THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS

Friday, January 21, 1977 17

Biography of Leni Riefenstahl Leaves Little Doubt
of the German Film-Maker's Complicity With Hitler

tent of her propaganda
films: "Triumph des
Willens" portrayed Hitler
as the leader of a united
country when many saw
him as speaking for a
minority; "Olympia"
projected a peaceful
Germany.

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Riefenstahl even witnes-
sed a massacre of Jews in
Konsky, Poland, but ex-
cept for a letter of protest
to a German official she
did not deviate in her sup-
port of Hitler.
Riefenstahl has
threatened a court in-
junction to prohibit a
German edition of In-
field's book, but a look at
the photographs and
German memoranda
within the text have shed
more light on the true pic-
ture of her involvement
with the Nazis then her
conflicting testimony
over the years.
Infield's only failing
may be in substantiating
the widely theorized
romantic liaison between
Hitler and Riefenstahl.
He leaves very little
doubt, however, about
her professional ties with
the Nazis and the true in-

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By ALAN HITSKY

A post-war ostraciza-
tion of more than 30 years
has not yet ended for Leni
Riefenstahl, Hitler's
most famous film-maker
and purported mistress.
Back in the news in
1972 when she was in-
vited and honored at a
Colorado film festival for
her major propaganda
movies, Riefenstahl has
remained at the center of
a controversy in the arts
over recognition of her
tistic achievements vs.
>
social implications of
ose same works.
A complete and de-
tailed biography of
Riefenstahl, her rise to
film prominence in Ger-
many during the rise of
Adolph Hitler and his
subsequent use of her
movie-making abilities to
project his image at a crit-
ical stage of his political
• career, has been pro-
duced by Glenn B. Infield
in "Leni Riefenstahl: The
Fallen Film Goddess,"
° published by Thomas Y.
Crowell.
Infield minces no words
and neither did Newsweek
- - magazine in reviewing
Riefenstahl's complicity
with the Hitler regime and
her post-war efforts.
_ -
Newsweek recently
linked her post-war work,
. two highly-acclaimed
books of photographs of
African tribesmen, with
her efforts for the Nazis.
"There is no family of
man here, no domestic in-
timacy, education or daily
work. She is striving, in-
stead, for heroic images
— Africans transformed
into idealized forms,
heraldic figures, emblems
of triumph and sacrifice."
Newsweek reviewer
Paul D. Zimmerman
quoted critic Susan Son-
tag's attack on
Riefenstahl's "Last of the
•Nuba" for its "Fascist
esthetics," its celebration
of the strong over the
weak, its scenes of corn-
. munal exaltation and the
glorification of beauty.
Riefenstahl's work in
Africa began in the 1950s
when she found little evi--
dence of her former
status with the Nazis in
the eyes of. the German
population and the Allied
occupation forces in Ger-
many.
So, in an —uncanny
parallel to Leon Uris' Dr.
Derring, the subject of
Uris'
"QB
VII",
Riefenstahl escaped to
-Africa to practice her art.
Infield's book de-
many
of
„--- ----,plishes
lefenstahl's
post-war
---'
justifications
for her ties
with the Nazi hierarchy.
He bases his book on cap-
tured German documents,
memoirs of the Nazis,
German film associates
and Riefenstahl's own con-
flicting statements.
Infield details Riefen-
stahl's rise to stardoM in
the pioneering German
"mountain” films of the
late 1920s. The mountain
films, highly popular in
Germany, dealt with
beautiful men and women
actors in etheral country
settings.

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This photograph of Leni Riefenstahl with a Kau
tribesman was labelled "Cult of the body" by Newsweek
magazine.

M feeCWW a/

Riefenstahl starred in an Adolph Hitler.
4,-104
several of these films, and
Included are details of
then directed her classic Riefenstahl's cool recep-
CLOCKS OF AMER4CA
"Das blaue Licht" (The tion in the United States
Blue Light) at a time is 1938, and her quick re-
KNOWN
when women directors turn to Germany follow-
were (and still are) un- ing "Crystal Night" when
coNcoE 1)
by the
PEWTER BY
heard of.
wATcH cottptiRATio:
thousands of Jewish syn-
She received great agogues and shops were
,:tAftr*KR,
COMPA NY
Oc BART 011
acclaim in 1932 for this destroyed. She refused to
film, and it led her to a believe the reports of
uP v
personal and professional damage and killings that
association with Adolph appeared in the U.S. pa-
Hitler that was to last 13 pers, but was well aware
years.
of the persecutions of
Infield details how Jews in the German film
Riefenstahl was chosen industry.
DIAMONDS
FINEJEWELRY a GIFT BOUTIQUE
by Hitler to direct and
She was not hesitant, in
Manufacturers of Original
produce "Triumph des several documented
and Unusual Creations
Willens" (Triumph of the cases, to use her own close
Wills), the film "record" of ties to Hitler to get
AUTHORIZED APPRAISERS
the Nazi party conven- Jewish and non-Jewiuh
ESTATE LIQUIDATORS
tion in Nuremberg in technicians assigned to
JEWELRY DESIGNERS
1934. He shows how many her when she felt she
German film stars were needed them.
Suite109
851-.7333
Farmington Hills
31313 Northwestern Hwy.
either forced or voluntar-
At the start of the war
ily made the decision to
flee Germany, while
Riefenstahl made the de-
cision to stay and further
her career.
And Infield dramatically
details the scene-by-scene
shooting of the film, as
well as the staging and re-
staging of certain scenes,
the financial arrange:-
ments made by the Nazi-
controlled film ministry
under the direction of a
jealous Dr. Goebbels, to
completely implicate
Riefenstahl and refute her
later claims that "Triumph
des Willens" and the 1936
film of the Olympic Games,
Marvin Rosen
Marvin Check
"Olympia," were entirely
her own creations and
property.
Infield writes that
Riefenstahl "traveled in
Hitler's intimate circle
. . . She sought his com-
pany because it gave her
Automatically Notifies
prestige to be seen with
within
seconds Police Dept. &
him in public." He also in-
Fire
Dept. Central Office
sicuates that the two
NO I F O N E
emergency reporting system
were lovers.
More importantly he
Hidden Wire Installation
paints a picture of a
woman who through her
Protection
You Won't Know We've Been There
film work became a sym-
bol for a people, a woman
who allowed that symbol
to be used to further her
604 Eadatedd
•"94/1 SaAtt,
own aims and the aims of

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