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
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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)?
