True. But even if she had been close to Anastasia, Dehn had still not seen the Grand Duchess in forty years. You do bring up an interesting question, Lisa, and one which I have seen raised on the forum before but can't remember being answered. Did Anna Vyroubova ever comment upon Andersen?
I didn't know it had been 40 years, that makes a difference. Mathilde K. also made her comment in very old age, when she was over 90 and AA over 60. It's not exactly as easy to tell then.
As far as Anna V., that is very interesting she was never consultued. Having lived as practically a member of the family since the year Anastasia was born right up until the March Revolution, she would have known AN better than anyone left alive other than perhaps Olga A. So why not ask her? Could it be they were afraid of a negative answer? I heard AA covered her face with a hanky when meeting some she thought might debunk her.
Think about this, too, what were the two main excuses AA supporters used and still use do discredit someone who denied her? One was liar, the other was lying because of money, paid off by the family, greedy, etc. Well, by the time of the trial, AV had become an Orthodox nun. Not exactly the right candidate to put up there on the stand as a 'liar' and as a nun she could not accept money, so there goes the old greedy/paid off excuse!
I also wonder why Dmitri Pavlovich was not asked. He was also close to the family, maybe they thought he too might not accept her. By the late 30's he was very sick with TB and died in a sanitorium in 1941. But these 2 to me stand out as glaring omissions if AA REALLY wanted someone to support her and wasn't avoiding people she thought wouldn't.
As far as those who did, I have written long explainations before on why I don't think they were experts at knowing her, but this is not the thread for that. If this discussion is moved to another thread I will get into that again.
Author
