Internet campaign alleges George VI had Nazi sympathies

An online campaign has said that George VI, the father of the queen, had Nazi sympathies.

According to the Hollywood email, which is based on a recent entry on a blog on the website of New York magazine, he actively "stymied" efforts by Jews fleeing Nazi Germany to settle in British-controlled Palestine.

The accusations follow the recent movie The King’s Speech which stars Colin Firth. The movie has won acclaim and box office success on both sides of the Atlantic for Firth’s portrayal of George VI, who tries to overcome his stammer.

"I’m an academy member, and there are a lot of us who won’t vote for King’s Speech for this reason, which was in New York magazine," the Telegraph quoted Scott Feinberg, a Hollywood commentator whose blog it was, as talking of the anonymous message he received on his post.

"When it came to actively working to stymie Jews fleeing Hitler’s Germany, George actually communicated quite eloquently," it added.

Feinberg said, "Is the email that I received part of some sort of coordinated smear campaign that is being orchestrated by someone with a vested interest in stunting the awards prospects of The King’s Speech, or is it really from an academy member who would like others to take note of documented facts about the film’s subject that are not reported in the film? I can’t say for certain.”

Historian Andrew Roberts said, "It’s perfectly true that [the king] wanted to restrict Jewish immigration into Palestine in 1939 ... but that was government policy at the time, however short sighted it was in view of what was going on in Europe.

"But to extrapolate from that that the Royal family was anti-Semitic in the 1930s is ludicrous."