“I felt so ashamed,” the British royal said on a new Netflix docuseries.
By World Israel News Staff
The Duke of Sussex, Prince Harry, said his decision to dress up as a Nazi at a costume party in 2005 was “one of the biggest mistakes of my life.”
“I felt so ashamed afterward,” Harry said in a new Netflix docuseries with his wife, the Duchess of Sussex, Meghan Markle.
British tabloid The Sun published an image of the prince holding a drink and a cigarette while wearing the costume, which included a swastika armband, on its front page under the headline “Harry the Nazi.”
Harry revealed on the docuseries that he spoke to London’s then-Chief Rabbi Lord Sacks in the aftermath.
“I sat down and spoke to the chief rabbi in London, which had a profound impact on me. I went to Berlin and spoke to a Holocaust survivor,” the British royal said.
“I could have got on and ignored it and made the same mistakes over and over in my life, but I learned from that,” he added.
Shortly after the picture was published, Harry released a statement apologizing for his decision to wear the costume. “I am very sorry if I caused any offense or embarrassment to anyone. It was a poor choice of costume and I apologize.”
The Board of Deputies of British Jews said in a statement at the time, “It’s not a joke to dress up as a Nazi, especially as we come up to the 60th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz. It is important that everybody remembers the evil that the Nazis were responsible for.”
“I hope that on reflection Prince Harry will regret what was an insensitive and tasteless act,” Labour peer Lord Janner, a former chair for the Holocaust Education Trust told the Daily Mail at the time.
Rabbi Sacks was more circumspect, and was quoted by The Guardian as saying, “The fact that the palace has issued an apology indicates that this was a mistake by the prince. But having been given, the apology should now be accepted.”