Family Portrait, V

Princess Antonia of Luxembourg was the second wife of Prince Ruprecht of Bavaria. The prince was a staunch opponent of the Nazis, and joined in the battle against Hitler. His family was eventually arrested by the Nazis and sent to a concentration camp. Princess Antonia survived the camp, but left in such a vulnerable state that she died shortly after the war.

 

 

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Archduke Rudolph was the heritor of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. He died at Mayerling with his mistress, Maria Vetsera; the circumstances of his death remain a mystery. This photo, taken during his adolescent years, captures a strange and heavy regard, a look that says a lot about his rather curious personality.

 

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Jerome Bonaparte was the younger brother of Napoleon, who had made him King of Westphalia. In this photo, Jerome appears old and a bit doddery, no longer the spry and handsome man of his youth.

 

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My two maternal great-grandfathers, the Count of Paris and the Duke of Chartes, along with their uncle, the Prince of Joinville. They traveled to the United States to fight alongside the northern soldiers in the American Civil War. This photo shows them with their fellow Union officers.

 

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Aunt Miny, Marie of Greece, was the beloved sister of my father. She married the Grand Duke George Mikailovich of Russia, who was executed during the Revolution.

 

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Uncle Gogie, George of Greece, was one of my father’s older brothers. He married aunt Marie Bonaparte, the great-granddaughter of Lucian Bonaparte, Napoleon’s brother. She was also the granddaughter of Pierre Bonaparte, who killed the journalist Pierre Noir with a revolver, and on her mother’s side, the granddaughter of Edmond Blanc, the founder of the Monte Carlo casino. Marie, for her part, became one of Freud’s most favored pupils. It was Marie who saved Freud from the Nazis during the annexation of Austria. She hired a plane to take him out of the country, narrowly avoiding the Gestapo who had come to arrest him.


by  Prince Michael of Greece