It’s a home movie the British Royal Family would rather have kept under wraps. Shot in 1933, the reel shows Queen Elizabeth performing a Nazi Salute as a child.

Buckingham Palace has blasted the release of the footage saying it was disappointed that a film shot eight decades ago was obtained and exploited in this fashion.

A palace source said that most people would recognise the context saying this is a family playing and momentarily referencing a gesture many would have seen in contemporary news reels.

However, the editor of tabloid newspaper The Sun, Stig Abell, who was behind the release defended the decision.

“The Sun starts from the position, a relatively purist position, that it is in the public and national interest to reveal what is a document, a piece of footage of historical and cultural significance.”

The Sun said that the emphasis was not on the child who would become queen but her uncle, King Edward VIII who later abdicated to marry socialite Wallis Simpson. Both