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.
IF!?!
Everytime I see an story like this, all I can say is, "Thank God for the Founding Fathers."
The whole sordid episode pulls back the curtain once again on the Windsors and their idiotic lifestyle. The "theme" party itself was a disgrace. No wonder Diana was driven into the arms of a good-for-nothing playboy who lavished her with false affections.
God Save the Queen, 'Cos tourists are money!
You're right. The regular armed services did not wear it. It was only the real thugs you mentioned, including the SS, who wore it.
Great...one's a Nazi, the other's a fop....
Many Poles served in the RAF during WW II (1 in 8 flyers were Polish) fighting the Nazis, and helping to save England's bacon during the "Battle of Britain". Their country was destroyed and yet they helped to fight for England in her hour of need. They got stabbed in the back at Yalta, and the Polish soldiers serving in England were treated as peons by the British public.
It was well documented, that Hitler planned to exterminate all Poles by 1975, but unlike with the Jews, he figured to keep them alive as slaves until they all died out.
Exactly. He showed very poor judgement and he is obviously immature. Given the fact that he lost his mother when he was very young and has a father who showed more interest in Camilla than Diana, he's probably acting out. I don't think he's particularly bright but I don't really know that. It's just an assumption from what I've heard Brits saying on TV, however. I'm sure he just thought of it as a lark but the press, as always, has blown it out of proportion.
We had Alfred the Great, Ethelred the Reedless, Edward the Atheling, Edmund Ironsides, Edward the Confessor, William the Conqueror, Edward Longshanks, Richard the Lion Hearted, John Lackland-Softsword, Harry Hotspur, Bloody Mary, and now
..... we have Harry the Stupid.
How Monarchs have degenerated.
Wasn't it an indian sign? I'll say the US as answer to your question.
The people who have their panties in a wad about this are the same ones who call conservatives "Nazi" every chance they get.
But if he'd gone dressed as Stalin or KGB or something like that no one would have said a word. He needs to be made aware of his gaffe and educated about relevant history if he doesn't already know about themit but that's all.
Selective outrage sums it up.
This has been bugging me all morning. Going in an animal costume made no sense, given the theme of the party. I think perhaps Prince William was dressed as a Mau Mau. I have been trying to find out some of the dress of the Mau Mau, but have been unsuccessful.
From my memories of the Mau Mau, they sometimes wore lion heads to intimidate the colonial British. The Mau Mau uprising occurred when I was a child, so I may have a faulty memory. I think this is important to look at, as the Mau Mau were terrorists.
I've heard of Birkenau but not often and not as much as Auschwitz. I grew up in that era and the images have haunted me all my life. That's why I give money to the Fellowship of Christians and Jews to help feed elderly Jews in Russia who would otherwise starve if organizations like FCJ didn't help them. I feel I have to. It's not a duty by any means but I know God wants us to help the Jewish people and it's an honor to be able to do even this little bit.
I watched it. He seems to think Harry is not the brightest bulb on the tree.
Excellant points. If this was acting out...it was probably in the same way his mom did, very dramatic and embarassing.But then the monarchy deserves it. Long live the American Revolution!
I am tempted to drive the Dims crazy by starting a move to make Bush ..ready? "King George". Ha. they would go nuts, but it would be such fun!
I would say in all honesty about this, if this had been different, and he were in a Chinese PLA uniform, green cap with Red Star, made out as Mao Tse Tung, or with a beard and fatigues looking like Fidel Castro, and the worldwide media had made a stink about it, then I'd say they ought to go after him for this. But since the media would NEVER make an issue if he dressed up as Marx, Lenin, Stalin, Castro or Mao, let's just DROP IT.
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