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.
apologies mean nothing - they are just words to be uttered to appease the unwashed and unthinking masses.
Only actions have true meaning.
Oh, good grief. When I was a teenager, my friends and I used to think swastikas were cool too. We didn't understand what they meant. Harry's a young kid. Give him a break.
He's also a royal of England, a nation that was on the direct front line of the Nazi assault. Furthermore, you want the position of a Royal, well welcome to the world of responsability that comes with it.
WOMAN: Well, 'ow did you become king then?
ARTHUR: The Lady of the Lake, [angels sing] her arm clad in the purest shimmering samite, held aloft Excalibur from the bosom of the water signifying by Divine Providence that I, Arthur, was to carry Excalibur. [singing stops] That is why I am your king!
DENNIS: Listen -- strange women lying in ponds distributing
swords is no basis for a system of government. Supreme executive power derives from a mandate from the masses, not from some farcical aquatic ceremony.
ARTHUR: Be quiet!
DENNIS: Well you can't expect to wield supreme executive power just 'cause some watery tart threw a sword at you!
ARTHUR: Shut up!
DENNIS: I mean, if I went around sayin' I was an empereror just because some moistened bint had lobbed a scimitar at me they'd put me away!
ARTHUR: Shut up! Will you shut up!
DENNIS: Ah, now we see the violence inherent in the system.
ARTHUR: Shut up!
DENNIS: Oh! Come and see the violence inherent in the system!
HELP! HELP! I'm being repressed!
ARTHUR: Bloody peasant!
DENNIS: Oh, what a give away. Did you here that, did you here that, eh? That's what I'm on about -- did you see him repressing me, you saw it didn't you?
By the way, at 20, he is a legal adult.
It's not like he wore it because he sympathizes with the Nazis. It was a costume party. This is much too big a deal over very little.
His problem is that he's Royalty, so he's expected to act in a certain way.
Good grief it's been so long since I've seen that most excellent of comedies. Memmmooorieees.
20 years old is a young kid? At that age, he really ought to know better. I don't buy the excuse that he didn't understand the meaning of a swastika.
Somebody in the Palace screwed up in this gaffe. They're not properly monitoring the young Royal's activities.
"It was a poor choice of costume and I apologise."
IT'S A F***ING COSTUME! STFU!
Oh my gosh, the only other voice of reason I've read here on FR. Why doesn't everyone mind their own business and attend to their own costumes? Good grief, such a hullaballoo!
Btw, it would seem (according to Reuters) that Daddy is in fact going to make Harry visit Auschwitz to make up for this.
Still one of the best ever! This Harry thing shows the genetic problems with in-breeding, though.
There was a poll just a few weeks ago showing that a majority (fairly large I think) of 15-35yr olds in UK had never heard of Auschwitz.
You are correct. The poor people at the "level" of Harry are clueless, we have the same types here in the US ---!
He is in a position of privilege and must have had a proper education.
In light of that he should have had better sense.
Another clothing malfunction????
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.