Jan. 14



ENGLAND:

The (Nazi) Party Prince, or Harry's Wardrobe Malfunction


It's been a while since the word "Nazi" was associated with a member of the
British royal family. But obviously it has not been long enough. Thursday,
London's best-selling newspaper, the Sun, splashed a photograph of
20-year-old Prince Harry at a costume party wearing the uniform of Nazi
Field Marshal Erwin Rommel's Afrika Korps, complete with swastika armband,
and the whole of Britain went instantly berserk.

"Complete idiot" was the epithet bandied about by one anti-fascist group,
and nobody seemed to think it remotely inappropriate. The president of
Britain's Holocaust Trust went even further, calling the prince's actions
"stupid and evil." The Sun's headline was "Harry the Nazi."

A former armed forces minister suggested that Harry, who is third in line to
the throne, was now unfit to enter Sandhurst, Britain's elite officer
training school, where he is due to start later this year. And the former
commander of British forces in Bosnia, Col. Bob Stewart, said that if one of
his men had gone to a party dressed as a Nazi he would have put him on
toilet-cleaning duty for two weeks.

It's hardly news that a British royal has, once again, made a prize twit of
himself. That seems to be the House of Windsor's lot. But this is in a whole
different category. Even a 20-year-old (and particularly one in line to the
throne) should know that the world is still colossally and understandably
sensitive about the Nazis and their monstrous crimes.

After all, the Third Reich came close to ripping apart the fabric of the
British monarchy in the 1930s and posed a unique threat to a divided
establishment. Had history jogged just a few degrees one way or the other,
Britain could have found itself either allied with Adolf Hitler or overrun
by his Wehrmacht and turned into a fascist state.

Nobody represented the flirtation with totalitarianism more than Harry's
great-grand-uncle, Edward VIII, the ultimate black sheep of the family, who
openly sympathized with the Nazis and might have pushed Britain into an
anti-Stalinist alliance with Hitler had it not been for his insistence on
marrying the American divorcee - and equally ardent Nazi apologist - Wallis
Simpson, an insistence that precipitated his abdication in 1936.

For a long time, conventional wisdom had it that the objection to Simpson
was religious and moral: that there was no tolerance of divorce in Anglican
belief, which Edward, as monarch, was bound to uphold.

Recently released official papers have shown, however, that the
establishment was greatly exercised by Simpson's fondness for the Nazis (she
was believed to have been Joachim von Ribbentrop's lover when he was
ambassador to London), even more vexed about Edward's openly pro-Nazi
leanings and anxious to see him stripped of the crown if at all possible.
The divorce must have seemed providential.

The reverberations from the abdication crisis are still palpable among
today's royals. Three of Prince Philip's sisters married Nazi sympathizers,
and the Windsors who succeeded Edward VIII - his brother, George VI, and
George's daughter, Elizabeth II - had to live it down, even after the
Third Reich's demise.

Edward himself continued to be a severe embarrassment, dining in Germany
with Hitler and Rudolph Hess in 1937 and very possibly (the record is
ambiguous) plotting with the Nazis to return to the throne in the event of a
successful invasion of Britain.

This is the history that Harry just brought roaring back to life. The
costume party, held at the mansion of the Olympic show jumper Richard Meade,
was on a "native and colonial" theme, so, to add insult to injury, Harry's
costume revived unpleasant parallels between the Nazi taste for bloodthirsty
imperial adventure and Britain's own leanings in that direction - like using
poison gas on the Kurds, shooting independence protesters in India and so
on. Britain has long since repented of its imperial sins, but nostalgia
still abounds in certain upper-class circles.

Harry has been a mild cause for concern before - accused by his art teacher
at Eton of cheating on his A-level exams, caught in a bust-up with a
photographer outside a London club. With a reputation as a tearaway, he's
spent part of his year before Sandhurst working as a ranch hand in
Australia. His father and grandmother must be regretting he didn't stay
longer.

(source: Commentary, Andrew Gumbel, who is the Los Angeles correspondent for
the Independent of London; Los Angeles Times)



**************************


Prince Harry's Nazi Blunder Burns Old Blighty


Now surely we've all faced this problem: We've been invited to a
costume party at someone's country estate and nothing in the
closet is quite right. What to wear? For Prince Harry, third in line to
the British throne, here's the answer that came to mind: dress up as a
German soldier, complete with army uniform and Nazi armband.

