A Remarkable Comrade (e-book) (used book) | Simon Egert | bookbook.eu

Description

"Arrested by the South African Security Police and questioned continuously for days on end, it was clear that the interrogators knew a great deal about me - details of my family, my friends and my habits, but what they did not know was that I was an insomniac - for five days and nights I stayed awake. Detained finally under the notorious 180 days act, I remained in solitary confinement for six months, all alone in a tiny cell except for the cockroaches and the weeds that grew between the cracks." This book recounts the captivating and varied journey of the author through the first 85 years of his life. It gives, amongst other things, a vivid, first hand account of his life fighting against the Apartheid regime in South Africa and touching on the minutiae of daily life as a detainee, from raising weeds and counting ants in a one-man cell through to the fear and tension in the hot summer heat of the interrogation room. We see the progression of the author's life through both political and personal upheavals, with an emphasis on the importance of the immediate family in the life of a young boy torn away from everything he knew in pre-war Poland, to tragedy in the loss of everyone he loved through the holocaust, through political wranglings in South Africa to an enforced second emigration and eventually life working and raising a son in London. Finally, an emotional return to South Africa and a very special meeting with Nelson Mandela. Despite being mugged and beaten by those he had fought for, the author remains optimistic for the future.