Samoa PM apologises after Nazi salute video emerges

Samoa’s Prime Minister La’auli Leuatea Schmidt has apologised after previously unseen video showed him leading a Nazi salute and saying “Heil Hitler” at a family gathering.

Schmidt issued the apology on Monday after the Samoa Observer, a local newspaper, published the seven-second clip the previous day.

The footage was recorded at a Schmidt family reunion on the island of Savai‘i in July 2007, when he was an MP and deputy speaker of parliament.

In the video, Schmidt is holding a microphone as he leads a “hip hip” exchange with the group before telling those present to raise their right hands and say “Heil Hitler”.

About a dozen people visible in the footage appear to follow him.

Radio New Zealand said it had independently verified the footage through its correspondent in Samoa.

Schmidt said on Monday that the words and gesture were inappropriate regardless of what was intended at the gathering and apologised for the offence they could cause.

“I reject Nazism, antisemitism, racism and all forms of political extremism,” he said, adding that the episode did not represent his beliefs or the values of Samoa’s government and people.

The apology followed criticism from academics contacted by the Samoa Observer.

Richard Evans, a historian of Nazi Germany, told the Samoa Observer by email that the footage was “shocking and disturbing”.

The paper also quoted University of Canterbury academic Anne-Marie Brady as saying Schmidt should explain and apologise.

Schmidt, who became prime minister in 2025, has made strong public expressions of support for Israel.

He wore a Jewish prayer shawl at his swearing-in, where a shofar, a horn used in Jewish religious ceremonies, was sounded.

He has also pledged to open a Samoan embassy in Jerusalem before the end of 2026, a step taken by only a handful of countries because of the city’s disputed status and Palestinian claims to East Jerusalem as the capital of a future state.

In his Monday statement, Schmidt said he considered the controversy addressed and would focus on the country’s economic and social challenges.