Hymie Barsel

Hymie died on 13 March 1987 of heart and kidney failure. His heart had been weakened by the torture he had been subjected to whilst fighting for the equality of his African brethren. He was buried in Johannesburg in a traditional Jewish funeral.

On 7 April 1968, Esther was released from hard labor, but subject to a banning order. Both were subjected to ongoing harassment. When their eldest daughter Sonya was married, Esther and Hymie were required by the South African Security Police to provide the guest list, or not be allowed to attend their daughter's wedding. They refused to comply, notwithstanding that all their friends were either in prison, banned or in hiding. Only days before the wedding did the police relent and allow them to attend Sonya's wedding. Esther and Hymie were not allowed to attend religious services or meet with friends. When Hymie's mother, Feiga died, Esther was not allowed to attend her funeral.

Hymie was then subjected to a banning order in March 1964. Both he and his wife Esther were then arrested on 3 July 1964 and charged in the Bram Fischer Trial. Esther was sentenced to three years hard labor, with a banning order upon her release from Women's Prison, while Hymie was acquitted. He was placed under house arrest with his daughters from 1965 to 1968.

Hymie and Esther lent their energies to the organization of the Women's March in Pretoria on 9 August 1956 where 20,000 women marched and submitted petitions protesting the "Pass Laws", a fundamental building block of Apartheid. This organization that was partly led and created by the Barsels is now accorded a National Holiday in the new South Africa.

Hymie was charged with treason and arrested on 13 December 1956. His co-accused included Nelson Mandela and other political luminaries. Esther was left behind to care for the three children – Sonya, then 8 years old, Linda, then 5, and the baby – Merle, aged 8 months. Eventually the South African Government withdrew charges against Hymie on 20 April 1959 after having subjected him to torture, solitary confinement and other pernicious forms of severe punishments.

After the war, Hymie married Esther Levin on 4 December 1945, another Litvak who had been born in Raguva, Lithuania. Together Hymie and Esther worked to organize the Congress of the People (COP) in June 1955. Hymie was famous for selling and distributing COP literature.

Hymie Barsel (11 September 1920 – 13 March 1987) was a South African activist.

Hymie Barsel was born on 11 September 1920 in Fordsburg, Johannesburg, South Africa to Faiga and Moishe Barsel, both of Litvak heritage. He was raised in a Zionist oriented home. He suffered from epilepsy which was ill understood at that time, eventually receiving treatment from Dr. Max Joffe; also a Zionist. Dr. Joffe taught him that antisemitism could never be destroyed unless all racial prejudice was similarly destroyed, this concept of equality of all humanity was at that time the basis of the understanding of the term Communist – a philosophy of human upliftment followed by many in the liberation movement. This was very different from the version of Communism that would later follow in the Soviet Union.