Story highlights Short black-and-white clip shows Elizabeth and her sister playing with their mother and uncle

Edward visited Adolf Hitler in Germany in 1937, the year after he abdicated the British throne

London (CNN) The Sun newspaper has sparked a furor in Britain by releasing decades-old footage of Queen Elizabeth II -- then a young girl -- giving a Nazi salute as she played with her family.

Buckingham Palace criticized the newspaper's decision to publish on its website the private family film, which was shot around 1933, when the future Queen was only about 6 years old and as Adolf Hitler had just risen to power in Germany.

"It is disappointing that film, shot eight decades ago and apparently from (Her Majesty's) personal family archive, has been obtained and exploited in this manner," a Buckingham Palace spokesman said.

The print version of the Sun, Britain's best-selling tabloid newspaper, published a still image taken from the footage -- showing Elizabeth alongside her mother, her 3-year-old sister Princess Margaret and her uncle, who would later be crowned Edward VIII -- on its front page with the headline, "Their royal heilnesses."

The short black-and-white clip, filmed at the royals' Balmoral estate in Scotland, shows Edward -- whom the paper describes as "Nazi-sympathising" -- apparently encouraging his young nieces and sister-in-law to perform the salute, before himself joining them.

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