Royal Family’s Nazi Salute in 1930s Stirs Debate in Britain
By DAN BILEFSKY

LONDON — The grainy black-and-white home movie lasts about 17 seconds. It shows a young Princess Elizabeth, the future Queen Elizabeth II, raising her hand in the air in the style of a Nazi salute, an apparent youthful pantomime. The queen mother and Elizabeth’s uncle, Prince Edward, who would become King Edward VIII, also make the gesture.

Three days after the footage of the royal family, taken in 1933 or 1934, was published on the website of The Sun, the images of the young Elizabeth continued to reverberate throughout Britain on Monday. The story — under the headline “Their Royal Heilnesses” — has stirred debates about the limits of press freedom and royal privacy; the imperative of historical transparency; and whether an 89-year-old monarch should be judged for a gesture made when she was 6 or 7 years old.

Indeed, some critics have assailed The Sun for publishing the video, saying it unfairly sullies the image of a future queen who was too young to understand the meaning of what she was doing. There has also been an outpouring of support for the queen, a beloved and unifying figure, on social media.

But other commentators have praised the newspaper for prodding a historical reckoning, saying it could enhance understanding of the royal family’s attitudes toward Nazi Germany, in particular those of Prince Edward, who has been accused of sympathizing with the Nazis. As Edward VIII, he renounced the throne in December 1936 to marry the American divorcée Wallis Simpson.

“It is disappointing that film shot eight decades ago and apparently from H.M.’s personal family archive has been obtained and exploited in this manner,” Buckingham Palace said in a statement. It is not clear how The Sun obtained the footage.

Mayor Boris Johnson of London defended the queen and argued that the royal family could not have foreseen Hitler’s future barbarism.

“It makes my blood boil to think that anyone should use this image in any way to impugn the extraordinary record of service of Her Majesty to this country,” Mr. Johnson wrote in The Telegraph. “She was a child, a tiny child, and she is making that parodic salute long before her family could possibly have grasped what Hitler and Hitlerism was really all about.”

The Sun defended its decision to publish the images, saying it was a matter of history and in the public interest. “We publish them today knowing they do not reflect badly on our queen, her late sister or mother in any way,” it said.

The film shows members of the royal family at their Balmoral estate in rural Scotland. At the time, the Hitler salute was being mocked in some quarters in Britain, and making the gesture did not necessarily signal support for him or his policies. “Families of all kinds larked around aping the stiff-armed antics of the faintly comic character with the Charlie Chaplin mustache who won power in Germany,” The Sun wrote.

But some commentators have countered that by 1933 the Nazi Party was already on the rise. There had already been attacks on Jewish businesses, and the first anti-Semitic laws were passed in April of that year.

Ben Judah, who is writing a book on London and the changing British identity, noted that in 1933, newspapers in Britain had accounts of Nazi repression. “Waking up to the image on The Sun made me feel that in the 1930s there was a whole world and depth of anti-Semitism about Jews being hidden behind regal demeanor and gentle froideur,” he said.

Much of the coverage in the British news media of the affair has focused on the extent to which the footage suggested that members of the royal family could have been sympathetic to Hitler or Nazi Germany. The BBC wrote that in October 1937, Edward and his wife visited Germany, entertaining the notion that Edward could become “a figurehead for an international movement for peace on Hitler’s terms.” The couple met with Hitler, the BBC said.

The queen mother and her husband, King George VI, have been revered in Britain for their stoicism during World War II, in part because of their resolve to stay in London.

英女王納粹式敬禮 82年前照片惹議

英國發行量最大的日報「太陽報」頭版十八日以「向希特勒致敬的這些王室成員」（Their Royal Heilnesses）為標題，刊登女王伊麗莎白二世1933年在巴爾莫勒爾花園做出納粹敬禮動作的照片及十七秒的短片。

太陽報在印刷報和電子報上刊載的黑白照片及影片顯示，當時還沒登基的愛德華八世（伊麗莎白女王的伯父）和弟媳（伊麗莎白女王的母親）在蘇格蘭巴爾莫勒爾花園，教當年七歲的伊麗莎白公主和她三歲的妹妹瑪格麗特公主舉右手行納粹禮。影片拍攝時間大概在1933至34年間，伊麗莎白短暫舉右手三次，忙著和柯基犬玩耍。

納粹黨員向希特勒敬禮時，除了手部動作，還會高喊「希特勒萬歲！」（Heil Hitler!）。太陽報因此玩弄文字遊戲，將這些殿下（Their Royal Highnesses）改成「向希特勒致敬的這些王室成員」（Their Royal Heilnesses）。

愛德華八世1936年繼位十一個月後，為迎娶美國離婚婦人辛浦森而遜位，然後於1937年在德國會見希特勒，英國某些史家認為他同情希特勒政權。王室方面表示，當時無人能夠預見德國的走向，還是小女孩的伊麗莎白渾然不知舉手禮代表的意義。

愛德華八世遜位後弟弟喬治六世繼位；喬治六世1952年病逝，由女兒伊麗莎白二世登基。現年八十九歲的伊麗莎白女王登基迄今人氣不減，她可望於九月超越在位六十三年又兩百一十六天的維多利亞女王，成為英國在位最久的君主。

白金漢宮罕見發表聲明回應，「這些攝於八十年前、疑似來自女王家族檔案的影像，遭媒體以這種方式取得和濫用，令人失望」。王室消息人士堅稱，女王當時年紀小，不懂手勢意義。軍史學家霍蘭說：「我認為當年的每個英國小孩都曾開玩笑地做過這個手勢。」

太陽報執行副總編輯艾貝爾說，公開照片係基於公眾利益和重大歷史意義，絕非要讓王室難堪，但拒絕透露影像如何取得。

原文參照：
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/21/world/europe/royal-familys-nazi-salute-in-1930s-stirs-debate-in-britain.html

紐約時報中文版翻譯：
http://cn.nytimes.com/world/20150722/c22queen/zh-hant/

2015-07-19．聯合報．A13．國際．編譯陳韻涵