Unfortunately for Harry, a redheaded 20-year-old with an ever-expanding
reputation for bad judgment, someone at the party Saturday night took his
photograph and sold it to the Sun, Britain's most carnivorous tabloid. The
result was splashed across the front page of Thursday's paper: "Harry the
Nazi," screamed the headline, superimposed upon a photo of Prince
Charles's and the late Princess Diana's second son, sporting a cigarette,
a drink and a swastika.

The spin machine at Clarence House, Charles's official residence,
shifted into high gear, immediately issuing a brief statement of
contrition in Harry's name -- "I am very sorry if I have caused any
offense or embarrassment to anyone. It was a poor choice of costume and I
apologize" -- and spending the rest of the day anonymously briefing the
British press about (a) how very, very stupid Harry had been and (b) how
very, very crushed he felt.

Still, the apology wasn't enough to head off a storm of criticism.
Politicians weighed in, starting with the leaders of two of Britain's main
political parties, who called on Harry to appear personally and apologize
more fully. A former armed forces minister, Doug Henderson, went further
and demanded that Harry resign from Sandhurst, the elite military academy
where he is scheduled to begin an officer training course later this year.

"After the revelations, I don't think this young man is suitable for
Sandhurst," Henderson told reporters. "If it was anyone else the
application wouldn't be considered."

Members of the Jewish community were stunned. Greville Janner, a member
of the House of Lords and former president of the Board of Deputies of
British Jews, called Harry's behavior "stupid, thoughtless, tactless." The
headline on a hastily penned editorial for Friday's weekly Jewish
Chronicle reads: "Mind Boggling."

"People are genuinely surprised and offended," said the Chronicle's
editor, Ned Temko. "The instinct always among the leadership of the Jewish
community is 'Don't make a federal case out of it.' Some people will
excuse him by saying he's just 20, but he is, after all, part of an
institution seen as embodying what it is to be British."

Harry's timing was impeccably bad, coming exactly two weeks before
Europe solemnly commemorates the 60th anniversary of the liberation of the
Nazis' Auschwitz death camp in Poland by Soviet troops. Harry's
grandmother, Queen Elizabeth, has invited Holocaust survivors and British
war veterans who helped liberate them to a reception at St. James's
Palace, and she will attend a Holocaust Memorial Day commemoration at
Westminster Hall. Harry's uncle Prince Edward will represent the queen at
a memorial service at Auschwitz.

Temko said Harry's statement of contrition was sorely lacking. "It
implied this was a wardrobe problem," he said. "Whatever further statement
he makes, there has to be some reflection that a swastika armband isn't
just a fashion item, that it symbolizes a lot more. One of the most
dismaying aspects for Jews and non-Jews is that there seems to be an utter
lack of awareness of the context of the Holocaust and the war."

This is hardly the first time that Harry has drawn public attention for
boorish or outrageous behavior. Three years ago his father dispatched him
to observe a drug rehabilitation center after he was caught smoking
marijuana. There have been a number of instances of public intoxication,
and last October he scuffled with a paparazzo outside a London nightclub.
But two weeks ago he and his older brother, William, spent a day at a
warehouse helping ship relief supplies to tsunami victims in southern
Asia, bolstering the image their late mother had painstakingly cultivated
as a caring royal.

Saturday's "fancy-dress" party was thrown by Olympic show jumper Richard
Meade for his son Harry's 22nd birthday. The theme was "Native and
Colonial," and Prince William reportedly showed up wearing a lion and
leopard outfit that he made himself, complete with black leggings.

William is two years older than his brother and supposedly better
equipped in the brains and judgment department. But it apparently did not
occur to him to tell his brother to lose the Nazi regalia. Or if he did,
Harry paid no heed.

Harry came to the party wearing an army jacket with a German flag on the
arm, the Sun reported. When he took it off, the khaki shirt underneath
included a Wehrmacht badge on the collar and the swastika armband. An
anonymous partygoer told the Sun that people were shocked by the outfit.
"What on Earth was Harry thinking?" one asked.

Some commentators were quick to blame Prince Charles, still seen by some
royal watchers as the villain in the Charles-and-Di saga, which ended in a
bitter divorce.

"I'm sorry -- the Prince of Wales, he's a humanitarian and he does some
terrific work, but I don't think he has . . . the right discipline over
his children, particularly Prince Harry," Dickie Arbiter, a former
Buckingham Palace press officer, told Sky News.

