Hilda Bernstein

Hilda Bernstein
Lionel and Hilda Bernstein
Born	Hilda Schwarz 15 May 1915 London, United Kingdom
Died	8 September 2006(2006-09-08) (aged 91) Cape Town, South Africa
Nationality	South African
Occupation	author, artist
Known for	Anit-apartheid activism

Hilda Bernstein (London, 15 May 1915 – 8 September 2006) was a British-born author, artist, and an activist against apartheid and for women's rights.

She was born Hilda Schwarz in London and emigrated to South Africa at the age of 18 years and became active in politics. She married fellow activist Lionel "Rusty" Bernstein in March 1941, and together they played prominent roles in the struggle to end Apartheid in South Africa. After her husband was tried and acquitted in the Rivonia Trial in 1964, government harassment forced them to flee to Botswana, an ordeal described in her 1967 book The World that was Ours, which was republished by Persephone Books in 2004. They lived in Britain for some years where she further established herself internationally as a speaker, writer, and artist. She returned with her husband to South Africa in 1994 for the South African election in which fellow activist Nelson Mandela was elected President. She died at the age of 91 in Cape Town, South Africa.

Bernstein was born in London to Russian-Jewish immigrants Simeon and Dora Schwarz. When she was ten her father, who was a lifelong Bolshevik and had been the Russian Trade Attaché to Britain, was recalled to the Soviet Union. He was not able to return to Britain, and after his death she quit school to work before emigrating to South Africa at the age of 18 to work in journalism.