Who Was Fräulein Unbekannt (aka Anastasia Romanov)?
On February 17, 1920, a young woman was rescued from the waters of the Landwehr Canal in Berlin, where she had evidently thrown herself in a moment of despair. Over the subsequent days and months she was interviewed repeatedly by police but refused to reveal her identity, proclaiming defiantly in broken German, If people knew who I am, I would not be here. Her refusal to identify herself persisted for another two years while she was a resident of various Berlin hospitals and asylums where she was known simply as Fräulein Unbekannt (Miss Unknown). Finally in 1922 she revealed that she was in truth the Grand Duchess Anastasia Romanov and that in July, 1918 she alone, through a series of extraordinary events and circumstances, had survived the brutal murder of her father, Tsar Nicholas II of Russia, her mother, the Tsarina Alexandra, her three older sisters and younger brother, as well as several other members of the royal household. Few tales of royal intrigue have captivated the public
