Escape From Jail
Arthur Goldreich and Harold Wolpe, a lawyer, used South African Communist Party funds to buy Liliesleaf Farm, which was to become the key location in the Rivonia Trial, following the arrests of 19 African National Congress members and leaders by the National Party there. Goldreich and Wolpe also helped locate sabotage sites for Umkhonto we Sizwe, the military arm of the ANC, and draft a disciplinary code for guerrillas.
Wolpe, father of Nicholas Wolpe, the administrator of the new Liliesleaf Trust, was arrested shortly after the Liliesleaf raid where Goldreich, along with Nelson Mandela and others were also jailed. He was taken to Marshall Square prison in the city, where Goldreich was already being held.
The two met up with Mosie Moola and Abdulhay Jassat, members of the Natal Indian Congress, allied to the African National Congress. Moola and Jassat had been held in solitary confinement, where they had been tortured (they were believed to be the first political activists tortured in South African jails). Eventually the four men, working together with the aid of a prison warden, escaped successfully from custody, splitting up outside the prison (with Goldreich disguised as a priest).
Wolpe and Goldreich spent several days hiding in and around Johannesburg's suburbs to avoid capture. Eventually, they were driven to Swaziland, and from there were flown to Botswana, still disguised as priests to avoid being identified by potentially pro-South African British colonial authorities (at this time Swaziland was not independent).
Read more about this topic: Arthur Goldreich
Famous quotes containing the words escape from, escape and/or jail:
“Perhaps I am no one.
True, I have a body
and I cannot escape from it.
I would like to fly out of my head,
but that is out of the question.”
—Anne Sexton (1928–1974)
“... the trouble is that most people in this country think that we can stay out of wars in other parts of the world. Even if we stay out of it and save our own skins, we cannot escape the conditions which will undoubtedly exist in other parts of the world and which will react against us.... We are all of us selfish ... and if we can save our own skins, the rest of the world can go. The best we can do is to realize nobody can save his own skin alone. We must all hang together.”
—Eleanor Roosevelt (1884–1962)
“Let me tell you something. Nobody goes to jail unless they want to. Unless they make themselves get caught. They don’t have things organized.”
—Nicholas Pileggi, U.S. screenwriter, and Martin Scorsese. Henry Hill (Ray Liotta)