Prince Harry says his Nazi uniform ‘mistake’ impressed him to battle anti-Semitism
The royal – who had to apologise for his ‘poor choice’ after causing outrage by donning the fancy dress get up for a party – says he has ‘taken responsibility and learned from’ his ‘thoughtless actions’
Prince Harry said his mistake has fuelled his fight(Image: AP)
Prince Harry says his Nazi uniform ‘mistake’ inspired him to fight against anti-Semitism. As a 20-year-old Royal he caused outrage and later apologised after wearing a Nazi uniform with a swastika to a fancy dress party in 2005.
In the New Statesman magazine, the Duke of Sussex hit out against the ‘troubling rise’ of anti-Semitism and anti-Muslim hate in Britain today.
In a reference to his fancy dress gaffe, he wrote: “I am acutely aware of my own past mistakes – thoughtless actions for which I have apologised, taken responsibility and learned from.
“That experience informs my conviction that clarity matters now more than ever at a time when confusion and the distortion of truth are doing real harm – even when speaking plainly is not without consequence.
“It requires responsibility from all of us.”
His decision to wear a Nazi uniform has dogged him for much of his life.
In his book Spare, he described the moment he picked it out to wear to a ‘native and colonial’ themed party thrown by Olympic showjumper Richard Meade for his son at the family’s Wiltshire home.
Harry said the Prince and Princess of Wales both ‘howled’ when he tried it on.
A photograph of him clutching a cigarette and drink while wearing the swastika armband was later published weeks before the 60th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz.
Through Clarence House, the red-faced Royal released a statement saying: “I am very sorry if I caused any offence or embarrassment to anyone. It was a poor choice of costume and I apologise.”
Jewish groups and politicians reacted with horror at what was described as ‘an insensitive and tasteless act’.
Now the Duke has expressed concern about a world in which ‘outrage outpaces humanity’ and where ‘fear and division are amplified faster than truth’.
He called violence in Manchester and London ‘alarming’ and said it required recognition about the conditions in which such hatred was allowed to develop adding that silence was not acceptable.
The 41-year-old Duke warned public debate has become polarised and the lack of nuance only deepened confusion and fuelled division.
He is understood to have been moved after meeting Jewish survivors of the Bondi Beach terror attack in Sydney last month as well as his visit in February to a hospital in Jordan where he and wife Meghan, 44, met evacuees from Gaza.
In reference to the fact he has lived in the US for six years he said his desire to fight injustice ‘does not change with geography’.
He referred to the ‘justified alarm’ over conflicts in Gaza and Lebanon noting that for many the instinct is to ‘speak out, to march, to demand accountability’.
