Wednesday’s Wise Women … Olga Benario Prestes

The story of Olga Benario Prestes (1908-1947) makes for a block busting film; with glamour, intrigue, love, passion, horror and bitter sadness. Olga was from  a rich and influential German Jewish family.  As a girl she joined the Communist Youth International .  Later she helped her boyfriend, Otto Braun, escape from prison; going with him to Czechoslovakia and then to Russia.
In Russia she attended the Lenin School of Communist Youth and continued to work within the organisation.  She underwent military training at the Zhukovsky Military Academy. The she became involved with anti-fascists activities in France and Great Britain.In 1931 she separated from Otto Braun.  In 1934 with her military training she was assigned the post of bodyguard to Luis Carlos Prestes the leader of the 1920s rebellion to the dictatorship of Getuiolo Vargas in Brazil.
It was her task to escort him back to Brazil.  With false papers they travelled as Portuguese married couple.  However the inevitable happened and they feel in love.  After a failed rebellion the couple went into hiding.  They were were arrested; but not before Vargas announced Martial Law.  Now pregnant and separated from Prestes she kept her assumed identity.  Unfortunately, Brazil diplomates who had close connections with the Gestapo and wasted no time in blowing her cover.
Her lawyers tried hard to get allowance for her to stay.  She was expecting a Brazilian national and lawfully she could not be extradited.  Sadly, martial law superseded this as she was considered ‘an alien noxious to public order’ and she was taken back to Germany.
Despite an international  campaign to rescue her.  The captain of the ship cancelled all stops on the voyage to Germany where there was a chance of her being rescued by the communists.
When her daughter was born while Olga was in prison.  The baby handed over to her paternal grandmother who cared for her. Olga was taken to an extermination camp and gassed in 1942.

Again I have been foiled by previous and more thorough research.  Olga Benario Prestes life story has been made into a film.  http://theduckshoot.com/blog/olga-benario-revolutionary-hero/

I hope you enjoy the ‘other’ blog