Denis was one of the first babies born in Mowbray Maternity Hospital, Cape Town. His parents, Annie and Sam, were communists who had immigrated from England. Denis grew up in a working-class family. His father tried to support the family through a series of different small businesses. He had a small trucking company when Denis was a child.
Denis Goldberg
An ordinary man,
an extraordinary life
Explore Denis Goldberg’s extraordinary life by clicking on the text and archive below
Denis Goldberg was sentenced – alongside Mandela, Motsoaledi, Kathrada, Mlangeni, Mhlaba, Mbeki and Sisulu – to life imprisonment in the Rivonia Trial of 1963/64. He then spent 22 years in prison in Pretoria, separated from his comrades because he was white. After his release, he went on to make significant contributions to building a democratic South Africa.
Denis' Birth
“South Africa had its share of militant groups of Nazi sympathizers and anti-Semites. Even as a child I experienced them. Living across the road from us … was Sergeant Jordaan, an Afrikaner. His son, who was a few years older than I, would strut about wearing his father’s police cap and his revolver holster, throwing ‘Heil Hitler’ salutes … Catching sight of me, he would shout, “I’ll get you, Jew boy!”
– Denis Goldberg
The school years
1939
Denis attended Observatory Boys Junior and High Schools near to where he lived. Denis often told the story about how his first teacher, Miss Cook, gave his class a practical lesson about discrimination after they had dishonestly blamed a disabled classmate for stealing Miss Cook’s pen.
View the archive of Denis' school years
Here Denis is standing outside the house he lived in for some of his childhood in Cavendish Street, Woodstock.
Annie and Sam Goldberg attending a wedding in London in 1923.
Denis’s parent’s marriage certificate which indicates Sam’s occupation as a commercial traveller and their fathers’ occupations as general dealer (Sam) and tailor (Annie).