Posted on 01/13/2005 8:24:36 PM PST by jb6
LONDON (AFP) - Britain's Prince Harry sparked fury after being photographed in a Nazi military outfit, drawing calls at home and abroad for a public apology from the young royal with a track record of embarrassing public gaffes.
AFP Photo
The photograph, captured on the cover of the best-selling daily tabloid The Sun and picked up by media around the world, was published just a fortnight before the 60th anniversary of the liberation of the former Nazi death camp at Auschwitz.
Harry appears in the shot slouched in the khaki uniform of Rommel's Afrika Korps, complete with red swastika armband, as well as a drink and cigarette in hand.
The 20-year-old was snapped last weekend at a "colonials and natives" fancy dress party also attended by Harry's brother Prince William, 22, who opted for a less controversial self-tailored "lion and leopard outfit", The Sun said.
Reactions poured in from Jewish groups and politicians in Europe and Israel, while Clarence House, the office of Harry's father Prince Charles, insisted that an initial written apology made by the younger prince was sufficient.
"I am sorry if I cause any offence or embarrassment to anyone," said Harry in the statement released late Wednesday.
"It was a poor choice of costume and I apologise."
The terse apology failed to stem a wave of condemnation.
"With Holocaust Memorial Day coming up very shortly, a written apology is not enough," said Dicky Arbiter, a former Buckingham Palace spokesman.
"If he now wants to be considered an adult, he has got to behave like an adult," he said, "and he has got to apologise in person, through radio and television."
Michael Howard, leader of the main opposition Conservative Party, added to calls for a public apology. "I think it might be appropriate for him to tell us himself just how contrite he now is," Howard, who is Jewish and had family members perish at Auschwitz, told BBC radio.
The US-based Simon Wiesenthal Centre, one of the world's leading Jewish human rights organisations, called Harry's behaviour "a shameful act" and offensive to both Holocaust victims and soldiers who died fighting Hitler's armies.
Its founder Rabbi Marvin Hier said Harry ought to go to Auschwitz with his uncle Prince Edward, head of the British delegation, for the 60th anniversary commemorations.
The Jewish Chronicle, Britain's leading Jewish newspaper, attacked Harry's action as "mind-boggling".
Israeli Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom said it could not merely be written off as a mere show of poor judgment.
And the European Union (news - web sites)'s foreign policy chief, Javier Solana, said it was "not an appropriate thing to do".
But some, including Sarah Ferguson, former wife to Harry's uncle Prince Andrew, and the Lord Chancellor, Lord Charles Falconer, defended Harry, saying he had already apologised and deserved a break.
The photograph, two weeks before the 60th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, Hitler's most notorious death camp in Poland in which a million Jews perished, prompted questions about Harry's plans to attend the elite Sandhurst military academy, which he is due to enter in May to train as a British Army officer.
"I don't think this young man is suitable for Sandhurst," said Doug Henderson, a former armed forces minister. "If it was anyone else, the application wouldn't be considered. It should be withdrawn immediately."
The Ministry of Defence, however, said the furore would not affect his place at Sandhurst -- even though he will be subject to military discipline once he arrives.
Blair himself stayed out of the controversy, with his official spokesman saying that while "an error was made" by Harry, any further action should be down to the royal family.
Unlike his studious older brother, Harry has the image of a fun-loving playboy, despite an attempt to reinvent himself as a humanitarian by spending time with young AIDS (news - web sites) victims in southern Africa.
He was exposed in the press for underage drinking and marijuana smoking, while last year he brawled with a photographer outside a London nightclub. One of his teachers at Eton also alleged she had come under pressure to help him pass his exams -- a claim rejected by royal spokesmen as "unfair".
But commentators have also claimed Harry has been unfairly treated by the press, especially with its unrelenting coverage of the death in 1997 of his mother, the late Princess Diana.
Horrors of homophones ping.
Knowing what that costume sympbolized and wrought, no its not just a f..g costume. There is NO way anyone with understanding of the holocuast would think it was "just a costume." I wonder how blacks would feel if someone wore a KKK "costume". If I was at that party, I would leave. I suppose there were no grandchildren of any holocuast survivors at that party. I wonder if there had been, if they thought it was "just a costume."
If I remember correctly, Rommel hated Hitler.
I think this is an interference run for Marc Thatcher's coup d'tat thing.
Agreed. If this were just some regular frat boy at a Halloween party, then I probably wouldn't give a hoot. I've seen worse.
But he's a royal. That comes with a bunch of privilege, and with it an expectation that he'll at least act the part.
They take the meaning of blue blood to a whole new level. What I really love is the fact that in WW1, out of some 20 nations of Europe, all the monarches were 1st Cousins. Gads!
It was a costume for cripes sake. Only Jews can dare make a joke using the swastika? Mel Brooks made millions doing it. Hogans Heroes was on TV for years making a lot of people very rich joking it up with Nazis. Hollywood movie makers have made millions and millions of dollars exploiting the holocaust and no one gives a damn. Spielberg gave a small percentage of his profits to the holocaust museum etc. but still makes millions from royalties from DVD sales. Harry wears a stupid arm band as a prop and everyone gets their over sensitive panties in a wad. It absolutely offends me that anyone is offended.
Do you know what that "costume" represents? He should have had better sense than to wear it.
But Rommel's wife was a born again Nazi. Hitler also made Rommel's career because he needed a young, dashing super star general to show up OKW (the German general staff)
Hmm... if someone dressed in a white sheet and carried a burning cross, maybe he could just say he was dressing as the "Holy Ghost" ....
Made up fantasy? I can believe that they know little of it, but to think it was made up is pure insanity.
Give the kid a break...I think next year he should dress as Che Guevara...he might get an award for it over in Euro weiner land.
He is a Prince and I guess because of the growing anti-semitism over there it could cause some hemmorhoids to pop.
I'm pretty sure he isn't a nazi sympathizer or anything of the sort...Another casualty of the totally too sensitive world. People wear Che Guevara shirts and people aren't appalled...
I guess the Prince should suck it up and play the game...
It's a matter of resonsibility. If he can't see why people would be offended then he is dumber than I thought. But I never thought he was that smart to begin with.
Look! The grail light at Castle Anthrax!
Hell, how about grandkids of any of the soldiers or any that survived the blitze? The kid is an idjit.
IIRC, the uniforms for all branches of the German military (wehrmacht, luftwaffe, and kriegsmarine) did *not* have the swastika armband (which I think was reserved for civilian party rallies and SA thugs).
If this is the case, then Harry was needlessly embellishing his already stupid choice of a costume.
Sir Blood
'The problem we have in Europe and this country is that History is not being taught and what passes for History is PC drivel.'
In my bad English...You ain't the only one with that problem.
I don't think we are as bad, but we're a close second place.
I kid you not, I about fell out when I read some of those polls. Granted most of these polls were of the younger school and college crowd. Even over here I have seen polls and the kids here aren't learning any history here either.
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