Footage from family reunion

A seven-second video recorded in July 2007 at a private family reunion on the island of Savai'i was published on Sunday by the Samoa Observer. At the time of the recording, Laʻauli Leuatea Schmidt served as an elected member of parliament and deputy speaker. In the footage, Schmidt holds a microphone in one hand and leads a call-and-response chant of "hip hip" with the gathering before instructing attendees to raise their right hands and proclaim "Heil Hitler." Approximately a dozen people visible in the video raise their arms in the salute alongside him. Radio New Zealand confirmed that it independently verified the authenticity of the recording through its correspondent in Samoa.

Official apology and statement

Schmidt did not dispute the contents of the recording and issued a formal statement on Monday through the government's official Facebook page. He stated that the gathering occurred nineteen years earlier and was never intended for public broadcast. In the statement, Schmidt explicitly rejected Nazism, antisemitism, racism, and all forms of political extremism, maintaining that the footage did not reflect his beliefs or Samoa's constitutional principles. He emphasized that public officials must accept justified criticism, but affirmed that he would not resign and considered the matter closed to concentrate on economic and social governance.

“I recognise that those words and gesture were inappropriate and capable of causing offence and hurt and I apologise for using them.”

Media restrictions and regional criticism

The publication of the recording follows extended tension between Schmidt and the Samoa Observer, the nation's largest newspaper group. Schmidt barred the publication from attending government press conferences and state events in November 2025, accusing the outlet of misleading coverage. On Friday, Schmidt confirmed that a government aide had deleted photographs taken by an Observer journalist in front of government offices, defending the intervention on the grounds that the newspaper had defied its suspension. The Journalists Association of Samoa and several Pacific media groups criticized the incident, describing the reporting ban as authoritarian and calling for an immediate reversal.

Academic reaction and diplomatic stance

Academic experts contacted by local media responded to the footage prior to the apology. Nazi Germany historian Richard Evans described the clip in an email as shocking and disturbing, while Anne-Marie Brady, a professor at the University of Canterbury, stated that Schmidt needed to account for the conduct. Schmidt took office after winning the August 2025 general election in the Pacific nation of 220,000 residents. Following his election, he maintained a distinct foreign policy alignment, wearing a Jewish prayer shawl and sounding a shofar at his swearing-in ceremony while calling Israel "the country of God's people." His government has committed to opening a Samoan embassy in Jerusalem before the end of 2026, a diplomatic policy adopted by few nations due to the contested status of the city.