At the end of World War II , in early 1945 , American troops arrived in Altenburg . On hearing that , according to the Potsdam Conference , Altenburg was going to be part of the zone of Soviet occupation , Princess Vera fled on foot . With her cousin , Prince Ernst-Friedrich Saxe-Altenburg , she had to walk 240 kilometers in 12 days , fleeing the advancing Soviet troops . Once safe , Princess Vera settled in Hamburg on 5 January 1946 . Until 1949 she worked as a translator in the British branch of the Red Cross and later in the DP Medical Center . When this one was closed , she worked at the reception in another British institution . She belonged to no country , as she only had an ambiguous Nansen passport , which gave her the ability to travel but no protections of statehood . Despite this , she refused to take the protection offered to her by various European countries , considering herself Russian . " I did n't leave Russia " , she once declared , " Russia left me "
Potsdam Conference
Potsdam Conference
Princess Vera Constantinovna of Russia