Tabloid’s managing editor, Stig Abell, says reason for releasing leaked footage, apparently shot in 1933 or 1934, is to provide context for attitudes before WW2

This article is more than 5 years old

This article is more than 5 years old

The managing editor of the Sun has defended his newspaper’s decision to release leaked footage, apparently shot in 1933 or 1934, showing the Queen perform a Nazi salute as a matter of historical significance.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest The Sun front page showing a still of footage showing a young Queen performing a Nazi salute with her family at Balmoral. Photograph: TheSun/Twitter/PA

The black-and-white footage shows the Queen, then aged six or seven, and her sister Margaret, around three, joining the Queen Mother and her uncle, Prince Edward, the Prince of Wales, in raising an arm in the signature style of the German fascists.

Edward, who later became King Edward VIII and abdicated to marry the American socialite Wallis Simpson, faced numerous accusations of being a Nazi sympathiser. The couple were photographed meeting Hitler in Munich in October 1937, less than two years before the second world war broke out.

Buckingham Palace said in a statement that it was disappointing the film – shot eight decades ago – had been exploited, while questions have been raised over how the newspaper obtained the clip, which is apparently from the monarch’s personal family archive.

But speaking to the BBC, Stig Abell, managing editor of the Sun, defended the move. He said: “I think the justification is relatively evident - it’s a matter of national historical significance to explore what was going on in the ’30s ahead of the second world war.

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“We’re very clear we’re not, of course, suggesting anything improper on the part of the Queen or indeed the Queen Mum.

“It’s very clear Edward VIII, who became a Nazi sympathiser, in ’36 after he abdicated he headed off to Germany briefly.

“In ’37 [to] 1939, he was talking about his sympathy for Hitler and Germany, even before his death in 1970 he was saying Hitler was not a bad man.

“I think this is a matter of historical significance, I think this is footage that should be shown providing the context is very clear.

“We’ve taken a great amount of trouble and care to demonstrate that context at great length in the paper today. This is a matter of historical significance from which we shouldn’t shy away.”

The grainy clip, which lasts around 17 seconds, shows the Queen playing with a dog on the lawn in the gardens of Balmoral, the Sun claims, before she raises an arm to wave to the camera with Margaret.

The Queen Mother then makes a Nazi salute, and, after glancing towards her mother, the Queen mimics the gesture.

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The Queen Mother repeats the salute, joined by Edward, and Margaret raises her left hand before the two children continue dancing and playing on the grass.

A Palace source said: “Most people will see these pictures in their proper context and time. This is a family playing and momentarily referencing a gesture many would have seen from contemporary news reels.

“No one at that time had any sense how it would evolve. To imply anything else is misleading and dishonest. The Queen is around six years of age at the time and entirely innocent of attaching any meaning to these gestures.

“The Queen and her family’s service and dedication to the welfare of this nation during the war, and the 63 years the Queen has spent building relations between nations and peoples speaks for itself.”

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The footage is thought to have been shot in 1933 or 1934, when Hitler was rising to prominence in Germany.

In its leader column, the Sun said its focus was not on the young child who would become queen, but on her uncle, who was then heir to the throne.

The Queen’s former press secretary Dickie Arbiter said there would be great interest in royal circles in finding out how the footage was made public.

“They’ll be wondering whether it was in fact something that was held in the Royal Archives at Windsor, or whether it was being held by the Duke of Windsor’s estate,” he told the BBC news.

“And if it was the Duke of Windsor’s estate, then somebody has clearly taken it from the estate and here it is, 82 years later. But a lot of questions have got to be asked and a lot of questions got to be answered.”