Arthur Goldreich was born in Johannesburg on 25 December 1929. He grew up in Pietersberg in the Northern Transvaal (now Limpopo). One morning, his secondary school headmaster announced that students would be learning a foreign language, German. The implication was clear, many Afrikaners, including some of their political leaders, hoped and believed that Hitler would win the war. When Goldreich's teacher distributed the German "textbook", Goldreich a Jewish boy found himself staring at a Hitler Youth magazine.