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So, here's the story of Olga Benário and Luís Carlos Prestes. Luís was secretary general of the Brazilian Communist Party (PCB) for 50+ years, and, from what i can tell, the most high profile Brazilian communist of the 20th C. (I'll tell u about Olga in a bit!) 1/?
Born in 1898, Luíz studies engineering in Rio where he's becomes a leader in the 'tenentes' movement, a rebellion led by young army officials who believe in a popular revolution of the masses against the oligarchical ruling classes. In 1924, Luíz flees to the south of Brazil.
From 1925, for two years, 2 months, Luíz leads a group of 1500 soldiers, known as the 'Prestes Column' (pic), across Brazil. They travel over 25,000km on foot and horseback, protesting the gov & teaching rural ppl abt communism. Altho legendary, it fails to start a revolution
Next, Luíz goes to Bolivia, returns to Brazil and then leaves again when dictator Getúlio Vargas becomes president in 1931. Luíz is invited to the USSR, were he works as an engineer and studies marxist-leninism... (we'll come back to Luíz in a bit.)
Rewind to 1908. Olga Benário is born to a middle class Jewish family in Munich. In 1923, aged 15, Olga joins the underground Communist Youth Organisation. Three years later she moves to Berlin with her communist bf (Otto Braun) to continue her work there.
I'm just gonna quote the source here: "Her arrest on charges of ‘preparations for high-treason’, followed by her successful attempt to break Braun out of jail in 1928, made Olga a well-known figure across the city." (pic is her police headshot from 1926)
At this point there are posters of her everywhere and her face is being shown in cinemas with a big reward. So she flees to the USSR where she undergoes intense training, dumps her bf, also she manages to get arrested in Paris and London around this time.
This takes us to 1934. Olga is tasked with accompanying Luíz from the USSR back to Brazil, as his bodyguard. In Brazil, communists plan to overthrow dictator Getúlio Vargas. On the journey, they disguise themselves as a married Portuguese couple, and fall in love.
The plan to overthrow Vargas and install a socialist government - known as the 'Intentona Comunista' (1935) - fails. Luíz is inprisoned and Vargas decides to send Olga, who at this point is pregnant, back to Germany as a 'gift' to Hitler.
Olga gives birth to baby girl called Anita in prison in Berlin in 1936. They are separated when Anita is 14 months old, and Olga is taken to Ravensbruck concentration camp. (pic: campaign material demanding Olga and Anita's freedom)
Olga is tortured, interrogated and beaten, but never gives up any information to the Nazis. She also organises a secret newspaper and makes a secret atlas in the camp to educate her fellow inmates.
In February 1942, Olga is taken to the Bernburg, where she is killed.
In February 1942, Olga is taken to the Bernburg, where she is killed.
Luís's mother, Leocadia, manages to save Anita, bringing her back to Brazil, where she is brought up by her grandmother, Leocadia, her aunt, Lygia, and Luíz.
(pic: Olga w grandma Leocadia)
(pic: Olga w grandma Leocadia)
After the Vargas administration falls in 1945, Luíz becomes is elected a senator for the Brazilian Communist Party. But in 1947, he goes back into hiding. After the coup in 1964, he flees to the USSR again. Olga also goes to the USSR in 1973, where she does a PhD.
Luíz died in 1990, in Rio, aged 92. Anita, who is now 82, is an academic living in Rio. She has written books about her parents' story in order to tell people about "the horror of fascism" and the "possibility of resisting" (pic: Anita in 2019).
Ok you're probably thinking that's the end of that very sad story... Not yet. I want to tell you about the involvement of the *British Government*.
So I was reading report of the Brazilian 'National Truth Commission', which primaryily looks into the dictatorship of 64-85...
So I was reading report of the Brazilian 'National Truth Commission', which primaryily looks into the dictatorship of 64-85...
I found a small heading called "Collaboration of the British Government". It describes how from the 1930s the Brazilian secret services and the British gov collaborated (in fact the Brazilian secret service, CIEX, was modelled on MI6) citing the biography of one spy, 'johnny'.
'Johnny' was in Brazil in 1930s, where he had a gf called Helena, who knew Olga and Luíz. Helena would talk to O and L, reporting to 'Johnny'. Johnny then reported to Alfred Hutt a British MI6 guy in Brazil, who reported to Hugh Gurney the British ambassador...
who reported to MI6 in London, who turned the information into a dossier shared with José Carlos Macedo Soares, the Brazilian foreign secretary, who shared the infomation directly with President Getúlio Vargas and Filinto Müller, Head of the Police.
I want to end by emphasising how the telling of this story is contingent of government documents being declassified, and in some cases by random luck.
Only in 2015, was Anita was able to recover thousands of pages of Gestapo material about her mother, because it was declassified
Only in 2015, was Anita was able to recover thousands of pages of Gestapo material about her mother, because it was declassified
Similarly, much of the documents drawn on by the National Truth Commission in Brazil depend on declassified CIA documents and documents from around Latin America. They are still waiting for the British go to declassify its records (a request was made to David Cameron).
sources
Luíz Prestes bio on the CNV website: http://memoriasdaditadura.org.br/biografias-da-resistencia/luis-carlos-prestes/
Olga piece in Al Jazeerz: https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2018/12/21/olga-benario-prestes-the-german-who-fought-fascism-to-the-death/
Interview with Anita in huffpo: https://www.huffpostbrasil.com/2017/07/23/o-livro-de-anita-leocadia-prestes-que-recupera-a-historia-de-lut_a_22445868/?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAACrW8BL7vlim4cBqnyXnSbdyCknEEZwRFfFCux606NUe8o6jKb24DSKW5KokoDoQEw5h6Af2i4RyexN48OcELw6QGtqKOsuNzvhNt4aZdb3j3v2zNqTxhJgTtnDBK1iy8_byVMnml-5PdIniVTfi-_m07TnzKcOmLkIOnUKGtNCw
CNV (ch5 section h): http://cnv.memoriasreveladas.gov.br/
Luíz Prestes bio on the CNV website: http://memoriasdaditadura.org.br/biografias-da-resistencia/luis-carlos-prestes/
Olga piece in Al Jazeerz: https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2018/12/21/olga-benario-prestes-the-german-who-fought-fascism-to-the-death/
Interview with Anita in huffpo: https://www.huffpostbrasil.com/2017/07/23/o-livro-de-anita-leocadia-prestes-que-recupera-a-historia-de-lut_a_22445868/?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAACrW8BL7vlim4cBqnyXnSbdyCknEEZwRFfFCux606NUe8o6jKb24DSKW5KokoDoQEw5h6Af2i4RyexN48OcELw6QGtqKOsuNzvhNt4aZdb3j3v2zNqTxhJgTtnDBK1iy8_byVMnml-5PdIniVTfi-_m07TnzKcOmLkIOnUKGtNCw
CNV (ch5 section h): http://cnv.memoriasreveladas.gov.br/
more reading
Anita's books: https://www.estantevirtual.com.br/livros/anita-leocadia-prestes
Olga (2004 film): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olga_(film)
Biography of Johnny the spy: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/7039727-johnny#:~:text=Johann%20Heinrich%20Amadeus%20de%20Graaf,wife%20ran%20a%20tourist%20lodge.
Anita's books: https://www.estantevirtual.com.br/livros/anita-leocadia-prestes
Olga (2004 film): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olga_(film)
Biography of Johnny the spy: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/7039727-johnny#:~:text=Johann%20Heinrich%20Amadeus%20de%20Graaf,wife%20ran%20a%20tourist%20lodge.
also sorry its *Luís not Luíz, i'm a bit dsylexic and there's david luiz so its confusing lol
