seems to have touched the lives of so many people - even after his death.”
In her account of her detention and solitary confinement by the South African Security Branch in 1963, Ruth First
Ruth First
Ruth First was a white South African anti-apartheid activist and scholar born in Johannesburg, South Africa...
writes about being questioned about Fischer during an interrogation. She told her interrogators: "Bram is a friend, a very dear friend of mine, a wonderful man, and - thank God for the reputation of your people that you have at least one saving grace - he's an Afrikaner."
Fischer was awarded the Lenin Peace Prize
Lenin Peace Prize
The International Lenin Peace Prize was the Soviet Union's equivalent to the Nobel Peace Prize, named in honor of Vladimir Lenin. It was awarded by a panel appointed by the Soviet government, to notable individuals whom the panel indicated had "strengthened peace among peoples"...
in 1967.
In 2003 Fischer became the first South African ever to be posthumously reinstated to the Bar.
In 2004, despite opposition from alumni and management, Fischer was awarded a posthumous honorary degree by Stellenbosch University
Stellenbosch University
Stellenbosch University is a public research university situated in the town of Stellenbosch, South Africa. Other nearby universities are the University of Cape Town and University of the Western Cape....
.
New College (University of Oxford), where Fischer was a student, holds an annual Bram Fischer Memorial Lecture to honour his legacy.
Family and Education
Fischer came from a prominent Afrikaner family; his father was Percy Fischer, a Judge President of the Orange Free StateOrange Free State
The Orange Free State was an independent Boer republic in southern Africa during the second half of the 19th century, and later a British colony and a province of the Union of South Africa. It is the historical precursor to the present-day Free State province...
, and his grandfather was Abraham Fischer
Abraham Fischer
Abraham Fischer was a South African statesman. He was the sole Prime Minister of the Orange River Colony in South Africa, and when that ceased to exist joined the cabinet of the newly formed Union of South Africa.-Biography:...
, a prime minister of the Orange River Colony
Orange River Colony
The Orange River Colony was the British colony created after this nation first occupied and then annexed the independent Orange Free State in the Second Boer War...
and later a member of the cabinet of the unified South Africa.
Prior to studying at Oxford University (New College
New College, Oxford
New College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom.- Overview :The College's official name, College of St Mary, is the same as that of the older Oriel College; hence, it has been referred to as the "New College of St Mary", and is now almost always...
) as a Rhodes scholar during the 1930s, he was schooled at Grey College
Grey College, Bloemfontein
Grey College is a public school for boys located in Bloemfontein, Free State, South Africa, one of the 23 elite, historically significant and prestigious Milner Schools...
and Grey University College
University of the Free State
The University of the Free State is situated in Bloemfontein, the capital of the Free State, South Africa. The university also has a satellite campus in Qwaqwa that was, until 2003, part of the University of the North.-Academic Divisions:...
in Bloemfontein
Bloemfontein
Bloemfontein is the capital city of the Free State Province of South Africa; and, as the judicial capital of the nation, one of South Africa's three national capitals – the other two being Cape Town, the legislative capital, and Pretoria, the administrative capital.Bloemfontein is popularly and...
, he was a resident of House Abraham Fischer which is named after his grandfather Abraham Fischer
Abraham Fischer
Abraham Fischer was a South African statesman. He was the sole Prime Minister of the Orange River Colony in South Africa, and when that ceased to exist joined the cabinet of the newly formed Union of South Africa.-Biography:...
. During his stay at Oxford, he travelled on the European continent, including a trip in 1932 to the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
. In a letter to his parents during his trip, he noted similarities between the position of Russian farmers that he encountered along the Volga river and South African blacks.
In 1937, Fischer married Molly Krige, a niece of Jan Smuts
Jan Smuts
Jan Christiaan Smuts, OM, CH, ED, KC, FRS, PC was a prominent South African and British Commonwealth statesman, military leader and philosopher. In addition to holding various cabinet posts, he served as Prime Minister of the Union of South Africa from 1919 until 1924 and from 1939 until 1948...
