Ossewabrandwag Membership Card. –

Original membership card, filled in with subs paid for the years 1940 and 1941. The Ossewabrandwag (OB) was established in 1938 after the centenary of the Great Trek as a vehicle for Afrikaaner Nationalism. Nearly 40 years after the end of the Second Anglo-Boer War, there was still unhappiness among the Afrikaaners as to how they had been treated by the British. After the Union of South Africa declared war in support of the Allies in 1939, the OB chose to align with Germany who had supported the Boers during the Anglo-Boer War. The OB came to be known as a Fascist organisation with strong National Socialist leanings. Its paramilitary wing, the Stormjaers engaged in acts of sabotage against the Union government during the Second World War, causing the arrest of thousands of its members and their placement in internment camps for the duration of the war. Some of them would go on to become leading members of South Africa’s Apartheid government.

Date Published: 1940-41

First Edition: Yes
Signed: Yes
Condition: Very good

Dimensions: 10 x 15.4cm (unfolded)