Samoa chief apologises for Nazi salute after video from 2007 emerges

Samoa’s prime minister has apologised after a video emerged of him giving a Nazi salute whereas saying “Heil Hitler” at a household gathering.

Within the seven-second clip filmed in July 2007, Laaulialemalietoa Leuatea Schmidt is seen main a couple of dozen folks within the salute. “Elevate your proper hand, Heil Hitler!” he says, then thanks the group for responding.

Schmidt has acknowledged that his phrases and gesture “have been inappropriate and able to inflicting offence and damage”, including that the clip was recorded at a non-public gathering and “not meant for the general public”.

“I reject Nazism, antisemitism, racism and all types of political extremism,” Schmidt stated in a press release printed on Fb on Monday.

The footage was first reported by native outlet the Samoa Observer in a information story on Sunday.

It stated the video was filmed at a Schmidt household reunion in July 2007, when Schmidt was deputy speaker of parliament and quoted a member of the family who stated he was the grasp of ceremonies on the gathering.

Samoa, a tiny island nation of about 221,000 folks, sits about midway between New Zealand and Hawaii.

It was below Germany’s management within the early twentieth century, however the colonisation ended shortly after World Conflict One broke out.

Schmidt, who has Samoan and German heritage, took workplace because the nation’s eighth prime minister in September 2025.

He wore a Jewish prayer scarf throughout his swearing-in ceremony and has made clear his help for Israel in the course of the early days of his premiership, saying that Samoa “stood with Israel”.

“If folks around the globe do not prefer it, that is as much as them, however Samoa stands with the land of God… There is just one God our nation believes in, the God of Israel,” he had stated.