BRITAIN-ROYALS/NAZI SALUTE Palace condemns Sun for publishing Queen "Nazi salute" image

Record ID: 146404

  • Title: BRITAIN-ROYALS/NAZI SALUTE Palace condemns Sun for publishing Queen "Nazi salute" image
  • Date: 18th July 2015
  • Summary: LONDON, ENGLAND, UNITED KINGDOM (JULY 18, 2015) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF FRONT PAGE OF THE SUN NEWSPAPER
  • Embargoed: 2nd August 2015 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVA2QUWUB6H5RX5GI8E4PEOKQTSG
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: EDITORS PLEASE NOTE: THIS EDIT CONTAINS MATERIAL THAT WAS ORIGINALLY 4:3
    Buckingham Palace criticised the top-selling Sun tabloid on Saturday (July 18) for publishing a previously unknown film from 1933 that appears to show Britain's Queen Elizabeth performing a Nazi salute as a young girl.
    The black-and-white film from the year Adolf Hitler came to power purports to show the future Edward VIII teaching his nieces, the current British monarch Elizabeth, aged about seven at the time, and her three-year-old sister, Princess Margaret, how to perform the salute.
    Dancing and smiling with little apparent understanding of the salute's significance, the two young girls are encouraged to briefly perform the raised right-arm gesture by Edward in the gardens of Balmoral, a royal estate in Scotland.
    The Sun newspaper published the story and the 17-second film on its website under the headline "Their Royal Heilnesses". Edward also raises his arm, as does his sister-in-law, the Queen Mother.
    A spokesperson from Buckingham Palace said the release of the film was disappointing.
    Royal commentator Dickie Arbiter raised questions over how it came to be published some 80 years after it was filmed.
    "The reaction was probably one of anger. Where has it come from? Has it come from the archives of Windsor? Has it come from the Duke of Windsor's estate? Nobody knows. Was it released inadvertently in that a TV documentary maker was asking for a bit of footage because they were making a documentary about the Queen at the age of 90 but nobody knew what was on the footage and released it? Nobody knows. They're going to have to investigate," he said.
    However, he did concede that the damage caused by the film's release is likely to be minimal. He said it comes from a different era when the whole world didn't know about the horrors that were to unfold under Hitler's rule of Nazi Germany.
    "You've got to put it into context. Shot in 1933. Hitler had only just come to power. That was probably shot at Balmoral, in the summer. Hitler probably been in power for about six months. Princess Ellizabeth is 7. Princess Margaret is 3 and they're larking around because nobody knew what was in store until very much later in the 30s," he said.
    "As far as their uncle is concerned, who was then still Prince of Wales, yes he did flirt with the Nazi party, but how much he was going to flirt with them, again nobody knew until very much later in the 30s when he did go to Germany in 1937 and was wooed by all of Hitler's henchmen," he added.
    The Sun Managing Editor Stig Abell said the report was in the public interest and that the tabloid's eight-page coverage put it in the appropriate historical context.
    "Well we feel that we've acted properly and responsibly in the public interest. I mean we haven't sort to just put out a photograph and just leave it without context. We've sort to place it in an appropriate, historical context. It's a fascinating image. Not least because it has Edward VIII who went on to be king in 1936. And in 1937 he ended up in Germany. And in 1940 there was a plot to put him back onto the British throne. And he ended his life in 1970 saying Hitler wasn't a bad chap in the Second World War, was the responsibility of the Jews and the Reds and he was at the heart of the British establishment. So I think this is an important public interest story. I don't think exploitative. I do think it's of genuine national and historical interest and we took some time and trouble to place it in an appropriate historical context I feel," he said.
    Those on the streets outside Buckingham Palace on Saturday (July 18) expressed a range of views on the film.
    "I have no doubt that that was just twisted around. Maybe she was just waving. Yeah maybe she was just waving. That's what I'm going to say. I'm going to say she was just waving," saoid tourists Katy And Betty O'connell, from Philadelphia, USA.
    "Well it's not really acceptable is it, but I'm not going to judge because I'm not sure I think that is what you think it is," said Siobhan from London.
    "I think it happened 80 years ago and it needs to be let go. So, she was a little kid, " said Jenifer, a tourist from Tennessee.
    "I think that when you're 7 you don't know what you're doing. I don't feel like we should behead her or decapitate her or dethrone her for something that she did when she was 7 years old," said two other women, who did not want to be named.
    Edward VIII abdicated after 11 months on the throne in 1936 to marry Wallis Simpson, a twice-divorced American socialite, for whom he publicly declared his love. He was succeeded by his younger brother, George VI, father of Queen Elizabeth.
    Elizabeth, now 89, will overtake Queen Victoria as Britain's longest-reigning monarch in September.
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