6 Anastasia: the fake princess

A woman who ended up in a Berlin mental asylum in February 1928, claimed to be the Grand Duchess Anastasia Romanova, the Russian princess supposedly murdered by the Bolshevik revolutionaries. She bore a striking resemblance to the princess which helped her gain support from Russian emigrants. But a posthumous DNA test in 1994 proved that she was not related to the Royal family.

On the night of July 17, 1918, the Russian Czar Nicholas II was murdered along with his wife, five children, and four retainers by Bolshevik revolutionaries.

Though Russian investigators confirmed that all members of the family had perished, a rumor spread that a child, most likely Anatasia Romanov, had escaped the carnage. This gave the opportunity for many women to pretend to be the escaped princess and claim the family fortune.

All such claims were exposed as frauds except that of Anna Anderson.

In 1920, she was rescued from Landwehr Canal in Berlin and admitted to a mental asylum. She refused to disclose her identity until 1922 when she announced that she was Grand Duchess Anastasia.

As Russian emigrants having fled the revolution rushed to her aid, she disclosed how she was rescued by a Bolshevik soldier. Her eloquence and resemblance to Anastasia helped her win the confidence of the czarist, who still existed in great numbers in Russia.

Many relatives of the Romanov interviewed her. Some were impressed by her knowledge of details of the Royal family, while others were skeptical as she couldn’t recount many events of the princess’s life. These lapses were conveniently blamed on her mental illness

She tried to establish a legal identity through courts but failed multiple times and died in 1984.

In 1991, a DNA test on the exhumed remains of the Romanov family concluded that the remains of the son and one daughter were missing, raising speculation that Anderson could be Anatasia.

But a DNA test in 1994 conclusively established that the DNA of Anderson did not match with the remains of the Romanovs. (Source)

7 The lie that sparked the Civil Rights Movement

In 1955, Carolyn Bryant Donham, a White woman, accused 14-year-old Emmett Till, a young Black boy, of grabbing her by the waist and suggesting inappropriate things. Based on her accusation, Till was tortured and killed by the woman’s husband and his half-brother. Six decades later, the woman recanted her story and admitted that the boy never touched her or uttered any obscenities.

The young boy was kidnapped and taken to a barn near Drew where he was tortured and killed.

When the culprits, Roy Bryant and J.W. Milam, were arrested. Bryant’s wife Donham accused Till of grabbing her by the waist.

She later testified under oath, changing her statement about Till grabbing her by the waist and suggesting he had relations with other White women.

This was enough for the jury of the time to acquit the two White males for the brutal murder of the young Black boy. However, the case remained open, and Till’s relatives continued to fight for justice.

Six decades later in 2007, Dohman finally broke her silence and told the truth to author Timothy Tyson who went on to publish his book The Blood of Emmett Till.

In the book, the woman confesses that the boy neither touched her nor uttered any obscenities. (1, 2)

8 The Lies of the Nazis

The propaganda machine of Adolf Hitler and his regime is one of the most powerful examples of how a state can manipulate its citizen through fabrication, and lies. In 1939, to gain the support of the Germans for the invasion of Poland, it staged an attack by Poland on a radio station in Glewitz. As the war progressed, the regime also lied about the treatment of Jews in Poland and in German ghettos and camps, calling them a retirement abode.

In 1939, Hitler had planned to invade Poland, but the Germans were not in favor of another war. To gain the support of the public and justify the war, the Nazi regime staged a Polish attack on a German radio station on 31 August 1939.

The very next day, Hitler announced to his nation that in response to Polish incursions, he would send troops to enter Poland.

As the war progressed, the Nazi propaganda continued to cook up Polish atrocities, presenting Germany as a victim, trying to defend its borders.

In 1941, after Germany invaded the Soviet Union, the Nazi regime pushed its anti-Jewish genocidal policies on a continental scale.

It continued to fabricate stories to deceive the Germans and printed a booklet that reported that the Jews in occupied Poland were treated well by the Germans.

It also lied about Jewish ghettos and camps, describing them as a residential community, a place where elderly Jews could retire in safety. (Source)

9 The Titanic cannot sink

The RMS Titanic was advertised as unsinkable. One of its highlighted safety features was the watertight compartments in the hull. In case of penetration, the water would be trapped inside the compartment without foundering the entire ship. But the compartments were far from watertight as they were roofless, like glass jars without lids, allowing the water to overflow and flood the entire hull.

Though most advertisements for the RMS Titanic focused on its size and affluence, there were mentions of its state-of-the-art safety features that made it unsinkable. This idea was also circulated by magazines and newspapers.

The ship had more lifeboats than required by the maritime safety board, the best radio system of the time, and the innovative watertight compartments whose doors could be closed off quickly by a central switch.

These compartments were the reason the ship was named as unsinkable. What nobody knew was that these compartments didn’t have roofs, making the watertight doors useless.

When the iceberg stuck the hull, water flowed into the affected compartments and overflowed through the roof and then throughout the entire hull. The ship sank, taking down 1,500 lives.

People were so convinced of the ship’s invincibility that when the vice president of the voyage company initially did not believe reports that the Titanic was sinking. (1, 2)

10 The Nayirah lie

On October 10, 1990, a girl named Nayirah testified before the United States Congressional Human Rights Caucus that Iraqi soldiers took away 500 incubators from premature babies in a Kuwaiti hospital and left them to die. The emotional testimony was used as a justification by the Bush administration to enter and support Kuwait in the Gulf War. But in 1992, it was revealed that the testimony was a PR stunt by the Kuwaitis and US Government to incite public opinion in favor of war.

The 15-year-old girl’s tearful testimony of atrocities by Iraqi soldiers was widely publicized by media and also by then-President George H. W. Bush, who referred to the incident multiple times in the next few weeks.

The narrative set was that Saddam’s regime was evil and must be destroyed by backing Kuwait in the Gulf War. The testimony played a crucial role in shifting public sentiments in favor of war and support for Kuwait.

A division of the Human Rights Watch in the Middle East investigated the matter in 1992 and concluded that Nayirah’s testimony was a lie. Doctors in the hospital told investigators that the maternity ward had only 30 incubators. None were snatched from babies or stolen. Another investigation by Kroll associates interviewed Nayirah where she changed her statement to have seen only one baby without an incubator, and that too for only a brief moment.

The whole propaganda campaign was concocted by an American PR firm Hill & Knowlton hired by the US and Kuwaiti governments. Nayirah, in fact, was the daughter of the Kuwaiti Ambassador to the US. (1, 2)