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Queen 'disappointed' at Nazi salute picture

The Sun's front page showing a young Queen performing a Nazi salute with her family at Balmoral in 1933
The Sun's front page showing a young Queen performing a Nazi salute with her family at Balmoral in 1933 The Sun's front page showing a young Queen performing a Nazi salute with her family at Balmoral in 1933

A VINTAGE film clip of the Queen and Queen Mother giving Nazi salutes has caused controversy after the Sun newspaper published stills of the footage from 1933.

The pre-war film is just 17-seconds long and shows the Queen, aged around six, joining her mother and uncle Prince Edward – later King Edward VIII – in making the gesture synonymous with Adolf Hitler's facist regime.

The footage was taken in the gardens of Balmoral six years before the outbreak of the Second World War, while Hitler was German chancellor.

The so-called 'Hitler greeting' was passed into German law in July 1933. Hitler would declare himself Fuhrer the following year, having outlawed all political opposition.

The Sun has suggested that the footage shows Edward teaching his family how to make the infamous salute.

Edward, whose mother was German royalty, has long been accused of being an ally to Hitler during the war.

He and wife Wallis Simpson were photographed meeting the fuhrer at his Obersalzberg retreat in October 1937 as Duke and Duchess of Windsor, less than a year after he abdicated the throne.

Buckingham Palace is considering taking legal action over the footage and has launched an inquiry into how the film was obtained by The Sun.

A Palace spokesman said: "It is disappointing that film, shot eight decades ago and apparently from Her Majesty's personal family archive, has been obtained and exploited in this manner.

"The Queen is around six years of age at the time and entirely innocent of attaching any meaning to these gestures."

Sun managing editor Stig Abell said they obtained the footage "in a legitimate fashion" and that its publication was "not a criticism of the Queen or the Queen Mum".