Arthur Goldreich

Arthur Goldreich was born in 1929 in Johannesburg

Goldreich was born in Johannesburg in 1929 to a Jewish family with roots in Eastern Europe and England. He grew up in Pietersburg, where he attended an Afrikaans-speaking high school. As a youth he was active in Zionist groups.

In 1948 he sailed to Haifa to take part in the war and served with the Palmach, guarding Kibbutz Ma'ayan Baruch. After the war he studied architecture at the Technion. In 1950 he returned to Johannesburg to continue at the University of the Witwatersrand, and later studied design in London.

Back in South Africa he designed department stores and exhibited his paintings, including at the Venice Biennale in 1956. In 1959 he designed the sets and costumes for the musical King Kong. He joined the armed underground of the African National Congress and bought Liliesleaf Farm with Harold Wolpe as a secret meeting place.

In 1963 police raided the farm and arrested him. About a month later he escaped from custody disguised as a priest and fled through Swaziland and Botswana. In the Rivonia Trial he was sentenced to death in his absence.

In 1964 he settled in Israel and lived in Herzliya. He taught at Bezalel, where in 1968 he helped found the department of industrial and environmental design, and with his wife Tamar de Shalit he designed monuments. He continued to campaign against apartheid and died in 2011.