{"id":636805,"date":"2026-10-05T07:26:08","date_gmt":"2026-10-05T07:26:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/636805\/"},"modified":"2026-10-05T07:26:08","modified_gmt":"2026-10-05T07:26:08","slug":"samoan-leader-apologizes-for-heil-hitler-salute-at-2007-family-reunion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/636805\/","title":{"rendered":"Samoan leader apologizes for \u2018Heil Hitler\u2019 salute at 2007 family reunion"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"paragraph-elevate inline-placeholder vossi-paragraph_elevate\" data-uri=\"cms.cnn.com\/_components\/paragraph\/instances\/cmuuquj3q000x29p34j9g3ln0@published\" data-editable=\"text\" data-component-name=\"paragraph\" data-article-gutter=\"true\">\n            Samoa\u2019s prime minister has apologized after an old video of him surfaced performing the Nazi salute while leading a chorus of \u201cHeil Hitler\u201d at a family reunion in 2007.\n    <\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph-elevate inline-placeholder vossi-paragraph_elevate\" data-uri=\"cms.cnn.com\/_components\/paragraph\/instances\/cmuurfkbv00013b6qoj4c9hoi@published\" data-editable=\"text\" data-component-name=\"paragraph\" data-article-gutter=\"true\">\n            Prime Minister Laaulialemalietoa Leuatea Schmidt said his words were \u201cnot intended for the public\u201d and apologized in a statement published by the government Monday.\n    <\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph-elevate inline-placeholder vossi-paragraph_elevate\" data-uri=\"cms.cnn.com\/_components\/paragraph\/instances\/cmuurfkbv00023b6q1te50if4@published\" data-editable=\"text\" data-component-name=\"paragraph\" data-article-gutter=\"true\">\n            \u201cWhatever the context or intention at that gathering twenty years ago, I recognise that those words and gesture were inappropriate and capable of causing offence and hurt and I apologise for using them,\u201d said Laaulialemalietoa, who became PM of the Pacific Island nation last year.\n    <\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph-elevate inline-placeholder vossi-paragraph_elevate\" data-uri=\"cms.cnn.com\/_components\/paragraph\/instances\/cmuurfkbv00033b6q7dkltgxh@published\" data-editable=\"text\" data-component-name=\"paragraph\" data-article-gutter=\"true\">\n            The antisemitic remarks were made during a \u201cprivate family gathering\u201d in Savai\u2019i, the country\u2019s largest island, in 2007, Laaulialemalietoa said, when he was serving as deputy speaker of Parliament.\n    <\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph-elevate inline-placeholder vossi-paragraph_elevate\" data-uri=\"cms.cnn.com\/_components\/paragraph\/instances\/cmuurfkbv00043b6q1um4xwox@published\" data-editable=\"text\" data-component-name=\"paragraph\" data-article-gutter=\"true\">\n            In the seven-second video clip, Laaulialemalietoa is seen leading about a dozen people in the Nazi-affiliated salute, saying \u201cRaise your right hand, Heil Hitler,\u201d while the group mimics his words and gesture, according to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.samoaobserver.ws\/category\/samoa\/122382\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">the Samoa Observer<\/a> newspaper, which first reported on the video Sunday.\n    <\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph-elevate inline-placeholder vossi-paragraph_elevate\" data-uri=\"cms.cnn.com\/_components\/paragraph\/instances\/cmuurpo5x00003b6rihzwpbm1@published\" data-editable=\"text\" data-component-name=\"paragraph\" data-article-gutter=\"true\">\n            Laaulialemalietoa banned the Samoa Observer from all government press conferences last year for what he\u2019s called \u201cunfair\u201d reporting.\n    <\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph-elevate inline-placeholder vossi-paragraph_elevate\" data-uri=\"cms.cnn.com\/_components\/paragraph\/instances\/cmuurfkbv00053b6q6gxookk7@published\" data-editable=\"text\" data-component-name=\"paragraph\" data-article-gutter=\"true\">\n            Samoa is a tiny nation of about 221,000 people in the South Pacific, near Fiji. It sits to the west of American Samoa, the US territory in the eastern part of the Samoan island chain.\n    <\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph-elevate inline-placeholder vossi-paragraph_elevate\" data-uri=\"cms.cnn.com\/_components\/paragraph\/instances\/cmuurfkbv00063b6qoetv4gez@published\" data-editable=\"text\" data-component-name=\"paragraph\" data-article-gutter=\"true\">\n            Samoa was colonized by Germany in the early 20th century, and many Samoans have German heritage and surnames.\n    <\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph-elevate inline-placeholder vossi-paragraph_elevate\" data-uri=\"cms.cnn.com\/_components\/paragraph\/instances\/cmuurfkbv00073b6q7bt3pkru@published\" data-editable=\"text\" data-component-name=\"paragraph\" data-article-gutter=\"true\">\n            New Zealand took what was then known as Western Samoa from the Germans in 1914 and retained control of Samoa until the country\u2019s independence in 1962.\n    <\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph-elevate inline-placeholder vossi-paragraph_elevate\" data-uri=\"cms.cnn.com\/_components\/paragraph\/instances\/cmuurfkbv00083b6q4nbuk0zo@published\" data-editable=\"text\" data-component-name=\"paragraph\" data-article-gutter=\"true\">\n            In his statement Monday, Laaulialemalietoa said his behavior in the clip does not reflect his personal beliefs or the beliefs of the government or people of Samoa.\n    <\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph-elevate inline-placeholder vossi-paragraph_elevate\" data-uri=\"cms.cnn.com\/_components\/paragraph\/instances\/cmuurfkbv00093b6q115vm5g5@published\" data-editable=\"text\" data-component-name=\"paragraph\" data-article-gutter=\"true\">\n            \u201cI reject Nazism, antisemitism, racism and all forms of political extremism,\u201d he said, adding that he now considers \u201cthis matter addressed.\u201d\n    <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Samoa\u2019s prime minister has apologized after an old video of him surfaced performing the Nazi salute while leading&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":636806,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[85,46,43],"class_list":["post-636805","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-israel","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/636805","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=636805"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/636805\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/636806"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=636805"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=636805"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=636805"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}