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Prince Harry's Nazi gaffe draws fury, calls for public apology
AFP ^ | Thu Jan 13, 7:03 PM ET

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.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Foreign Affairs
KEYWORDS: britian; england; harry; nazis; prince; princeharry; royalty; stupidity; whatwereuthinking
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To: G.Love

I dressed up as the devil for Halloween one year. The DEVIL has to be worse then wearing a swastika armband, but nobody flashed my picture across the world’s media. What does a poor peasant boy have to do to get soon press?

Holtz
JeffersonRepublic.com


41 posted on 01/13/2005 8:59:09 PM PST by JeffersonRepublic.com (The 51st state is right around the corner.)
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To: Cowboy Bob
"....Rommel hated Hitler". Right. He argued for an arrest of the then incompetent dictator. Rommel knew that man wanted to see Germany utterly destroyed with him. Hitler found out. Rommel was forced to commit suicide- or they would destroy his family. This you already will know.

Just mentioning it though for others. The old socialistic government controlled Canadian T/V called the German army in Africa- The NAZI AFRIKA CORPS. Pretty convenient these phrases, being as NAZI was a political party.

I wonder what happened to the scream and cry about WMD? Ask Harry- LOL

42 posted on 01/13/2005 8:59:30 PM PST by Peter Libra (Steady in the ranks)
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To: SegerSkriv

Nay maybe Stalin or Pol Pot, or better as Muhammed the Mad.


43 posted on 01/13/2005 9:02:27 PM PST by jb6 (Truth = Christ)
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To: jb6

He already apologized. He is probably embaressed. We need to move on.


44 posted on 01/13/2005 9:03:32 PM PST by television is just wrong (Our sympathies are misguided with illegal aliens.)
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To: jb6

Most of the Royals are useless twits anyway. The Monarchy will be gone within a generation and England will become just like any other Eurofascist country.


45 posted on 01/13/2005 9:04:05 PM PST by WestVirginiaRebel (Conservatism pays off. Liberalism just wants to be paid.)
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To: All

Pop quiz, where did the swastika come from? And before Germany what country used it on it's medals?


46 posted on 01/13/2005 9:05:04 PM PST by jpf
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To: jb6

http://cnn.worldnews.printthis.clickability.com/pt/cpt?action=cpt&title=CNN.com+-+Duchess%3A+Prince+%27deserves+a+break%27+-+Jan+13%2C+2005&expire=-1&urlID=12863843&fb=Y&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.cnn.com%2F2005%2FWORLD%2Feurope%2F01%2F13%2Fharry.react%2Findex.html&partnerID=2006

Give the guy a break.


47 posted on 01/13/2005 9:06:03 PM PST by television is just wrong (Our sympathies are misguided with illegal aliens.)
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To: Ron in Acreage
You might tell that to the millions of holocaust and other victims of the nazis all over Europe. Then to the thousands of victims and survivors who died in the Battle of Britain, the blitzkrieg and the V-2 rockets that came smashing down onto London and other cities.

The kid's a royal, for God's sake. And he can stuff his "sorry". It's inexcusable, even for the House of Hanover.

48 posted on 01/13/2005 9:07:00 PM PST by onedoug
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To: television is just wrong
"He is probably embaressed."

I doubt that. It showed poor judgement on his part. If he had a brain he wouldn't have done in the first place.

49 posted on 01/13/2005 9:09:53 PM PST by blackbart.223
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To: Peter Libra
Funny all this furor (fuerher?) about Rommel. He is looked at today in modern Germany as one of the few to stand up to Hitler, and therefore as a hero. So much so that there is a destroyer in the German navy named "Rommel" which I saw in port at Kiel some years ago. Harry could've gotten away with just the uniform, but the swastika was what pushed it over the top (imho).

CC

50 posted on 01/13/2005 9:11:00 PM PST by Celtic Conservative (adeste fideles, laete triumphantes.....)
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To: jb6

If it is true that his father likes to dress up in full mufti and hop around the castle like Larry of Arabia....

You can see where Harry gets it from...

Good thing he didn't do that or put on a grass skirt...paint himself black and put a bone in his nose...and tried to fry up anyone dressed as a missionary...

imo


51 posted on 01/13/2005 9:11:22 PM PST by joesnuffy (Moderate Islam Is For Dilettantes)
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To: blackbart.223

True. However, How many 20 year olds do you kow exercise good judgement 100% of the time.

Young adults make mistakes. Unfortunatley for him, This is VERY public.


52 posted on 01/13/2005 9:12:53 PM PST by television is just wrong (Our sympathies are misguided with illegal aliens.)
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To: television is just wrong

Fewer words and more actions. Any fool can "apologize".


53 posted on 01/13/2005 9:13:07 PM PST by jb6 (Truth = Christ)
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To: onedoug
"You might tell that to the millions of holocaust and other victims of the nazis all over Europe. Then to the thousands of victims and survivors who died in the Battle of Britain, the blitzkrieg and the V-2 rockets that came smashing down onto London and other cities."

It seems strange to me how myopic people are to history these days. That little turd showed very poor judgement.

54 posted on 01/13/2005 9:13:34 PM PST by blackbart.223
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To: jb6

Hopefully he can in the coming weeks.


55 posted on 01/13/2005 9:13:44 PM PST by television is just wrong (Our sympathies are misguided with illegal aliens.)
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To: joesnuffy

Now that would be priceless. :)


56 posted on 01/13/2005 9:14:07 PM PST by jb6 (Truth = Christ)
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To: onedoug

Don't forget about the Brits and Americans who died fighting and killing Nazi scum. They have survivors also. We lost over 400,000 of our own. Both of my grandparents fought in WW2.


57 posted on 01/13/2005 9:15:29 PM PST by Ron in Acreage (Kerry is (no longer) a threat to national security)
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To: blackbart.223
"He is probably embarrassed."

"I doubt that."

Why do you doubt that? He's English, they're embarrassed all the time! That's like their greatest fear in life.
58 posted on 01/13/2005 9:15:54 PM PST by jpf
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To: television is just wrong
"Young adults make mistakes. Unfortunatley for him, This is VERY public."

Granted. But it should have occured to him this was not a joke. He is twenty and should grow up. Or at least read history.

59 posted on 01/13/2005 9:21:02 PM PST by blackbart.223
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To: FatherofFive

LOL!


60 posted on 01/13/2005 9:24:53 PM PST by Frank_2001
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