Nazi prince

[Falcon[anti-yL]]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A7286-2005Jan13.html

[quasi-modo]

He is a kid who showed that he has poor judgement. He needs to realize that he can't act retarded because he is a public figure.

[Meh]

Just because hes a prince doesnt mean he has t act like one. It shows he's normal. I think that people are getting to hyped up about it

[j0k3r]

Oi, it's a costume, considering how he was raised I don't see how it could be indicative of his feelings. It would be like someone showing up in a KKK costume, or an american pilot costume from WWII, at the time it might have represented hatred or disrespect, whoever I feel it's time for the world to get over some of these things. I find this especially true with those of us who weren't born at the time, and had nothing to do with it, it's just a costume.

[hismajesty]

Would someone mind posting the article? I don't want to register and bugmenot crashes whenever I put in washingtonpost.com.

[j0k3r]

Prince Harry's Nazi Blunder Burns Old Blighty

By Glenn Frankel
Washington Post Foreign Service
Friday, January 14, 2005; Page C01

LONDON, Jan. 13 -- 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.


A man in front of Buckingham Palace looks at the front page of the Sun tabloid, which bought the notorious photo of the 20-year-old in costume. (Bruno Vincent -- Getty Images)

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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."

[Falcon[anti-yL]]

Most of the people that are making a big deal of it probably all lived through WW2, I know I would be pissed if I was a British soldier fighting in WW2 and now that the war is over see my country's heir wear a nazi costume.

[Blaze]

I think that people are getting to hyped up about it

Exactly my thoughts.

[quasi-modo]

I think that people are getting to hyped up about it

Exactly my thoughts.

Yes they are, but that is not to say this guy is not retarded. He should no much better then to act like that because he is a public figure. But instead of being smart what does he do? Punches photographers, smokes weed, and dresses up like a Nazi. By now he should know that doing stuff like this is going to get him in the news and people are going to bitch about him doing that stuff.

[j0k3r]

Yeah, screw the fact that he's always being watched and needs to let loose sometimes, he volunteered to be a prince and should play the role without flaw!

[Meh]

I wonder what you people would be like as a prince then? It wouldnt change me a bit really. Id probably just blow more money on dvds/ Id still do everything I wanted to do. I would let the fact people watch me holdme back.

[hismajesty]

I'd love it, I'd definately go on a shopping spree and buy some sweaters.

[quasi-modo]

Yeah, screw the fact that he's always being watched and needs to let loose sometimes, he volunteered to be a prince and should play the role without flaw!

Yeah, because doing drugs and punching out photographers is such a good way to let loose. It is what I do in my spare time.

He does not have to be a saint, he just has to do stuff that is not going to fly under the radar and get attention, like if he does things no one really cares about he is not going to get media coverage because the news media is driven by ratings. He can go to the movies, throw some eggs at houses whatever, but him getting caught with drugs and punching people out is going to get attention.

[j0k3r]

Yeah, because doing drugs and punching out photographers is such a good way to let loose. It is what I do in my spare time.

Funny thing is, they are great ways to let off some steam.

He's a person, and he's not doing this consistently, imho people need to learn to mind their own business.