; the couple had three children. One of their sons died of cystic fibrosis in adolescence. Molly herself became involved in politics and was detained without trial in the state of emergency declared after the Sharpeville massacre
Sharpeville massacre
The Sharpeville Massacre occurred on 21 March 1960, at the police station in the South African township of Sharpeville in the Transvaal . After a day of demonstrations, at which a crowd of black protesters far outnumbered the police, the South African police opened fire on the crowd, killing 69...
. In 1963, Bram and Molly were driving to Cape Town for their daughter's 21st birthday. Bram swerved the car to avoid hitting a speeding motorcyclist on the road. The car veered off the road and overturned into a river, causing Molly to drown. Bram was devastated and inconsolable, devoting himself more than ever to his secret life as a leader of the South African Communist Party
South African Communist Party
South African Communist Party is a political party in South Africa. It was founded in 1921 as the Communist Party of South Africa by the joining together of the International Socialist League and others under the leadership of Willam H...
(SACP).
Professional and political activies
Fischer joined the South African Communist PartySouth African Communist Party
South African Communist Party is a political party in South Africa. It was founded in 1921 as the Communist Party of South Africa by the joining together of the International Socialist League and others under the leadership of Willam H...
(SACP) in the 1940s and soon rose to leadership positions within the party. The SACP had a close relationship with the African National Congress
African National Congress
The African National Congress is South Africa's governing Africanist political party, supported by its tripartite alliance with the Congress of South African Trade Unions and the South African Communist Party , since the establishment of non-racial democracy in April 1994. It defines itself as a...
(ANC) and in 1943, Fischer co-authored revisions to the constitution of the ANC. In 1946 he was charged with incitement arising out of his position as a leader of the SACP and the African Mine Workers' Strike
African Mine Workers' Strike
The African Mine Workers' Strike, by mine workers of Witwatersrand started on August 12, 1946 and lasted around 1 week. The strike was attacked by police and over the week, at least 1,248 workers were wounded and at least 9 killed.-African Mine Workers' Union:...
of that year.
Alongside Issy Maisels and others, Fischer played an integral role on the defense team in the Treason Trial
Treason Trial
The Treason Trial was a trial in which 156 people, including Nelson Mandela, were arrested in a raid and accused of treason in South Africa in 1956....
of 1956-1961 where Mandela and many other anti-apartheid activists were acquitted on 29 March 1961. In his autobiography
Long Walk to Freedom
Long Walk to Freedom is an autobiographical work written by Nelson Mandela, and published in 1995 by Little Brown & Co. The book profiles his early life, coming of age, education and 27 years in prison. Mandela was once regarded as a terrorist but he is now regarded as uncontroversial...
, Mandela affectionately recalls Fischer reading the left wing publication New Age at his table during the trial proceedings.
Fischer led Nelson Mandela
Nelson Mandela
Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela served as President of South Africa from 1994 to 1999, and was the first South African president to be elected in a fully representative democratic election. Before his presidency, Mandela was an anti-apartheid activist, and the leader of Umkhonto we Sizwe, the armed wing...
's legal defense team at the Rivonia Trial
Rivonia Trial
The Rivonia Trial was a trial that took place in South Africa between 1963 and 1964, in which ten leaders of the African National Congress were tried for 221 acts of sabotage designed to overthrow the apartheid system.-Origins:...
of 1963-1964. By a coincidence, Fischer had not being present at the raid on Liliesleaf, although he had in fact been part of the trusted Rivonia inner circle. A number of documents seized by authorities were in his handwriting.
Mandela and co-defendants were sentenced to life imprisonment sentence instead of the death penalty, which the state prosecutor Percy Yutar
Percy Yutar
Dr. Percy Yutar was South Africa’s first Jewish attorney-general. Yutar was one of eight children in a family of Lithuanian immigrants...
had been asking for. This was considered a victory for the defence. International pressure also played a role. At this time, Fischer's role as leader of the SACP was unknown even to his closest white friends.