But others pleaded for time and patience. They say Harry is a sensitive
young man, scarred by his glamorous mother's death in a 1997 car crash,
who is deeply affected by criticism and needs space to mature.

"Give him a break," said royal biographer Robert Lacey. "We all make
mistakes when we're young -- the difference is our mistakes aren't
photographed and sold to the Sun."

Lacey says it would be inappropriate for Harry to appear publicly for
now or to attend one of the Holocaust memorial events. "He should lie low
for a while. The sooner he gets to Sandhurst the better."

A palace official told Reuters that there were no plans for Prince Harry
to attend the ceremonies. "It would be a distraction and a detraction from
the importance of the occasion because it would become a different story
in media terms," the official said.

But the Sun on Friday reported that Prince Charles, "incandescent with
rage," has ordered both of his sons to make a private visit to Auschwitz.
The tabloid quoted an unnamed royal source as saying, "There will be no
publicity and they will go with a Jewish charity."

(source: Washington Post)



***********************************


Report: UK's Charles Orders Sons to Visit Auschwitz


Britain's Prince William has been ordered to join his tearaway younger
brother Harry on a private visit to Auschwitz, a newspaper reported on
Friday, as a scandal over Nazi regalia engulfed the two young royals.

Harry, 20, provoked outrage this week when photos of him wearing a
swastika at a costume party appeared in the Sun newspaper.

But William, 22, second in line to the throne, was at the same party and
even, according to the paper, went along to help his brother choose the
Nazi outfit.

Now their father, Prince Charles, wants the pair to make a private visit
to the Nazi death camp at Auschwitz in Poland to atone for the mistake,
according to the Sun.

A spokesman for Charles declined to comment on the report.

But royal sources refused to rule out the possibility of a trip, saying
only that the pair would not join a British delegation at Jan. 27 events
to commemorate 60 years since the liberation of Auschwitz.

The Sun reported the princes would visit the camp in the near future with
a Jewish charity.

The royal sources said while no such visit was being planned at present,
any trip to Auschwitz would be private.

The Board of Deputies of British Jews said it had not been contacted by
the royal family, but welcomed the prospect of a visit. ``In light of this
event we'd welcome Prince Harry to show he is prepared to embrace
education about the Holocaust,'' a spokesman said.

The Nazis murdered six million Jews and millions of others including
Poles, homosexuals, Soviet prisoners and Gypsies. Millions more were
imprisoned or forced to work as slaves.

Harry, younger son of Charles and the late Princess Diana, said in a
statement he was sorry if he had caused any offence over his ``poor
choice'' of costume, but politicians have called for him to make a public
apology.

Both princes were roasted by Charles but royal sources said their father
thinks Harry's written apology was sufficient.

Unlike the gaffe-prone Harry, William rarely puts a foot wrong and is
immensely popular in Britain.

EMBARRASSING HEADLINES

British and world media have rounded on Harry.

The Australian newspaper carried the headline ``Heil Harry: prince
goose-steps out of line,'' while ``Royal Nazi'' was splashed across the
front page of the New York Post.

Germany's top-selling Bild daily wondered what Diana would have said.

One of the paper's columnists had harsh words for the prince: ``You, third
in line for the throne, hip and cool with a swastika on your arm at your
party, you make me sick to my stomach as though I'd eaten rotten food. You
make me spew.''

In Britain the Daily Mail demanded in a huge page one headline ``Come out
and say sorry properly,'' while the tabloid Daily Star branded Harry ``The
Fool in the Crown.''

The voice of the establishment, The Times, dismissed his apology as
``feeble'' and said he had fallen in with ``a dubious group of
self-indulgent young men who are apparently content with a life of
pointless privilege.''

But Duchess of York Sarah Ferguson, who herself has been relentlessly
criticized in British media, defended her nephew, calling him ``a very
good man.''

The Sun said the scandal could have been much worse. It said Harry had
almost picked the black uniform of Hitler's SS -- the brutal troops who
ran the concentration camps.

(source: Reuters)


****************************

Queen to meet Holocaust survivors


THE Queen will meet more than 200 Holocaust survivors and British veterans
during events to mark Holocaust Memorial Day this month.
She and the Duke of Edinburgh will also attend a national commemorative
event at Westmister Hall on the memorial day, January 27, which falls this
year on the 60th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz. In addition,
Prince Edward is expected to attend the unveiling of a memorial in honour
of British PoWs at the site of a branch of the camp.

