Just days after damaging footage of The Queen, then aged about six or seven, being taught the Nazi salute by her Uncle Edward VIII emerged, the 89-year-old was seemingly soldiering on with business.
Following the release of the 20 second clip by UK publication The Sun, Buckingham Palace issued a strongly-worded statement slamming the video: “It is disappointing that a film shot eight decades ago and apparently from HM’s [Her Majesty’s] personal family archive has been obtained and exploited in this manner.”
It has also been revealed that the Palace is launching an investigation into how the tabloid got their hands on the private footage in the first place.
It is thought that perhaps the home videos were passed on inadvertently to film-makers or that a member of staff copied the footage from the royal archives and then sold it.
Although it is unclear whether the damaging clip was obtained illegally, The Queen’s staff are taking the matter very seriously and will undoubtedly persecute to highest levels of the law.
The video clearly shows The Queen and her mother being taught the Nazi salute by her uncle and known Nazi sympathiser Edward VIII, who went on to become King in January 1936 before abdicating from the throne in December that same year so he could marry American divorcee Wallis Simpson.
Her Majesty emerges looking defiant after the Nazi gesture scandal.
On Friday the Palace did some damage control by explaining: “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. No one at that time had any sense how it would evolve. To imply anything else is misleading and dishonest.”
They added: “The Queen is around six years of age at the time and entirely innocent of attaching any meaning to these gestures.”
The footage was believed to be captured in 1933, a time when Hitler was just coming to power.
Despite the damaging contents of the clip, the court of public opinion is very much in favour of the sovereign with many expressing the fact that the Queen was simply too young to understand the connotations behind her gesture and the footage has been published out of context to the moment in time.
