Leni Riefenstahl was born Helene Bertha Amalie Riefenstahl, so I can see why she went with a shorter name. She was born in Berlin in 1902. She took dance classes, where she proved to be very talented. She traveled all over as a performer, and then dipped her feet into the acting business. In 1933, she attended a Nazi Party rally where she was impressed by Adolf Hitler's public speaking skills. They wound up meeting each other, and he was equally impressed by her work and the fact that she fit his ideal of an Aryan woman. She was offered the opportunity to direct some propaganda films for the Nazi Party. She also went on to film the 1936 Summer Olympics, which I have watched footage of. She was very talented and there is no denying that. This project was actually one of the first times tracking was used to follow the movements of athletes, which is something we are so used to in films today. It is hard to imagine films without it, really.

She was a public defender of Hitler and his shenanagins, and I wonder if that was because she was so blinded by him or if she was obligated because of the jobs she got and the funding she got from the Nazi Party. She also spent time with Joseph and Magda Goebbels, attending operas and other functions with them. She claimed he made advances to her, which I do not doubt because he was a sleazy person in many aspects. She claims she rejected his advances. Either way, he did think highly of her work and ability, but was not pleased with the way she was spending Nazi money. When World War II broke out, she hopped right into a Nazi uniform as a war correspondent. She also experienced the death of her brother, who died in combat.

After the war, she claimed she was young and politically ignorant. I have also been young and politically ignorant, only getting into politics in recent years. I realize that a lot of people go along with whatever their parents do, until they grow up and are able to use their own thinking and needs to base their political choices on. I understand that. However, I find it very hard to believe that she was as smart and talented as she was and possessed absolutely NO critical thinking skills. I am sorry, but she knew horrible things were happening to people. She knew that there was devastation from war. She knew there were food and supply shortages. She knew people were dying in droves. She was in cahoots with some of the biggest Nazi leaders, yet denied knowing anything about the Holocaust, and I just flat do not buy that at all. She went on to win a lot of slander cases against people who were calling her a Nazi. If she was not a member of the Nazi party, she was certainly a Nazi sympathizer and supporter, because she spent time with them and benefited from their war crimes. This just goes to show you that you can be associated with the people you hang out with up until the day you die, and on after.

This book was really well written and covered a lot of details about Leni, which was the entire purpose. I knew that she was a director and in charge of Nazi propaganda films. I knew nothing about her career as a performing artist and actress. I knew nothing of her family and upbringing, or how she became involved with the Nazi party. This book was really valuable to me as a history major that specialized in World War II. In fact, I used it a few times as a reference in a paper I had to write about propaganda. If you are looking to learn more about her, or just interested in World War II in general, check this out.