Last week I posted regarding the Academy Award tribute given to Leni Riefenstahl, who made Hitler’s documentary/propoganda piece Triumph of the Will. Not all were happy with my post. Reader Jonah commented:
Leni Reifenstahl was neither an anti-Semite nor a supporter of Hitler (any more than you were required to be a supporter of Hitler or Stalin).
In Nazi Germany you could either die fighting Hitler, flee the country (if you could), or be a Nazi. Before you judge, think about what you would do in that situation.
Her films are not racist. She was an interpretive dancer for ******’s sake. What exactly is racist about Triumph of the Will? It’s a study of motion, composition, contrast, and the human body. Hitler liked it for all the wrong reasons. Quite frankly your comment about this film is so simplistic as to be laughable.
Like any artist living under fascism, Riefenstahl did what she could to survive.
Poor, innocent Leni Riefenstahl, just one more cog in the great machine that was National Socialist Germany. Poor Leni, whose career was ruined because she made a couple of films for Hitler, who just happened to be her financier. Bring me a box of Kleenex to dab away the tears. Here’s a few thoughts while I compose myself:
(1) If Jonah had actually read my post carefully, he would seen that I didn’t make the statement, rather I was quoting Ben Stein. It’s called a blockquote, and it denotes a citation. This is just a minor quibble because I happened to agree with Stein.
(2) “Leni Reifenstahl was neither an anti-Semite nor a supporter of Hitler (any more than you were required to be a supporter of Hitler or Stalin).” I don’t know what Stalin has to do with this, but I do know that Riefenstahl did a lot of good publicity work for Hitler. Triumph of the Will and Olympia certainly didn’t hurt his standing in Germany.
(3) “In Nazi Germany you could either die fighting Hitler, flee the country (if you could), or be a Nazi. Before you judge, think about what you would do in that situation.” Let me think about what I would do…I hope that I would either die fighting Hitler, or flee the country. Nope, I don’t think I would be a Nazi.
True, it took courage to stand up against Hitler. Dietrich Bonhoeffer and others died doing it. On the other hand people like Rudolf Hoss, the commandant of Auschwitz, thought that they were just doing their job and had no culpability in the death of millions of Jews.
Riefenstahl could have done any number of menial jobs in Nazi Germany besides making films that made Hitler look so good. Where was her protest? Why didn’t she speak out against the Nazi regime? She chose the more comfortable road, and the loss of a future career in film following the war is a mild punishment.
(4) “Quite frankly your comment about this film is so simplistic as to be laughable.” While Jonah is laughing away lauding the grandeur of Reifenstahl’s film, the blood of millions still cries out at the death that the Third Reich exacted. The greatness of a work of art, no matter how grandiose, is never an excuse if it leads to and builds up evil. Great works of evil should not be rewarded because ideas, as the saying goes, have consequences.