Anita Leocádia Benário Prestes (born 27 November 1936 in

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and List of cities in Germany by population, largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's List of cities in the European Union by population within ci ...

) is a German-Brazilian historian. She is the daughter of political activists

Olga Benário Prestes Olga Benário Prestes (Brazilian Portuguese: /ˈɔwgɐ beˈnaɾju prɛstʃis/, February 12, 1908 – April 23, 1942) was a German-Brazilian communist militant executed by Nazi Germany. Biography Olga was born in Munich as Olga Gutmann Ben� ...

and

Luís Carlos Prestes Luís Carlos Prestes (January 3, 1898 – March 7, 1990) was a Brazilian revolutionary and politician who served as the general-secretary of the Brazilian Communist Party from 1943 to 1980 and a senator for the Federal District from 1946 to 19 ...

. She was born in Barnimstraße Women's Prison in Berlin and was handed over to the care of her paternal grandmother, Brazilian Leocádia Prestes, at age 14 months. Her mother Olga was sent to Ravensbrück concentration camp and from there to a former psychiatric hospital in

Bernburg Bernburg (Saale) is a town in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany, capital of the Salzlandkreis district. The former residence of the Anhalt-Bernburg princes is known for its Renaissance castle. Geography The town centre is situated in the fertile Magdeburg ...

in 1942, where she was gassed. In 1964, Prestes achieved a degree in Chemistry from the then "University of Brazil", now known as the

Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro The Federal University of Rio de Janeiro or University of Brazil (UFRJ; pt, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro or ') is a public research university located in the state of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. It is the largest federal university in the ...

(UFRJ). Two years later she gained a Masters in

Organic Chemistry Organic chemistry is a subdiscipline within chemistry involving the scientific study of the structure, properties, and reactions of organic compounds and organic materials, i.e., matter in its various forms that contain carbon atoms.Clayden, ...

Life in the USSR

At the beginning of the 1970s, Prestes moved into exile in the

USSR The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nationa ...

. In August 1972, she was indicted in Brazil for political activities, with the Conselho Permanente de Justiça para o Exército (the Army supreme court) sentencing her in absentia to 4 years and 6 months in prison. In December 1975 Prestes earned a Doctorate in Political Economics from the Institute of Social Science in

Moscow Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 millio ...

and four years later in September 1979, the Brazilian courts reduced Prestes's sentence by four years as part of a wider

amnesty Amnesty (from the Ancient Greek ἀμνηστία, ''amnestia'', "forgetfulness, passing over") is defined as "A pardon extended by the government to a group or class of people, usually for a political offense; the act of a sovereign power offici ...

Return to Brazil

In 1989 Prestes received a Doctorate in

History History (derived ) is the systematic study and the documentation of the human activity. The time period of event before the invention of writing systems is considered prehistory. "History" is an umbrella term comprising past events as well ...

from the

Fluminense Federal University The Fluminense Federal University ( Portuguese: ''Universidade Federal Fluminense'', UFF, named after the state's demonym) is a public higher education institution located mainly in Niterói and in other cities of Rio de Janeiro state. It was f ...

, Rio de Janeiro, with a thesis named ''A Coluna Prestes (The Prestes Column)'', which was the movement commanded by her father of almost 1500 men fighting against the presidency of

Artur Bernardes Artur da Silva Bernardes (; 8 August 1875 – 23 March 1955) was a Brazilian politician who served as 12th president of Brazil during the First Brazilian Republic. Born in Viçosa, Minas Gerais, he was elected Governor of Minas Gerais in 1918. ...

. She is now a retired associate professor of Brazilian History, but she continues teaching on the Master's and Doctorate's Compared History Program at the

(UFRJ).

Books

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References

External links

Curriculum Vitae
CNPq Lattes System (In Portuguese). {{DEFAULTSORT:Prestes, Anita Leocadia Living people 1936 births 20th-century Brazilian historians Brazilian people of German-Jewish descent Brazilian expatriates in the Soviet Union Jewish historians People granted political asylum in the Soviet Union 21st-century Brazilian historians