Tikvah
Editors’ Pick

September 4, 2024

Surprise! Leni Riefenstahl Was a Nazi

A documentary shatters the myth that she was an apolitical artist.

In the 1930s, Leni Riefenstahl (1902–2003) became the foremost director of propaganda films for the Third Reich, best known for her Triumph of the Will. Her work won her the admiration of Hitler and Goebbels, but also of numerous other filmmakers and critics who admired her cinematographic skill. After the war, she insisted that she was an apolitical artist and that she was shocked to find out about the depths of Nazi barbarism. A new documentary by Andres Veiel, based on extensive research into her personal papers, gives the lie to these unconvincing, but widely believed, claims. Kate Connolly writes:

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