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Wiener Library

Benario family papers


IDENTITY STATEMENT

Reference code(s): GB 1556 WL 915

Held at: Wiener Library

Title: Benario family papers

Date(s): 1920s-1980s

Level of description: collection

Extent: 2 folders

Name of creator(s): Benario family

CONTEXT

Administrative/Biographical history:

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, later going into hiding. In 1928 she went to Moscow and in 1934 she accompanied the Brazilian 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.

CONTENT

Scope and content/abstract:

Papers of Benario family, 1920s-1980s, comprise copies of documents and photographs regarding the life of Olga Benario-Prestes, including papers documenting her relationship with the authorities; a letter written to her husband whilst in custody in 1938; photographs regarding the founding of a gallery in her name in Berlin in 1984 and further papers regarding the Benario family history, including a family tree and many photographs.

ACCESS AND USE

Language/scripts of material: German

System of arrangement:

Arranged in chronological order.

Conditions governing access:

Open

Conditions governing reproduction:

Copies can be made for personal use. Permission must be sought for publication.

Physical characteristics:

Finding aids:

A detailed description exists on the Wiener Library's online catalogue www.wienerlibrary.co.uk.

ARCHIVAL INFORMATION

Appraisal, destruction and scheduling information:

Accruals:

Archival history:

Immediate source of acquisition:

Jewish Central Information Office

ALLIED MATERIALS

Existence and location of originals:

Existence and location of copies:

Related material:

Publication note:

DESCRIPTION NOTES

Note:

Archivist's note: Compiled by Samantha Velumyl.

Rules or conventions: Compiled in compliance with General International Standard Archival Description, ISAD(G), second edition, 2000; National Council on Archives Rules for the Construction of Personal, Place and Corporate Names, 1997.

Date(s) of descriptions: March 2008


INDEX ENTRIES
Subjects
Antifascism | Resistance to oppression | Oppression | Political movements
Concentration camps | War crimes | Humanitarian law
Holocaust | Genocide | War crimes | Humanitarian law
Genealogy

Personal names
Benario-Prestes | Olga | 1911-1943 | concentration camp victim

Corporate names

Places