Young Elizabeth's image making Nazi salute criticised

Buckingham Palace on Saturday expressed outrage over the publishing of images taken in the early 1930s of Queen Elizabeth as a child making a Nazi salute.

In the grainy footage dating to 1933, when Elizabeth was just six or seven years old, the monarch is seen performing the fascist salute, The Daily Star reported.

The two children are accompanied by their uncle Edward - then Prince of Wales - and their mother in the gardens of Balmoral.

"It is disappointing that the film, shot eight decades ago and apparently from her majesty's personal family archive, has been obtained and exploited in this manner," a palace spokesperson said.

The footage is thought to have been shot in 1933 or 1934, when Hitler was rising to prominence as Fuhrer in Germany.

"No one at that time had any sense how it would evolve. To imply anything else is misleading and dishonest," the spokesperson said.

"The Queen and her family's service and dedication to the welfare of this nation during the war, and the 63 years The Queen has spent building relations between nations and peoples speaks for itself."