Jump directly to the content

Their Royal Heilnesses

Secret 1933 film shows Edward VIII teaching this Nazi salute to the Queen

THE Queen and Queen Mum raise a Nazi salute in an astonishing home movie shot
at Balmoral and seen today for the first time.

The film shows the then Princess Elizabeth, just seven, larking about in 1933.

Young Princess Elizabeth raises her arm in Nazi pose

The Sun
6

Egging on her sister Princess Margaret, three, is their uncle Prince Edward,
Prince of Wales. He was a sympathiser towards Hitler’s Nazi Germany and
became King Edward VIII.

The stunning film footage of the Queen performing a Nazi salute is today
revealed by The Sun.

The astonishing clip lay hidden for eight decades. The grainy home movie is
thought to have been shot in 1933 or 1934, as Hitler rose to supreme power
in Germany.

Footage from 1933 or 1934 in Balmoral film

The Sun
6

The 20-second cine film reveals Edward, who once gave a Nazi salute to Hitler
and claimed he was “not a bad chap”, larking around with his sister-in-law
the Queen Mother and her young children in the grounds of Balmoral.

The Queen, in tartan kilt or skirt, is aged around seven while Margaret is
three. The clip opens with a playful Elizabeth grabbing one of the royal
corgis and pushing the dog across the lawn.

Queen Mum faces  camera and hoists her right arm

The Sun
6

Facing the camera, she raises her arm in a Nazi salute. Margaret lifts a hand
— her left, in a playful wave.

Elizabeth performs a Scottish jig then raises her right arm again, joining in
with the Queen Mum as they both stand bolt upright with right arms hoisted.

Encouraged by Uncle Edward, Margaret raises her arms again before the clip
ends with the Queen Mum and Edward saluting with their right arms.

Despite his real Nazi salute to Hitler, the film clip is the only pictorial
record of Edward in the pose.

Experts last night hailed the footage as an incredible new historical
document of huge public interest.

While there is clearly no suggestion that the Queen or Queen Mother were ever
Nazi sympathisers, Edward’s links with Hitler and fascism are very well
documented.

And historians believe the film could cast important new light on the Royal
Family’s attitudes towards Germany in the 1930s — and the influence of
Nazi-loving Edward.

The two young princesses

The Sun
6

Dr Karina Urbach, a top Nazi expert and member of the renowned London-based
Institute of Historical Research, described the film as “remarkable”.

She said: “The video is pretty shocking. The Queen has a proud Second World
War record and sense of duty to her country and no one would ever suggest
she was sympathetic to Nazi Germany.

“She was a child when this film was shot, long before the atrocities of the
Nazis became widely known.

Elizabeth II and the late Queen mum pictured in 2001

PA
6

“But Edward was already welcoming the regime as Prince of Wales in 1933 and
remained pro-Nazi after war broke out in 1939.

“He could well be teaching the Queen and Princess Margaret how to do the
salute.”

The University of London academic added: “Hitler’s movement had been growing
fast since 1929 and many German relatives of the Royal Family were attracted
to it.

Adolf Hitler gives salute

Hulton Archive
6

“They could well have seen the salute on newsreels and are copying it. The
film involves our monarch and is an important historical document that asks
serious questions of the Royal Family.

“It is right that it is put into the public domain. It is high time the Royal
Archives were open for serious research on the 1930s and the issue of
Edward’s politics and their impact upon his generation within the Royal
Family.”

Juliet Gardiner, former editor of History Today and a Research Fellow at the
Institute of Historical Research, said: “It’s an insight into British
attitudes towards Germany at that time in 1933, long before everyone really
realised Hitler’s designs on Europe. It is absolutely right that the public
sees it.”

The film is even more remarkable as — just seven years after it was made —
George VI and Queen Elizabeth became inspirational figures of wartime
defiance after visiting bombed-out Londoners during the Blitz of 1940.


NAZIS
WANTED KING EDWARD AND ‘GOOD QUEEN’ WALLIS


At the time the future Queen Elizabeth, now 89, would have had no inkling of
the implications of making a Nazi salute.

The original film remains under lock and key. But copies of the clip were made
several years ago and one has now been handed to The Sun by a source who
believes it to be of massive public interest and historical importance.

Experts last night defended the Queen’s Nazi salute as evidence of the
royals playing around.

Respected military historian James Holland said: “They are all having a laugh,
there are lots of smiles, so it’s all a big joke.


SILLY
SALUTE, BUT QUEEN MOTHER WAS ROCK IN WWII


“I don’t think there was a child in Britain in the 1930s or 40s who has not
performed a mock Nazi salute as a bit of a lark.

“It just shows the Royal Family are as human as the next man.

“It’s no secret Edward met Hitler and had right-wing sympathies. But the same
cannot be said about the Queen Mother or King George VI.

“The two were completely steadfast from start to finish in their abhorrence of
Nazism in their role as leaders of the free world and the fight against that
tyranny.”


SUN
SAYS: THE SHOCKING IMAGES WE HAD TO PUBLISH