Olga Benario was born into a family of Jewish intellectuals in Munich in 1911. At the age of 16 she was already a member of the Communist party. In 1926 she, along with others, stormed the Berlin-Moabit district gaol in order to free some comrades, after which action she went into hiding. In 1928 she went to Moscow and in 1934 she accompanied the Brasilian revolutionary, Luiz Carlos Prestes (whom she later married), to Brazil where she took part in the resistance to the regime of president Vargas. However, such was the affinity between Hitler and Vargas, that, once captured, she was deported back to Nazi Germany where she was interned in the concentration camp Lichtenburg. She was gassed in the concentration camp at Bernburg an der Saale in 1943 at the age of 34.
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The copy papers relating to Olga Benario-Prestes have been arranged chronologically; documents preceding photographs.
This collection consists of two distinct though related groups of copy papers. The first documents, in part, the relatively short but eventful life of the German Jewess, Olga Benario, a short biographical sketch of whom follows. Also contained are copy papers which document the Benario family history. The order in which the latter arrived remains unchanged. Also included are some copy papers, which document the fate of Rudolph Benario, a family member, who was imprisoned on account of his activities as a member of the Communist Party.
Benario family: copy genealogical papers and copy papers re Olga Benario-Prestes