Olga

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.