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Olga Benario Prestes: Eine Biografische Annäherung
Die Historikerin Anita Leocádia Prestes schildert, wie ihre Mutter, die Kommunistin Olga Benario Prestes, unter widrigsten Umständen für ihre Ideale kämpfte.
Dank der Öffnung des Gestapo-Archivs konnte Anita Prestes dabei auf eine Fülle neuer Materialien zugreifen. So entwirft sie eine Erzählung, die vom Eintritt der jungen Olga in den politischen Kampf, ihre Aufenthalte in der Sowjetunion und in Brasilien, ihre Auslieferung als Hochschwangere an Nazi-Deutschland 1936 und ihren Tod in der Tötungsanstalt Bernburg 1942 reicht. Außerhalb des Gefängnisses initiierten Benarios Schwiegermutter und Schwägerin eine internationale Kampagne, um ihre Freilassung zu erwirken. Sie erreichten, dass die in der Haft geborene Tochter – Anita – zu ihrer Großmutter kam.
Olga Benario widersetzte sich ihren Peinigern bis zuletzt und verriet ihre Genossinnen und Genossen nicht, obwohl man sie mit der Aussicht auf ein Wiedersehen mit ihrer Tochter erpresste. Die biografische Annäherung wird ergänzt von Briefen Benarios und Fotos sowie einem Interview mit der Autorin.
Dank der Öffnung des Gestapo-Archivs konnte Anita Prestes dabei auf eine Fülle neuer Materialien zugreifen. So entwirft sie eine Erzählung, die vom Eintritt der jungen Olga in den politischen Kampf, ihre Aufenthalte in der Sowjetunion und in Brasilien, ihre Auslieferung als Hochschwangere an Nazi-Deutschland 1936 und ihren Tod in der Tötungsanstalt Bernburg 1942 reicht. Außerhalb des Gefängnisses initiierten Benarios Schwiegermutter und Schwägerin eine internationale Kampagne, um ihre Freilassung zu erwirken. Sie erreichten, dass die in der Haft geborene Tochter – Anita – zu ihrer Großmutter kam.
Olga Benario widersetzte sich ihren Peinigern bis zuletzt und verriet ihre Genossinnen und Genossen nicht, obwohl man sie mit der Aussicht auf ein Wiedersehen mit ihrer Tochter erpresste. Die biografische Annäherung wird ergänzt von Briefen Benarios und Fotos sowie einem Interview mit der Autorin.
114 pages, Paperback
Published January 1, 2022
About the author
Anita Leocádia Prestes
15 books13 followersBrazilian historian. She is the daughter of militant Communists Olga Benário Prestes and Luís Carlos Prestes.
She was born in the Frauengefängnis Barnimstraße although she was handed to the care of her paternal grandmother, Leocádia Prestes, at age 14 months.
In 1964, Prestes achieved a degree in Chemistry from the then "University of Brazil", now known as the Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ). Two years later she gained a Masters in Organic Chemistry.
She was born in the Frauengefängnis Barnimstraße although she was handed to the care of her paternal grandmother, Leocádia Prestes, at age 14 months.
In 1964, Prestes achieved a degree in Chemistry from the then "University of Brazil", now known as the Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ). Two years later she gained a Masters in Organic Chemistry.
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
December 1, 2023
Olga Benario was a young communist from Berlin-Neukölln who is rather famous in Brazil today and virtually unknown everywhere else. You read about her in my book Revolutionary Berlin, chapter 4.7, pages 113-115.
A leader of the Communist Youth League in Berlin, Benario became a celebrity when she helped her boyfriend Otto Braun break out of prison in 1928. She fled to Moscow and became a Communist secret agent, which brought her in touch with the Brazilian revolutionary Luis Carlos Prestes. When the two of them were arrested in Brazil in early 1936, she was pregnant with his child. Despite the fact that the fetus inside her would be a Brazilian citizen, and Brazil does not extradite its citizens, Brazil’s right-wing dictatorship had no problem sending this Jewish communist to Nazi Germany (fetuses aren’t babies!). In the Berlin women’s prison, Benario gave birth to a daughter, and her step-mother, Prestes’s mother, managed to take the baby into exile.
That daughter, Anita Leocádia Prestes, is now an 86-year-old Brazilian historian and just published this book about her mother. For the first time, she was able to study the Gestapo’s 2,000-page file on Benario, which is in a Russian archive. There have been two very large books about Benario — one by Ruth Wehner and another by Fernando Morais, neither of which is available in English for some reason — and this one is exceptionally thin. Prestes explains in an appendix that she thought Morais did solid work, and she only wanted to add things that had not been available when his book was published. So this doesn’t really work as a standalone biography. Nonetheless, reading the internal documents from the Gestapo is disturbing, just as hearing the story of baby Anita told by herself more than eight decades later is moving.
A leader of the Communist Youth League in Berlin, Benario became a celebrity when she helped her boyfriend Otto Braun break out of prison in 1928. She fled to Moscow and became a Communist secret agent, which brought her in touch with the Brazilian revolutionary Luis Carlos Prestes. When the two of them were arrested in Brazil in early 1936, she was pregnant with his child. Despite the fact that the fetus inside her would be a Brazilian citizen, and Brazil does not extradite its citizens, Brazil’s right-wing dictatorship had no problem sending this Jewish communist to Nazi Germany (fetuses aren’t babies!). In the Berlin women’s prison, Benario gave birth to a daughter, and her step-mother, Prestes’s mother, managed to take the baby into exile.
That daughter, Anita Leocádia Prestes, is now an 86-year-old Brazilian historian and just published this book about her mother. For the first time, she was able to study the Gestapo’s 2,000-page file on Benario, which is in a Russian archive. There have been two very large books about Benario — one by Ruth Wehner and another by Fernando Morais, neither of which is available in English for some reason — and this one is exceptionally thin. Prestes explains in an appendix that she thought Morais did solid work, and she only wanted to add things that had not been available when his book was published. So this doesn’t really work as a standalone biography. Nonetheless, reading the internal documents from the Gestapo is disturbing, just as hearing the story of baby Anita told by herself more than eight decades later is moving.
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