LONDON
Buckingham Palace has criticized Saturday the release of a video clip from 1933 appearing to show the Queen as child giving a Nazi salute.
The palace said in a statement Saturday that it was "disappointing that film, shot eight decades ago and apparently from HM's [her majesty's] personal family archive, has been obtained and exploited in this manner.”
The front page of British tabloid The Sun was covered Saturday with a photo showing a young Elizabeth, aged around six, raising her right hand in the air as her mother, the late Queen Mother, does the same. Prince Edward, the future Edward VIII, is also seen raising his arm.
The images come from a 17-second black-and-white film that the daily claimed was shot at the royal family's Balmoral estate in Scotland in 1933.
The Sun did not say how it obtained the footage while the palace said it would investigate the leak.
The daily said the footage would not reflect a negative image on the Elizabeth II or her mother; it would rather show “the King Edward VIII’s distorted prejudice”.
The late Prince Edward was accused of being a Nazi sympathizer. A photo showing his meeting with Adolf Hitler was published in 1937.
He abdicated from the throne on Dec. 11, 1936 in order to marry an American widower.
