Author Topic: Claimant of Grand Duchess Olga Nicholaevna - Marga Boodts  (Read 92625 times)

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Offline Lanie

  • Velikye Knyaz
  • ****
  • Posts: 1533
    • View Profile
Claimant of Grand Duchess Olga Nicholaevna - Marga Boodts
« on: January 04, 2005, 01:56:14 AM »
This thread will contain all of the information about Marga Boodts and her claim to be the Grand Duchess Olga Nicholaevna.  Edited by Alixz 05/27/2009



Quote
Now this is a story that is truly a head-scratcher.  Marga claimed to be Grand Duchess Olga, rescued from the Ipatiev House through secret arrangements made by her mother.  She said that she was at prayer one day in a Church near the Ipatiev House (yes, I KNOW!   )  She was kneeling at a prie-dieu, praying away, when a young girl in "peasant dress" came and knelt at the prie-dieu next to her.  She whispered to "Olga" that they should exchange missals.  "Olga" handed hers over, and received the young girl's in turn.  Opening it, she read a short note telling her to go into the sacristy when she was done praying.  A little while later, she wandered over to the sacristy, where the young girl joined her.  They then exchanged clothes, and "Olga" -- now dressed as a peasant -- left with a pair of monarchist officers who were hiding outside the side door of the Church.  It was explained to her that her mother Alexandra had arranged through a series of secret notes, to effect "Olga"'s rescue because she knew that Alexei was not likely to live to adulthood, and therefore "the hope and future of the dynasty" rested on "Olga"'s shoulders.  The young girl had volunteered to die in "Olga"'s place, which she allegedly did on the night of 16/17 July.

The interesting thing about this Marga Boodts is that she tried to run this story twice, the first time in the 1930's, when she was arrested, charged with fraud, convicted, and expelled from France.  At this trial, her possible true identity as a minor Polish Countess was tentatively established -- though she might also have been a Dutch woman from Utrecht. She spent the war years there, living with apparent relatives. She then resurfaced in the late 40s or early 50's, this time in Italy, where she had some increased success with her story, convincing, for example, Prince Friedrich of Saxe-Altenburg of her veracity.

The conviction of the 30s haunted her to an extent, but ironically, she denied her identity as the 1930's Marga Boodts, all the while affirming her identity as Grand Duchess Olga.

There is a lot more detail about her, but this is the gist of the story.  There are two photographs of truly appalling quality that I have sent to Rob for him to kindly post.  They are photocopies from newspapers, one from the thirties, and one from the fifties.  I'm not one who sets a whole lot of store in photo-identity parades, but I am a little more confident in ruling her out as Olga than I am in ruling out AA as Anastasia -- because Olga had an outstanding physical feature in her prominent forehead, which I am pretty sure is missing from both these pictures.

Anyway...


I never knew her "story"...how amusingly entertaining!  Didn't one of Irene's boys end up claiming he believed she was Olga (just like he said AA was AN)?
« Last Edit: August 17, 2010, 08:41:38 AM by Alixz »

Abby

  • Guest
Re: Claimant of Grand Duchess Olga Nicholaevna - Marga Boodts
« Reply #1 on: January 04, 2005, 10:58:28 AM »
Wow very interesting! How could Olga have been in a church outside the Ipatiev house when the family wasn't even allowed to leave the garden though? Oh well a good story nonetheless! I remember reading about Marga Boodts in various publications but I didn't know that much about her and am eager to see what she looks like!

helenazar

  • Guest
Re: Claimant of Grand Duchess Olga Nicholaevna - Marga Boodts
« Reply #2 on: January 04, 2005, 11:35:15 AM »
That's some story. I never heard it before or the name Marga Boodts. I am sure there is a lot more where that came from. Are these actual photographs? They look more like very bad sketches!
« Last Edit: May 27, 2009, 09:13:38 PM by Alixz »

Janet_W.

  • Guest
Re: Claimant of Grand Duchess Olga Nicholaevna - Marga Boodts
« Reply #3 on: January 04, 2005, 12:40:29 PM »
The dead, it is assumed, can suffer no more. Nevertheless, when someone like this comes forward, the tragedy is threefold: for those who pin their hopes on the surivor's story being true; for those who truly have managed to survive and whose veracity now will also be in question; and for the actual person or personages whose lives are so bereft that they are compelled--via psychological disorders or cruel chicanery--to assume someone else's identity.

Abby

  • Guest
Re: Claimant of Grand Duchess Olga Nicholaevna - Marga Boodts
« Reply #4 on: January 04, 2005, 01:24:58 PM »
Are they really photos from a newspaper? They are very hard to make out...impossible to see the features!

Offline Georgiy

  • Velikye Knyaz
  • ****
  • Posts: 2024
  • Slava v vyshnikh Bogu
    • View Profile
Re: Claimant of Grand Duchess Olga Nicholaevna - Marga Boodts
« Reply #5 on: January 09, 2005, 02:54:52 PM »
A prie-dieu and a missal?! So when did GD Olga become Roman Catholic?! ;) ;D

It would take a huge leap of the imagination to think that a peasant girl no matter how close the resemblance may be could fool guards into thinking she was a Romanov! (Not that I would take the story seriously anyway...)

Maybe someone with computer skills can photoshop and enhance those pics of Marga Boodts?

