Meghan Markle and Prince Harry give interview to Oprah Winfrey
Meghan Markle and Prince Harry give interview to Oprah WinfreyReuters

“Racism drove us out of the UK” – a quote from the recently carefully planned and calculated interview by a very well-matched couple to Oprah Winfrey. 17 million American watchers, and over 49 million worldwide, are in shock and full of sympathy, as expected.

The Labour MPs in Britain have jumped on the horse and have demanded an official probe into the racism at the Palace. Of course. Racism claims are a hot commodity nowadays.

Perhaps, those sympathisers have to be educated a bit about the person who stated that racism line while watched by millions and in so somber and self-convincing fashion. That still fairly young man is the person who sixteen years ago was featured all over the UK and in some US media as well, on the front pages of newspapers. He was going to party, with a Nazi armband on the sleeve of his white shirt.

And it was not an isolated case. There were reports on Sieg Heil saluting by the same person as well.

So he knows something about racism, it seems.

British media covers, 2015. (C) Wiki Commons Image Library.

American coverage , New York Post, 2015. (C) Wiki Common Images Library.

To compare a specific person’s actions and his words in that case with his words at this time leads to only one reaction: it is simply a sick joke. Whoever chooses this kind of outfit for a dressing-up party is declaring who he really is. Period. And he is now somberly mentoring his family, choosing now to shame them world-wide, for profit - exposure profit - in that utterly hypocritical exercise intended for the dumb and dumbest.

Next to him is a thriving former barmaid, former B-movies participant (actress signifies a profession, so it has to be a distinguishing word) who is having the best moment of her life and enjoying every millisecond of it.

The image of the woman on the screen is pre-planned down to the smallest detail: the hair, the dress, every single gesture rehearsed thoroughly. As it happens, it is all a blatant appropriation: the hair, the dress, and gestures too.

Somebody in the huge Oprah team who prepared the show, had to have read something about the person whose hair, dress and gestures they appropriated for the never-made-it actress on the bench opposite Oprah. In fact, they have put themselves, their subject, their famous hostess, and the whole show, actually, in real jeopardy with that choice.

Because – as was noted in the British press even before the interview – the copy-catted image was of Wallis Simpson, the American divorced socialite who persuaded Edward VIII to marry her and pay the price of abdicating. Which was, actually, a blessing for Britain, as it turned out, because having an unembarrased and undeterred pro-Nazi sympathizer on the throne at the time of the Second World War would have made the job of Winston Churchill much harder. (He would have prevailed anyway.)

It would be highly recommended to consult some historian in the future when planning a program in order not to put the entire operation into a state of such utter embarrassment. I refer to those who were responsible on the Oprah team for reviving the Wallis Simpson image 80 years later, when many of her notorious public and private statements and her multiple instances of allying with pro-Nazi figures literally everywhere she went are public knowledge.

It would be so obvious to read, to learn, to think, to do the probably seen to them as unnecessary exercises of adding one plus one, before copiously cloning and putting in front of a multi-million audience today a person who produces all these lines and hints on racism, while being 100% in the appropriated image of the disgusting personage of modern history known as Wallis Simpson. So much meticulous effort of all sorts to revive the image of whom?

Just for the Oprah team – and for those among the huge international audience who have no clue about who Wallis Simpson was: she was the person who publicly stated that ‘France has lost (to the Germans) because it has been infested inside.” She was the person who chose, as the host for her scandalous wedding with abdicated Edward, the Portuguese banker who was known to MI-6 as a devoted Nazi sympathizer, appropriator of art looted by the Nazis, and who was a close friend and business partner of dictator Salazar.

She was the person who with her husband ran in 1937 to Germany to meet Herr Adolf and to fawn over him enthusiastically The Wallis Simpson and Edward visit to Germany and their cheerful and cordial meetings with Hitler are very well documented. Just one of many existing photos of the tour is here:

Edward and Wallis Simpson meeting Adolf Hitler in Germany in 1937. (C) Wiki Commons Image Library.

She was the person who organised the luxury marine tour for her-beloved-self and her husband on board a yacht of Alex Wenner-Gren, their good friend and associate and at the same time close personal friend – and business associate -- of Herr Göring, Hermann Göring. A furious Churchill managed to avert the public disaster with what would be photos of sun-bathing of a still Royal couple on the yacht of a pro-Nazi person who was actually banned by the British and American authorities during WWII for his pro-Nazi activities and dealings with the Third Reich.

A substantial part of these activities were banking manipulations subsidising Nazis via one of Wallis Simpson’s best and closest friends at Wenner-Gren’s bank. Where? In the Bahamas, indeed. In the Bahamas where Simpson’s third husband Edward was put by the British Crown to be the governor during 1940-1945. One might wonder why on earth did he step down from that so convenient position on March 16, 1945 when the Nazi Germany’s utter defeat was imminent? One might, but none of the British historians do.

I am not going further into that man’s personal relations and correspondence, masterly retrieved by the able British (and it happened, Kremlin) agent immediately after the end of WWII – highly incriminating letters between him and Hitler. But it is well-known that they did exist.

My point with regard to that stunningly mean exercise on the TV screen, aired with such publicity, is that the guide for this show screened to a massive TV audience, especially in the United States, clearly misses the part in which the audience should have been reminded of the Nazi entertainment costume happily adopted by the member of the Royal family who is now making such blatant statements on racism, which in his words ‘drove him and his family out of his country..

It should have included something about the record of the openly and proudly pro-Nazi American socialite whose image was appropriated by his wife, another American who is a parody of a socialite. The audience has its right to know about these historical facts, to make its own conclusions.

But of course, this missing part of a guide for TV audiences does not generate such dizzy profits. As we know from history, including the modern one, decency hardly ever does. That’s why throughout long years of historical records it is regarded as a luxury. Royals or not.

Dr. Inna Rogatchi is an internationally acclaimed writer, scholar, artist, art curator and film-maker, the author of widely prized film on Simon Wiesenthal The Lessons of Survival. She is also an expert on public diplomacy and was a long-term international affairs adviser for the Members of the European Parliament. She is the author of the concept of the Outreach to Humanity cultural and educational projects conducted internationally by The Rogatchi Foundation of which she is the co-founder and President and also the author of Culture for Humanity concep global initiative that aims to provide psychological comfort to wide audiences by the means of arts and culture in challenging times. She is twice laureate of the Italian Il Volo di Pegaso Italian National Art, Literature and Music Award, the Patmos Solidarity Award, and the New York Jewish Children's Museum Award for Outstanding Contribution into the Arts and Culture (together with her husband). Inna Rogatchi was the member of the Board of the Finnish National Holocaust Remembrance Association and is member of the International Advisory Board of The Rumbula Memorial Project ( USA). Her art can be seen at Silver Strings: Inna Rogatchi Art site - www.innarogatchiart.com.

Another version of this article appeared on TOI.