Samoa Prime Minister La'auli Leuatea Schmidt apologized on Monday after a previously unreleased video showed him performing a Nazi salute and saying "Heil Hitler" at a family gathering.
According to the Samoa Observer, the seven-second clip was recorded at a reunion of the Schmidt family on Savai'i island in July 2007, when Schmidt was a member of parliament and deputy speaker. The local newspaper published the video on Sunday, a day before Schmidt apologized.
In the footage, Schmidt holds a microphone and calls out "hip hip" to prompt the group to respond, before asking those present to raise their right arms and say "Heil Hitler." About a dozen people seen in the video appear to comply.
Radio New Zealand said it independently verified the footage through its correspondent based in Samoa.
In a statement on Monday, Prime Minister Schmidt said the words and gestures in the video were inappropriate, regardless of the intent behind the incident at the family gathering, and apologized for any hurt it may have caused.
"I reject Nazism, anti-Semitism, racism and all forms of political extremism," he said, adding that the incident did not represent his beliefs or the values of the Samoan government and people.
The apology came after several scholars contacted by the Samoa Observer criticized the footage. Historian Richard Evans, an expert on Nazi Germany, told the newspaper by email that the film was "shocking and disturbing." The newspaper also quoted scholar Anne-Marie Brady of the University of Canterbury as saying Schmidt needed to explain and apologize.
Schmidt, who became Samoa's prime minister in 2025, has publicly voiced strong support for Israel. He wore a Jewish prayer shawl at his swearing-in ceremony, where a shofar — the horn used in Jewish religious rites — was blown. He has also pledged to open a Samoan embassy in Jerusalem before the end of 2026, a step only a handful of countries have taken because of the city's disputed status and the Palestinian claim to East Jerusalem as the capital of a future state.
In his statement on Monday, Prime Minister Schmidt said he considered the matter closed and would focus on the country's economic and social challenges.