Annie

  • Guest
Re: Claimant of Grand Duchess Olga Nicholaevna - Marga Boodts
« Reply #6 on: January 09, 2005, 04:04:05 PM »
I'm always interested in other claimant stories :)

marina

  • Guest
Re: Claimant of Grand Duchess Olga Nicholaevna - Marga Boodts
« Reply #7 on: January 17, 2005, 07:11:30 AM »
Is somebody read "tsar's daughters" written by Jacqueline Monsigny? This woman met a man the duc Alexis of Anjou I think and this man pretended to have Maria Nicolaievna as grand mother. Monsigny did not believed him but however they became friend. About the age of 40, this duc died suddenly, we do not know how; in the same time, died his mother(so the daughter of Maria). They just decided to be recognised as Romanov. Before dying, Alexis told this story to the french autor:
In this book, Monsigny wrote that during this famous night of july 1918, only the tsar has been killed maybe with Alexei,Olga became Magda Boots, she would live in Italy near the lake of Côme where she helped children without parents; she would died in 1978(?). Alexandra and Tatiana died in Auschwitz during the war(can you imagine this?). Anastasia would have been Anna Anderson(I believe in this) and so Maria got married, had 2 girls, lived first in Africa, and then lived in Italy with Olga(sister that she loved the most:she called her daughter Olga). She died quietly in 1970.
Monsigny is CONVINCED of this. Isn't it flabbergasting, she give so much details about the place of the tomb of Olga(burried in Italy) for example. I also almost believe her. And you?      

Offline James_Davidov

  • Boyar
  • **
  • Posts: 248
    • View Profile
Re: Claimant of Grand Duchess Olga Nicholaevna - Marga Boodts
« Reply #8 on: January 17, 2005, 07:52:26 AM »
...I have serious doubts Alexandra and Tatiana would have perished in a German concentration camp.  Other than being German, wasn't Hitler interested in maybe re-establishing the monarchy in Russia??

Hitler was Austrian.  I don't think, though that he was interested in killing off any supposed survivors of the House of Romanov.  That was Stalin.  Modified by Alixz 08/17/10
« Last Edit: August 17, 2010, 08:50:49 AM by Alixz »
You are a member of the British royal family. We are never tired, and we all love hospitals.
Queen Mary

Offline James_Davidov

  • Boyar
  • **
  • Posts: 248
    • View Profile
Re: Claimant of Grand Duchess Olga Nicholaevna - Marga Boodts
« Reply #9 on: January 17, 2005, 07:53:04 AM »
...wait, I have serious doubts about the whole story :P
You are a member of the British royal family. We are never tired, and we all love hospitals.
Queen Mary

Offline Forum Admin

  • Administrator
  • Velikye Knyaz
  • *****
  • Posts: 4665
  • www.alexanderpalace.org
    • View Profile
    • Alexander Palace Time Machine
Re: Claimant of Grand Duchess Olga Nicholaevna - Marga Boodts
« Reply #10 on: January 17, 2005, 09:34:25 AM »
Read Volkov. I think he pretty much can shut the door on this claimant...

helenazar

  • Guest
Re: Claimant of Grand Duchess Olga Nicholaevna - Marga Boodts
« Reply #11 on: January 18, 2005, 09:43:58 PM »
Quote
I think the reason that they did not attend the burial  had something to do with them not wanting to be seen as taking sides in the debate over who was the true pretender to the Romanov Throne.
 
Jeremy, I think you're right, I remember reading something like this too. One branch of the Romanov family did not agree with the burial semantics and would not attend the ceremony while the other branch was totally fine with it. I think the British royal family probably just wanted to stand clear of that whole thing. Also, I think many Russians or else members of the Romanov family are still angry at the British for not accepting the IF into Britain when they were asked to in 1917, so many people still blame them for indirectly causing their death, or rather for failing to prevent it... So them being there may have been sort of controversial in that sense....
« Last Edit: December 31, 1969, 06:00:00 PM by helenazar »

Offline RealAnastasia

  • Velikye Knyaz
  • ****
  • Posts: 1890
  • I love YaBB 1G - SP1!
    • View Profile
Re: Claimant of Grand Duchess Olga Nicholaevna - Marga Boodts
« Reply #12 on: May 10, 2005, 08:19:44 PM »
Hi:

     I read an old post here about Magda Boodts, this woman that lived in Italy and claimed she was Olga Nicolaievna. I'm not a Magda Boodts believer , but as all people who loves all things related to the Romanovs, I would like to know infos about pretenders. Some of them are very interesting, and others are absolutely hilarious and stupid, but I like to know more, and more about them.  ::)

     Well; I wanted to know Magda Boodts story, for she is, by far, the less famous of Romanov pretenders and I can't find any info on her. I read an old post who said that Greg King or Penny Wilson (I can't remember wich of them) had write this lady's story right here, but I'm not able to find it. I only saw a "picture" of her, who was hilarious for it seems an identi-kit!  :)

      Thank you!

       RealAnastasia

Offline Laura Mabee

  • Velikye Knyaz
  • ****
  • Posts: 2178
    • View Profile
    • Frozentears.Org
Re: Claimant of Grand Duchess Olga Nicholaevna - Marga Boodts
« Reply #13 on: May 10, 2005, 09:04:46 PM »
I've never heard of her, I would be interested in more information as well. Does anyone have a pic?  :-/

lexi4

  • Guest
Re: Claimant of Grand Duchess Olga Nicholaevna - Marga Boodts
« Reply #14 on: May 10, 2005, 11:39:32 PM »
Me too Laura. This is the first I heard of her. Does anyone have any information to share?