Bram Fischer

Abram Louis Fischer ( born April 23, 1908 in Bloemfontein, † May 8, 1975 ibid ), known as Bram Fischer, was a white South African lawyer and civil rights activist.

Life

Fischer came from an Afrikaanerfamilie; both father and grandfather were influential people in the Orange Free State, his grandfather was Prime Minister of the Orange River Colony.

He attended the South African School of Grey College in Bloemfontein. During his studies, he traveled through Europe in 1932 and the Soviet Union. In letters to his parents, he described the situation of the farmers in the Soviet Union and compared these with the situation of blacks in South Africa. Following the study in South Africa, he began in the 1930s to study at Oxford University.

In 1937, Fischer married Molly Krige, a niece Jan Smuts '. With her he had three children. Molly Krige died in 1963 in a car accident.

Political activity

In the 1940s, Fischer was a member of the Communist Party of South Africa ( CPSA later SACP ). Soon after, he took leadership positions within the party. The CPSA maintained a very close relationship with the African National Congress ( ANC) and in 1943 appeared fishermen to changes in the constitution of the ANC. In 1946 he was accused of being a senior politician of the CPSA and its associated involvement in the strikes of the black miners.

Notoriety reached fishermen mainly by the defense of Nelson Mandela, Walter Sisulu and other opponents of apartheid during the Rivonia process from October 1963 to June 1964. Defending reached a commutation of the death sentence to life imprisonment. In September 1964, he was due to his membership in the SACP, a banned organization, was arrested. Later he was released on bail to defend a client in England. He promised his return to South Africa to get the verdict. However, he remained after the first day of the court process was initiated remotely, instead he wrote a letter to his lawyer Harold Hanson, who was read out in court.

" When you hear this, I 'm far from Johannesburg. I'll stay away from now on by the process. But I still remain in the country, as I have promised, as the release has been granted bail me. I want to tell the court that, even though I stay away from knowingly process, contrary to the Court do not bring about a lack of respect or fear of punishment would. On the contrary, I am aware that my absence the sentence only increased.

I have only taken this decision because I believe that it is the duty of every true opponent of this government to remain in the country and to oppose the apartheid policy, by any means available to him to. I will do that as long as possible. "

From then on, he worked in the underground and lost in 1965 admitted to the bar.

Prison and disease

Nine months later, 1966, he was arrested. He was charged with conspiracy, sabotage, and violation of the law for the suppression of Communism ( Suppression of Communism Act ). He was sentenced to life imprisonment.

During his time in prison he contracted cancer. He was partially paralyzed by a conditional by the tumor crash in September 1974 and lost the ability to speak. Only in December he was transferred from prison to a hospital.

He was released from prison and placed in the house of his brother under house arrest on public pressure. He died in May 1975, a few weeks after laying in his brother's house. The prison kept the urn containing the ashes of fisherman after the funeral. To date, their whereabouts are not known.

Reception

In the novel, Daughter Burgers ( Burgers daughter) of the South African writer Nadine Gordimer, the eponymous figure of the anti-apartheid activists Lionel Burger is closely modeled on the example of Bram Fischer. His fight for the rights of the black population has been publicly acknowledged by Nelson Mandela. In his autobiography, Mandela writes:

" Bram Fischer, the grandson of the Prime Minister of the Orange River Colony had brought the greatest sacrifice in many ways. No matter what I had to endure in my commitment to freedom - always, I was referring strength from the fact that I struggled with my own people, and for his interests. Bram, however, was a free man who fought against his own people in order to create the freedom for others. "

The Bloemfontein International Airport was renamed on 13 December 2013, Bram Fischer International Airport.