Vladimir Putin and Jacques Chirac are among 29 heads of state due to go to
other events at Auschwitz and in Cracow, Poland, on January 27.

Holocaust Memorial Day was first held in January 2001, and has taken place
in different parts of Britain. Last year it was in Belfast. Apart from the
national event, hundreds of events and activities across the country are
being organised. Extracts from a new oratorio, based on The Diary of Anne
Frank, will be performed by the Royal Philharmonic at the national event
in London, organised by the Home Office.

More than six million Jewish people, as well as hundreds of gypsies,
homosexuals and members of other groups deemed expendable by the Nazis,
were murdered during the implementation of Hitlers final solution. Many of
those died at Auschwitz, gassed and then burnt in the crematorium.
Holocaust Memorial Day, set up by the Government to ensure that the crimes
against humanity committed during the Holocaust will never be forgotten,
will be marked by 13 countries across Europe this year.

From 2006, the Home Office will hand over the organisation of events on
the day to the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust, which is in the process of
being set up. A recent poll found that nearly half of all Britons had
never heard of Auschwitz. The survey, conducted by the BBC, also found
that among women and the under-35s the figure was as high as 60 per cent.
Of the 4,000 adults surveyed, 45 per cent said they had never heard of
Auschwitz.

Auschwitz was liberated by soldiers of the Soviet Union on Saturday,
January 27, 1945. Before the Nazis left, they burnt some of the camp
records and also set fire to the clothing warehouses and some of the
barracks at the adjoining Auschwitz II camp, also known as Birkenau.

The Nazis had left the camp on January 18, taking about 60,000 prisoners
with them on a death march to Germany. Those who could not keep up were
shot, including the SS men who were guarding the prisoners, according to
one survivor.

(source: London Times)





FRANCE:

Le Pen says Nazis were humane

French National Front leader courts new controversy with assertions about
the occupation



THE French Government threatened yesterday to prosecute Jean-Marie Le Pen,
the far-Right leader, for declaring that the wartime Nazi occupation of
France was not harsh.

M Le Pen, 76, leader of the National Front party, had attracted a chorus
of indignation from the political world and media on Wednesday with a
magazine interview in which he said that the 1940-44 occupation was not
especially inhumane, and that the Gestapo largely worked to protect the
French population.

The massacres of the French population during the war consisted of a few
blunders by the occupiers, he told Rivarol, an extreme right-wing
magazine. Yesterday, he repeated his opinion and said that government
threats to prosecute him were aimed at sabotaging his campaign against
Europes new constitution in this summers French referendum.

They want to disqualify the advocates of a no vote because the supporters
of a yes vote are afraid of failure . . . They want to gag the National
Front at the opening of a referendum campaign that will decide the life or
death of France, M Le Pen said. All mainstream parties support the EU
constitution. Opposition is led by the far Right and Left.

Clearly enjoying his return to the limelight, M Le Pen said that he stood
by his words. I note that if one compares the German occupation of France
with the occupation in certain other European countries, then
proportionately it is in France where it was the least painful.

It is scandalous that, 60 years after the war, one is not allowed to
express oneself in a coherent and calm way on these subjects, he said.

Dominique Perben, the Justice Minister, said that M Le Pen had clearly
breached the law banning denial of Nazi crimes against humanity. M Le Pen
must explain himself before a court, M Perben said.

Party leaders called the remarks unspeakable and the media noted that M Le
Pen was reverting to his past form, provoking outrage to win publicity.

Nicolas Sarkozy, leader of President Chiracs Union for a Popular Movement,
said that M Le Pen should answer in the criminal courts. M Le Pens remarks
were judged especially offensive as Europe marks the 60th anniversary of
the liberation of Auschwitz.

M Le Pen, who reached the run-off vote against Jacques Chirac in the 2002
presidential elections, earned notoriety in the 1970s and 1980s by playing
to fascists and nostalgists with outrageous claims about the war. In
recent years, he has curbed his tongue as he tried to recast himself as a
mainstream politician.

In the 1980s he was widely condemned for calling the Nazi slaughter of the
Jews a detail of history.

France has since toughened its laws against Holocaust denial. Legal
experts said that M Le Pen, a lawyer by training, could probably not be
convicted of any offence because he was expressing a general view rather
than denying the Holocaust.

(source: London Times)