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HISTORY

The Claim

The Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and the United Kingdom Foreign Office directly instructed the England national football team to perform the Nazi salute in Berlin on May 14, 1938.

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The Short Version

British diplomatic pressure played a real role in the 1938 Nazi salute, but the evidence does not support the claim that the Prime Minister and Foreign Office directly instructed the England team. Historical accounts attribute the immediate order to the British ambassador and football officials, acting within a wider appeasement policy. The claim turns a documented diplomatic arrangement into an unsupported personal directive from the Prime Minister.

Caveats

  • The claim conflates general government appeasement policy with a specific direct order from the Prime Minister.
  • Foreign Office involvement is documented, but the instruction appears to have been relayed through the ambassador and FA officials, not issued directly to players by both actors named.
  • Social-media posts and unsourced reproductions of the image are weak evidence for who made the decision or how the instruction was transmitted.

The Receipts

  1. Salute! The Inside Story of England’s Own Goal at Berlin’s Olympiastadion by John Leonard

    WLV.ac.uk

  2. England v Germany: a dark day in football history

    National Football Museum

  3. Football, fascism and England's Nazi salute

    BBC News

  4. England's football team has played 1000 games - here’s the most notorious

    The Conversation

  5. Aston Villa, the Offside Trap and the Nazi Salute

    History Workshop

  6. England return to Berlin for Euro final recalls infamous Nazi salute

    Reuters

  7. Why the England Football Team Gave the Nazi Salute

    History Today

  8. The Day England's Footballers Gave the Nazi Salute

    VICE

  9. In 1938, England's football team gave the Nazi salute before a match against Germany in Berlin

    Holocaust Educational Trust (Facebook)

  10. The English football team give the Nazi salute in front of 100,000 people in Berlin, 1938

    Reddit

+ 6 more sources — see the full list on Lenz

Filed Under

BerlinEngland National Football TeamForeign OfficeNazi SalutePrime Minister Of The United Kingdom

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