Olga
Benário Prestes is an extraordinary- but not broadly known- case of a Brazilian
communist hero. Olga was born in Munich ,
Germany 15, In 1923, she joined the
Communist Youth International and in 1928 she helped her husband and comrade
Otto Braun's escape from Moabit prison. She went to Czechoslovakia
and from there, reunited with Braun, to Moscow Britain
In 1934 she
was tasked with helping the return to Brazil of Luís Carlos Prestes, the leader
of the Communist Party of Brazil, to whom she was assigned as a bodyguard. In
order to accomplish this mission, false papers were created stating that they
were a Portuguese married couple. After a failed insurrection in November 1935,
Benário and her husband went into hiding, and after barely escaping a police
raid at Ipanema, they were both eventually arrested in January 1936, during the
harsh anti-communist campaign declared after dictator Getúlio Vargas had
proclaimed martial law and was already plotting the 1937 coup that would
eventually lead to the institution of the fascist-like Estado Novo régime.
The real
identity of Olga was revealed as a result of the close collaboration between
the Brazilian diplomacy and Gestapo. After a demand by the Nazi Germany and despite
an international campaign, Olga was taken back to Germany
This brave
communist, Olga Benário, was eventually sent to Ravensbrück concentration camp
and from there to Bernburg Euthanasia Centre in 1942, where she was killed in
gas chambers.
