HM’s Nazi Salute: Relevant to What?
In the Internet Age, Must We Know Everything?
Claiming it is “historically relevant,” the Sun is defending publication of a six-year-old Princess Elizabeth, coached by her mother the future Queen Elizabeth and her uncle the Prince of Wales (later Edward VIII, still later the Duke of Windsor) raising her arm in the stiff salute now identified with the Nazi party. But it’s “in the public interest,” wails the Sun.
It’s in the interest of selling newspapers. Buckingham Palace responded:
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.…