Anita Leocádia Prestes

Anita Leocádia Benário Prestes (born 27 November 1936) is a German-Brazilian historian. She is the daughter of political activists Olga Benário Prestes and Luís Carlos Prestes.

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