THE FAITH HEALER AND THE QUEEN

Document Type: 
Collection: 
Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): 
CIA-RDP70-00058R000100130121-2
Release Decision: 
RIPPUB
Original Classification: 
K
Document Page Count: 
3
Document Creation Date: 
November 17, 2016
Document Release Date: 
August 3, 2000
Sequence Number: 
121
Case Number: 
Publication Date: 
June 22, 1958
Content Type: 
NSPR
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PDF icon CIA-RDP70-00058R000100130121-2.pdf338.22 KB
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IT45- WS & WORLD REPOT JUhk 2 22ir~ FOIAb3b Approv d Forelease 2000/08/24 CIA-RDPTO-00058R00010a U. S. News & World Report THE FAITH HEALER AND THE QUEEN A Published Report That May Spell Trouble for Juliana What is the story behind all the furor over Queen Juliana of the Netherlands-one of Europe's few remaining monarchs? Has a religious mystic-a faith healer who claims to talk with God-come between the Dutch Queen and her Prince Consort? There are rumors of a Cabinet crisis and of possible abdication, of palace intrigue by a "female Rasputin" who claims divine guid- ance over the affairs of the royal family. CPYRGHT Q&FXRGHT Until now it has been a carefully kept tate secret-what has been happening i the small, unimposing cabin in the ack yard of a country estate in the little utch town of Baarn-for it might shake ne of the last remaining thrones in urope. Only a 10-minute walk from the cabin tands Soestdijk Palace, where Queen uliana of the Netherlands has alien under the influence of a miracle worker" who claims to re- eive divine orders. The American ecret service, observing the case it the direction of its chief, Allen )ullgs [Director of the Centrarm elligence Agency], is faced again vith a European enigma. An affair hat seems to stem from a faith in rbscure miracles is threatening the olitical stability of one of the coun- ries in the North Atlantic Treaty )rganization. Like the legendary monk, Ras- )utin, at the Tsarist court of Rus- ia, 61-year-old Greet Hofmans at he Palace of Soestdijk has been utilizing the ailment of a royal child to gain influence over the Queen in political and personal matters. [The Russian monk, Grigori Ras- putin, came to the Court of St. Petersburg in 1907 and promised Czarina Alexandra to heal Crown Prince Alexis of a blood disease. Ile mixed in state affairs and was favored by Tsar Nicholas II despite the objections of important officials. It was a West German weekly magazine, Der Spiegel, that first brought into the open the story of the Queen and the faith healer. The Dutch promptly confiscated copies of the magazine. Two days later the Netherlands Govern- ment officially denied rumors that the Queen and her husband were considering a divorce. On these pages is an English translation of the story that stirred up all Europe. asputin was assassinated by Prince usupov in December, 1916.1 The role of the spinster, Greet Hof- out openly. Me a marriage between Juliana, Princess of Orange-Nassau, and the German Prince vans, like that of Rasputin in Tsarist Bernhard ot Lippe- ies er e c are a ma - Russia, has been conipletely unknown to ter orM ehPaSL. VPfiile the kvet UfAIs ba- the. Netherlanders. The few in the Court stowing her favor on the "faith healer" and Cabinet who know about it are di- and heading a pro-Hofmans clique at the vidcd into opposing camps and feuding Court of Holland, her consort is heading so furiously that even the threat of a an anti-Hofmans clique with the support Government crisis no longer insures com- of Socialist Premier Willem Drees. plete discretion. Ironically, it was Prince Bernhard him- Royal couple at odds. In the royal self who brought the "miracle worker" to household, the conflict already has broken Soestdijk Palace. He first heard of Greet Hofmans while on a hunting trip in 1948. A Dutch general told him that the general's six-year-old daughter had been cured of tuber- culosis. The information greatly moved the Prince. Juliana and Bernhard have four daughters-Beatrix, 18; Irene, 16; Margriet, 13; and 9-year- old Maria Christina. The latter, called Marijke, was born with cata- racts. As a baby, her sight deterio- rated progressively. An operation partially saved the sight of one eye. In the other, Marijke is blind today un~ and, the doctors say, forever. It was while Marijke was still a baby that the father first heard of the "miracle worker" in 1948. Until then, the life of Greet Hofmans had been filled with poverty and bitterness. As a 12-year-old child she went to work in a textile mill to help care for her sick mother. Slowly she worked herself up and became a sort of supervisor and t,o