Royal Salute

From the BBC:

"Queen Nazi salute film: Palace 'disappointed' at use"

 

Buckingham Palace has said it is disappointed that footage from 1933 showing the Queen performing a Nazi salute has been released. The Sun has published the film which shows the Queen aged about seven, with her mother, sister and uncle. The palace said it was "disappointing that film, shot eight decades ago... has been obtained and exploited". The newspaper has refused to say how it got the footage but said it was an "important and interesting story". The black and white footage, which lasts about 17 seconds, shows the Queen playing with a dog on the lawn in the gardens of Balmoral, the Sun says.mThe Queen Mother then raises her arm in the style of a Nazi salute and, after glancing towards her mother, the Queen mimics the gesture. Prince Edward, the future Edward VIII, is also seen raising his arm. The footage is thought to have been shot in 1933 or 1934, when Hitler was rising to prominence as Fuhrer in Germany but the circumstances in which it was shot are unclear. mA Palace source said: "Most people will see these pictures in their proper context and time. This is a family playing and momentarily referencing a gesture many would have seen from contemporary news reels.n"No-one at that time had any sense how it would evolve. To imply anything else is misleading and dishonest."mThe source added: "The Queen and her family's service and dedication to the welfare of this nation during the war, and the 63 years the Queen has spent building relations between nations and peoples speaks for itself." BBC Royal correspondent Sarah Campbell said Buckingham Palace was not denying the footage was authentic but that there were "questions over how this video has been released".  Dickie Arbiter, a former Buckingham Palace press secretary, said the Palace would be investigating. "They'll be wondering whether it was in fact something that was held in the Royal Archives at Windsor, or whether it was being held by the Duke of Windsor's estate," he said. "And if it was the Duke of Windsor's estate, then somebody has clearly taken it from the estate and here it is, 82 years later. The then Prince of Wales faced numerous accusations of being a Nazi sympathiser and was photographed meeting Hitler in Munich in October 1937.  Its publication has prompted Palace officials to talk about a breach of privacy and the Sun to argue it's acting in the national interest.   Apart from the obvious anger on one side, it's striking how both sides have talked of the need to put the home movie in its "proper context". From the Palace perspective this is a six-year-old princess who didn't attach any meaning to the gesture. Such an explanation doesn't, of course, explain the thinking of her mother. Those around the royals are also keen to focus on the war record of the then King, Queen and their two daughters.  What they're less keen to focus on - and what the Queen would like not to be reminded of - is the behaviour of her uncle.  A man, who was briefly King, and whose fascination with Nazi Germany is well documented.  Mr Abell said: "We are not using it to suggest any impropriety on behalf of them. But it is an important and interesting issue, the extent to which the British aristocracy - notably Edward VIII, in this case - in the 1930s, were sympathetic towards fascism  The Queen was 13 when World War Two broke out and she later served in the Women's Auxiliary Territorial Service. In June she made a state visit to Germany where she visited the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp and met some of the survivors and liberators.

 

 ^ Queen Elizabeth II is completely innocent in all of this. At the time this film was taken in 1933 or 1934 she was 7 or 8 years old. She was clearly mimicking what her uncle and mother were doing. Once the Queen was old enough she proved what she thought about the Nazis and did her part during World War 2. Her uncle, Edward, was well-known for how he and his wife loved the Nazis. It was no secret and the threat of a German invasion of England with the German goal of making him a puppet-king made his brother, King George VI, move him far from Europe and posted him to the Bahamas. The Queen Mother should have known better since she was an adult and the Queen at the time. Of course I don't know the whole story  - - like most of us don't. What I do know is Queen Elizabeth II has more than proved, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that her loyalties belong to the UK and the Commonwealth. ^

 

 

http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-33578174