Olga is the story of Olga Benario, German Jew and Communist activist, trained by the Red Guard, who married the charismatic leader of the Brazilian Communist Party and who, after a failed uprising in Rio, was arrested and deported to Nazi Germany as a gift to Hitler. But more than a biography it is a love story with a tragic, historical sweep and a tale of unflinching political commitment. The book opens in the middle of Olga's first major political action in 1928, with Olga and five others liberating Otto Braun, her lover, from a Berlin prison. Afterwards she is forced to flee to Moscow where she is celebrated as an exemplary Communist Youth and remains for several years to study everything from political theory to skydiving. Olga's first mission for comintern is to provide for the personal security and safe passage back to Brazil of Luis Carlos Prestes, the legendary leader of the remarkable Prestes Column a group of men and women who crossed Brazil on foot for nearly three years fighting the Fascist government of Arthur Bernardes without a single defeat. The most moving picture of Olga emerges in her letters from prison. Faced with solitary confinement she invents ways to keep herself sane - and later when thrown into a cell of anti-socials she wins them over by stressing the importance of retaining their dignity and proceeds to teach them about politics. Olga's short and dramatic life is a remarkable one.
"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.
Language Notes:
Text: English (translation)
Original Language: Portugese
From Publishers Weekly:
In 1936 Brazil bestowed a "gift" on Adolf Hitler by deporting imprisoned Olga Benario, a German-born Jewish Communist, then seven months pregnant. Wife of Brazil's guerrilla hero Luis Carlo Prestes, she suffered the hell of Ravensbruck concentration camp. She was gassed to death in 1942; earlier, the Prestes family rescued her newborn daughter. Brazilian journalist Morais's heartbreaking biography is filled with high drama. In 1928 Olga had led a raid on a Berlin courtroom to free her lover, Otto Braun; they fled to Moscow, where she became the bodyguard of Prestes, who was visiting the Soviet capital. She and Prestes married and went to Brazil, where they helped organize the popular uprising of 1935, crushed in one day. Assisted by the Gestapo and U.S. intelligence, the police closed in on Olga, sealing her fate. Prestes remained imprisoned in Brazil when his wife was extradited. Photos.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.
"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.
- PublisherPeter Holman
- Publication date1990
- ISBN 10 1870015320
- ISBN 13 9781870015325
- BindingHardcover
- Number of pages288
-
Rating