Invisible Stranger has some interesting observations on the death of Leni Riefenstahl. Like the Stranger I don't think that one can ignore her significant influence on film-making or the fact that she was a fantastically talented director. Like the Stranger I also have a problem with her nazi-sympathies - although Gitta Sereny has been defending her on the news, I find it troublesome that some people can hide behind ignorance, as in: She insisted that she was never a Nazi and that "Triumph of the Will" and "Olympia" were inspired only by her desire to create works of art.
Is it okay to indirectly support the killing of innocent people as long as it's in the name of art?

This reminds me of the story of Diana Mosley, who died in August. She too claimed ignorance when confronted with her friendship with Hitler.
Despite unabating criticism of her fascist sympathies, she never apologised for her fascination with Adolf Hitler, who attended her secret wedding to Sir Oswald, held at Joseph Goebbels' Berlin home in 1936.
So maybe Hitler seemed like a pleasant man, and maybe Ms. Mosley never saw any reports of the killings and confinements of Jews, but does that mean that she is entitled to ignorance?

While I do understand that for a young person, who is not politically inclined, Nazi Germany could have been fascinating and attractive, I also believe that at some point in one's life, one must start taking responsibility for one's own actions. I am more than willing to accept explanations to the above effect, but this stubborn insistence that they 'didn't notice what was going on' or it 'wasn't important' to their cause or whatever, I find, like Francis, rather unacceptable.

posted by charlotte at 12:22 - comment