Advanced Search

Learn About The Holocaust

Special Collections

My Saved Research

Login

Register

Help

Skip to main content

Print

Portrait of Leni Riefenstahl.

Photograph | Digitized | Photograph Number: 09741

Search this record's additional resources, such as finding aids, documents, or transcripts.

No results match this search term.
Check spelling and try again.

results are loading

0 results found for “keyward”

    Portrait of Leni Riefenstahl.
    Portrait of Leni Riefenstahl. The photo was found among papers in Julius Streicher's estate at Fuerth. Also found were intimate letters from Streicher to Riefenstahl, in whom he had a romantic interest.

    Overview

    Caption
    Portrait of Leni Riefenstahl.

    The photo was found among papers in Julius Streicher's estate at Fuerth. Also found were intimate letters from Streicher to Riefenstahl, in whom he had a romantic interest.
    Date
    Before 1945
    Locale
    Germany
    Photo Credit
    United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, courtesy of Joanne Schartow

    Rights & Restrictions

    Photo Source
    United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
    Copyright: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
    Provenance: Joanne Schartow
    Second Provenance: International News Service

    Keywords & Subjects

    Administrative Notes

    Biography
    Leni Riefenstahl (1902-2003) began her artistic career as a ballet dancer. She began her career in film as an actress in 1925, starring in the "Der Heilige Berg" (The Holy Mountain). Throughout the remainder of the 1920s and into the early 1930s, Riefenstahl made a number of "mountain" movies, her last being "SOS Eisberg" in 1933. In that year, Riefenstahl was commissioned by Adolf Hitler to begin making films for the NSDAP. In that position, Riefenstahl became the "cinematic interpreter" of the National Socialist vision of a perfect German society. In 1935, she produced Reichsparteitag (Reich Party Day) and in 1938, her documentary of the 1936 Berlin Olympic games was released. Her greatest work however, was entitled "Triumph des Willens" (Triumph of the Will). Produced in 1935, the film is a documentary of the 1934 Nazi party rally in Nuremberg. Following the downfall of the Third Reich, Riefenstahl came under attack for her complicity in making Nazi propaganda. Riefenstahl responded to her critics by claiming political naivete and ignorance of the intentions of the Nazis.

    [Sources: Wistrich, Robert. "Who's Who in Nazi Germany." MacMillan, 1982; Zentner, Christian. "Encyclopedia of the Third Reich." MacMillan, 1990.]
    Record last modified:
    2003-12-15 00:00:00
    This page:
    https:​/​/collections.ushmm.org​/search​/catalog​/pa1039933

    Download & Licensing

    In-Person Research

    Contact Us