Prince Harry Isn't Alone in Needing a History Lesson

The photo of Prince Harry that has angered the world doesn't show a young Nazi doing the Prussian goose-step. It shows a thoughtless rascal trying to impress a few other mindless twerps at a party of the young and fashionable. But it also underscores a more disturbing fact: Brits lately have been doing a worse job of dealing with history than the Germans.


The drink, the cigarette, the swastika -- somehow they all belong together.

The photo of Harry that has angered the world doesn't show a youthful Nazi doing the Prussian goose-step. It shows a thoughtless rascal trying to shock a few other thoughtless brats at a party of the jeunesse doree.

For a few minutes, some actually managed to turn their eyes to the ground in embarrassment at the Wilshire country estate on Saturday night. Then they continued partying -- the girls bared their mid-riffs and Harry's big brother, Prince William, came dressed in a lion costume with stuffed paws.

...
http://service.spiegel.de/cache/international/0,1518,336739,00.html

FROM ARTICLE:
The theme? "Colonials and Natives."

It's not clear what Harry was thinking when he decided to dress up as Nazi General Erwin "Desert Fox" Rommel -- but given his racist, British Empire presumptuousness, he must have thought dressing as a Nazi would just escalate the idea of the party's colonial officer theme. He wasn't far off the mark, either -- after all, Nazis wore boots and carried riding whips, too.

And Harry's girlfriend Chelsy? Her dad is said to enjoy the best of relations with Robert Mugabe, Zimbabwe's bizarre, Hitler mustache-wearing dictator. And of Chelsy, Harry, who otherwise likes to make himself available for touching African charity photo opps, recently told a friend, "she's not black or anything, you know."
UNQUOTE

She's not black or anything?!! So what if she was!!??

Maybe it's a blessing that Mom Di died before she could see any of this. She's prolly turning in her grave at such sick, outdated bright-young-thing behavior.

Sue

had a bad influence on him. Ah, the young, rich, and stinkingly stupid...... :)

and it should.

Sometimes people have the capacity to shrug things like this off. I hope it haunts him, but I hope he gets to the "haunted" part after learning something about what went on during that period.

The Spiegel article is letting its own prejudices show though in its claim that the British media ignore the victims of the Nazis. The BBC has just started showing a major documentary series on 'Auschwitz: The Nazis and 'The Final Solution'

http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/war/genocide/

Maybe young Prince Hal should forget the booze, the birds and the cigarettes for an hour each week and sit down to watch it.

Although the Spiegel is over the top with its tone.

And sorry, lines like:

Make my skin crawl.

and it was well researched, produced and presented. It showed in chilling detail how Auschwitz went from being a former Polish army camp to being the site of mass murder. In particular it made clear how it was ambitious careerists within the Nazi hierarchy as much as racist ideologues who drove the development of the camp. What it will probably not be able to explain is the mentality of many of the individuals who ran these institutions. How could people who had ostensibly normal home lives get up in the morning, shave, put on their clothes, eat breakfast, say good bye to their wives and children before spending the rest of the day carrying out genocide ? It scares the crap out of me.