After the verdict, Bram Fischer visited the Rivonia trial prisoners on Robben Island
Robben Island
Robben Island is an island in Table Bay, 6.9 km west of the coast of Bloubergstrand, Cape Town, South Africa. The name is Dutch for "seal island". Robben Island is roughly oval in shape, 3.3 km long north-south, and 1.9 km wide, with an area of 5.07 km². It is flat and only a...
to discuss the question of an appeal in their case. Wishing not to protect the prisoners, he did not tell them of his wife’s death one week earlier. After the meeting, Mandela learned about Mrs Fischer's death and wrote to Fischer, a letter that his prison guards never delivered. A few days later Fischer was himself arrested, held in solitary confinement for three days and then released. On 23 September 1964, he was again arrested and joined the 12 white men and women facing charges of being members of the now illegal South African Communist Party.
Fischer was arrested in September 1964 and charged with the crime of membership of the SACP. He was released on bail to handle a patent case in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
. He applied for bail to attend to his case. In his appeal to Court in the bail application he stated:
- "I am an Afrikaner. My home is in South Africa. I will not leave my country because my political beliefs conflict with those of the Government."
Fischer returned to South Africa face trial despite pressure put in him to forego his £5,000 bail and go into exile. One day, after proceedings began, he did not arrive at Court and instead sent a letter to his counsel, Harold Hanson
Harold Hanson
Harold Joseph Hanson was an eminent South African advocate and Senior Member of the Johannesburg Bar Council. He was born in Johannesburg to Ralph Hanson, a Rand pioneer and Clara Lewis. Harold Hanson first married May Koseff with whom he had a daughter. His second marriage was in 1945 to Anna...
which was read out in court. He wrote:
- "By the time this reaches you I shall be a long way from Johannesburg and shall absent myself from the remainder of the trial. But I shall still be in the country to which I said I would return when I was granted bail. I wish you to inform the Court that my absence, though deliberate, is not intended in any way to be disrespectful. Nor is it prompted by any fear of the punishment which might be inflicted on me. Indeed I realise fully that my eventual punishment may be increased by my present conduct..."
- "My decision was made only because I believe that it is the duty of every true opponent of this Government to remain in this country and to oppose its monstrous policy of apartheid with every means in his power. That is what I shall do for as long as I can..."
- "What is needed is for White South Africans to shake themselves out of their complacency, a complacency intensified by the present economic boom built upon racial discrimination. Unless this whole intolerable system is changed radically and rapidly, disaster must follow. Appalling bloodshed and civil war will become inevitable because, as long as there is oppression of a majority, such oppression will be fought with increasing hatred."
Fischer went underground to support the liberation struggle against apartheid. In doing so, went against the advice of Mandela, who had advised him to support the struggle in the courtroom, "where people could see this Afrikaner son of a judge president fighting for the rights of the powerless. But he could not let others suffer while he remained free. [...] Bram did not want to ask others to make a sacrifice that he was unwilling to make himself."
Fischer was struck off the advocate's roll in 1965 in a trial completed in his absence. Advocates Harold Hanson
Harold Hanson
Harold Joseph Hanson was an eminent South African advocate and Senior Member of the Johannesburg Bar Council. He was born in Johannesburg to Ralph Hanson, a Rand pioneer and Clara Lewis. Harold Hanson first married May Koseff with whom he had a daughter. His second marriage was in 1945 to Anna...
, Sydney Kentridge
Sydney Kentridge
Sir Sydney Kentridge KCMG, QC is a prominent South African lawyer and member of the English Bar. He played a leading part in a number of the most significant political trials in apartheid-era South Africa, including the Stephen Biko inquest in 1977.-Education:Kentridge was born in 1922 in...
and Arthur Chaskalson
Arthur Chaskalson
Arthur Chaskalson, is a former President of the Constitutional Court of South Africa and Chief Justice of South Africa...
defended him at the hearing.
