Why Buckingham Palace Slams the Sun Newspaper for offensive pictures

Buckingham Palace's rapid reaction to the offensive images published by the Sun newspaper is said to have stemmed from the possibility of the publication being exploited for political and commercial reasons which may be detrimental to the Queen’s public reputation. 

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Earlier on Saturday, the Buckingham Palace registered her disapproval of front page publication of the Sun showing young Queen Elizabeth of Britain 1930s pictures making a Nazi salute. The unpleasant images headlined, Their Royal Heilnesses- a clear reference to the Hel Hitler, showed the Queen at age six raising her right hand in the air as her late mother did same. Heil Hitler was the greeting used during Nazi Germany reigns

 

In a staunch criticism of the offensive publication, an unnamed Buckingham Palace spokesman statement said: It is 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.  Likewise in defense of the Queen, a royal source argued that the queen would not have known the significance of the gesture at such a young age, the images threaten to cause deep embarrassment for the 89-year-old monarch. 

The images were cut from a 20-second black and white home movie which the Sun said was shot at the royal family's rural Balmoral estate in Scotland in 1933 or 1934 and has never been made public before. The video according to British tabloid shows the young future queen briefly raising her right hand in the air three times, as well as dancing around excitedly and playing with a corgi.

The group, which also included the queen's sister Princess Margaret, was apparently being encouraged by the queen's uncle, the future king Edward VIII. The precise nature of Edward's links to the Nazis are still debated in Britain, with some historians accusing him of being sympathetic to Adolf Hitler's regime. History has it that Edward met Hitler in Germany in 1937 after having abdicated the throne the previous year over his desire to marry US divorcee Wallis Simpson.

The Sun has defended its action and in defiance to the objection of the Buckingham Palace, the Sun's Managing Editor, Stig Abell stand by the British tabloid's decision to release the images. In his response to interview with BBC Radio 4's Today, Abell said: The footage was obtained by the newspaper "in a legitimate fashion" and that its publication was "not a criticism of the Queen or the Queen Mum". "It is a historical document that really sheds some insight in to the behaviour of Edward VIII". 

Nazi members' salute

On the concerns of the Buckingham Palace over the possibility of the images has been exploited, the Editor stated: I understand that they don't like this coming out but I also feel ... that the role of journalists and the media is to bring to light things that happened.

 

What we have done just brought to light an historical document and we have sought to present it in a contextual fashion around Edward VIII and have made the point relatively clearly, I hope, that we recognise of course that the Queen and the Queen Mum went on to become heroes of the Second World War and there are no aspersions being cast upon them by The Sun.

Queen Elizabeth II arriving in Germany with Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh and Prince Harry on June 16, 2015

The Sun is not new to these kinds of issue, you will recall the paper published a photograph of Prince Harry wearing a swastika armband to a friend's fancy dress party to which Prince Harry later apologised. 

Queen Elizabeth II paid a visit to Nazi camp

Queen Elizabeth pays tribute to victims of the Holocaust during visit to Bergen-Belsen

Queen Elizabeth II receives flowers from German children during her visit in June

As the world wait for more facts on this, an unnamed source in the Buckingham Palace have also stated that the Queen would not have known the implications of what she was doing if the images published by the Sun were actually true.