Random Things About A Mental Patient Pretend To Be Grand Duchess Anastasia (14 items)

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  (#5) Those Close To The Romanovs Visited Anderson To Get The Truth

  Several people who knew the Romanovs visited Anna to see for themselves if she was one of the Czsar's children. Anna, meanwhile, did not say one way or the other that she was related to the family. Baroness Sophie Buxhoeveden, who was a lady-in-waiting for the Russian empress, took one look at Anna and acquiesced that there was a Romanov resemblance. However, the baroness said Anna was much too short to be Tatiana. Anna reportedly countered: "I never said I was Tatiana."

  Nicholas II's sister, the Grand Duchess Olga, also went to see Anna, whom many believed was Anastasia, not Tatiana. The Duchess knew instantly that the woman was not family and called her "a stranger." For one, Anna's mouth and facial features were different than Anastasia's. In addition, she didn't appear to understand Russian, even though there were rumors that she spoke the language when she slumbered.

   
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  (#6) Anderson Had A Good Explanation For Her Scars And A Believable Escape Story

  Anna was an attractive young woman, adding credence to her identity. She revealed that she and her sisters hid jewels inside their corsets, making them partially bullet proof. She said she got the knife scars on her body when fleeing the Bolsheviks who tried to kill her with bayonets, which weren't sharp enough to do the job. She somehow survived the massacre and faked her death. Then she claimed that one Bolshevik soldier took pity on her and helped get her out of the country. She traveled to Berlin to find her relatives, but feared no one would recognize her and decided to kill herself by throwing herself off a bridge. In the months leading up to her release from the mental institution, she insisted she was Anastasia.
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  (#9) She Was Not The Only Person To Claim To Be A Romanov

  At least four women claimed to be Anastasia over the years, while seven men purported to be her brother, Alexei. There were even some who claimed they were the czar's other daughters, Olga, Tatiana, and Maria. A woman named Nadezhda Ivanovna Vasilyeva was in prison in Kazan, Russia, in the 1930s when she wrote a letter to King George V, claiming to be his cousin Anastasia and asking for his aid. A woman named Eugenia Smith wrote the book Autobiography of HIH Anastasia Nicholaevna of Russia. In the 1960s, LIFE magazine featured her story with many experts contradicting her claims that she was Anastasia.
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  (#14) There's An Active Facebook Page Dedicated To Proving The Women Were One And The Same

  There is a Facebook page titled "Anna Anderson WAS Anastasia Romanov" that still supports claims that Anna Anderson was Anastasia Romanov. The group purports to have "picture comparisons, documents, testimonies, etc." to prove the truth. For example, they point to evidence supplied by forensic expert Moritz Furtmayr in which Anna and Anastasia had nearly identical right ears, specifically "17 anatomical points and tissue formation, five more than the dozen points normally accepted by West German courts to establish a person's identity." While science has had its say on the matter, it looks like there will always be people willing to believe in the story of the lost-then-found Grand Duchess Anastasia.
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  (#1) In 1920, A Mysterious Woman Tried To End Her Life

  It all started on February 17, 1920. A young woman attempted to take her own life by jumping off a bridge in Berlin, Germany. She somehow survived and was saved by police officers from the Landwehr Canal and transported to a medical facility to receive treatment. Authorities did not know who she was because the woman did not possess any identification. She was promptly admitted to a mental hospital, the Dalldorf Asylum.
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  (#3) A Fellow Mental Patient Suspected She Was A Surviving Grand Duchess

  Anna's strange and detached behavior drew the attention of another patient at the Dalldorf Asylum, Clara Peuthert. She thought it possible Anna was actually one of the surviving Romanovs. When Peuthert was released from the hospital, she followed up on her suspicions by reaching out to former high-ranking officials from Russia. She told them she believed Anna was actually the Grand Duchess Tatiana, one of the older Romanov children. Peuthert further pressed the issue by contacting people and servants who knew the Romanov family and taking them to meet Anna. They looked at Anna and agreed she was the czar's daughter.

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