Imprisonment and death
Fischer carried on underground activities for almost a year. He was arrested in November 1965, nine months after his return to South Africa and after 290 days underground. In March 1966 he was put on trial for a second time on charges of furthering the aims of communism and conspiracy to overthrow the government. He was found guilty and sentenced to life imprisonment. He was imprisoned in Pretoria Prison.During his incarceration, he contracted cancer. A fall induced by the effects of the cancer in September 1974 left Fischer with a fractured neck, femur, partial paralysis, and an inability to talk. It was not until December of that year, that the authorities had him transferred to a hospital. When news of his illness was publicised, the public lobbied government for his release. Fischer was placed under house arrest
House arrest
In justice and law, house arrest is a measure by which a person is confined by the authorities to his or her residence. Travel is usually restricted, if allowed at all...
at his brother's home in Bloemfontein
Bloemfontein
Bloemfontein is the capital city of the Free State Province of South Africa; and, as the judicial capital of the nation, one of South Africa's three national capitals – the other two being Cape Town, the legislative capital, and Pretoria, the administrative capital.Bloemfontein is popularly and...
in April 1975. He died a few weeks later. The prisons department had Fischer's ashes returned to them after the funeral and they have never been located.
Works about Fischer
Burger's DaughterBurger's Daughter
Burger's Daughter is an historical novel by South African Nobel Prize in Literature-winner Nadine Gordimer, originally published in the United Kingdom in 1979 by Jonathan Cape...
, a novel by Pulitzer prize
Pulitzer Prize
The Pulitzer Prize is a U.S. award for achievements in newspaper and online journalism, literature and musical composition. It was established by American publisher Joseph Pulitzer and is administered by Columbia University in New York City...
and Nobel prize
Nobel Prize
The Nobel Prizes are annual international awards bestowed by Scandinavian committees in recognition of cultural and scientific advances. The will of the Swedish chemist Alfred Nobel, the inventor of dynamite, established the prizes in 1895...
winner and fellow South African, Nadine Gordimer
Nadine Gordimer
Nadine Gordimer is a South African writer and political activist. She was awarded the 1991 Nobel Prize in Literature when she was recognised as a woman "who through her magnificent epic writing has – in the words of Alfred Nobel – been of very great benefit to humanity".Her writing has long dealt...
, is based on the life of Bram Fischer's daughter; he is the "Burger" of the title. Fischer is also the subject of Stephen Clingman's Bram Fischer: Afrikaner Revolutionary, which won the Alan Paton Award
Alan Paton Award
The Alan Paton Award is a South African literary award that been conferred annually since 1989 for meritorious works of non-fiction. Sponsored by the Johannesburg weekly the Sunday Times, recipients represent the cream of contemporary South African writers who produce works that are judged to...
in 1999, and Martin Meredith's Fischer' Choice. South African director Sharon Farr's documentary, Love, Communism, Revolution & Rivonia - Bram Fischer’s Story, won the Encounters Film Festival Audience Award for Best South African Documentary in August 2007.
External links
- SACP bio of Bram Fischer, with picture
- Bram Fischer's "A Message from Underground"
- First Bram Fischer Memorial Lecture, by Nelson Mandela on June 9, 1995
- "The Rivonia Trial" - article by Sunder Katwala from The Observer, dated Sunday, February 11, 2001
- http://www.mg.co.za/article/2003-10-16-bram-fischer-reinstated-on-roll Bram Fischer on Roll
- http://www.lrc.org.za/Articles/Articles_Detail.asp?Art_ID=205 Bram Fischer posthoumusly reinstated to roll of attorneys
- http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=13&art_id=qw1099930862755B216 Academic fight brews over honours for Fischer
- http://www.news24.com/News24/South_Africa/News/0,9294,2-7-1442_1620129,00.html Fischer issue comes to a head
- Problem of Communism in Southern Africa", in Paul Trewhela, Inside Quatro: Uncovering the Exile History of the ANC and SWAPO, Jacana Media, Johannesburg, 2009