People Australia

Bernie Taft, n.d.

University of Melbourne Archives, 11343/75638

Bernard (Bernie) Taft, born Saul Beer Tugenhaft or Tugendhaft (1918-2013) manufacturing chemist, engineer and Communist official. 

Birth: 27 June 1918 in Hanover, Germany, the son of Polish Jews Samuel Taft [Tugenhaft] and Molly [Malka], née Egra. Marriages: (1) details unknown. The marriage ended in divorce on 26 October 1944. (2) 3 July 1948 at the Registry office, Melbourne, Victoria, to native-born Dorothy (Doyna) Rathausky (1921-1977), clerk. They had two children. Death: 23 July 2013. 

• Born in a Jewish family. Fled to Australia with his parents to escape Nazism. May have been a member of the Communist Party from about 1932.
• Arrived at Newcastle, New South Wales, aboard the SS Notou on 29 March 1939. Name changed by deed poll on 18 April 1939.
• Was a manufacturing chemist in Victoria, working at High Street, St Kilda, and living at Shelley Street, Elwood, Melbourne, when he registered on 18 September 1939 under the National Security (Aliens Control) Regulations.
• Was naturalised in Melbourne on 3 November 1945.
• Joint national secretary of the Communist Party of Australia in 1979. Attended party schools in Beijing and Moscow. Fought people such as the Industrial Groupers like Bob Santamaria for much of his political life from 1939 to mid-1980s.
• In 1984 (resigned), led twenty-three disillusioned senior members out of Victorian branch of CPA.
• Author of autobiography Crossing the Party Line (1994), also worked on a German translation.

Sources
Rapprochements, 29 November 1996, pp 28-35.