Latest news with #JosephGoebbels
Times
13-07-2025
- Times
Goebbels' love nest to be torn down if it cannot be sold
A lakeside villa dubbed Joseph Goebbels' 'love nest' was once cherished by Nazi Germany's propaganda tsar as a getaway he used to seduce film actresses and write his historic Total War speech. Today, however, it has proven to be a real estate agent's nightmare, standing deserted and weatherworn, with flaking white facades and weeds growing among uneven flagstones. The steep-gabled 'Waldhof', or forest manor, on the shore of Lake Bogensee outside Berlin boasts floor-to-ceiling terrace windows that could be automatically lowered into the ground. It still has the original wood-panelled walls, marble window sills, brass fittings and fine wrought-iron front door. 'All alone. I'm so happy,' Goebbels wrote in his diary of his time staying at the villa. 'Surrounded by woods, withering leaves, mist and rain. An idyll of solitude.'
Time of India
06-07-2025
- Politics
- Time of India
War on words: Conflict corrupts language
Nazi leader Joseph Goebbels used to make speeches inciting violence against Jews War distorts everything, including language. Govts invent sterile phases and crude metaphors to make violence seem less disturbing and/or to diminish those perceived to be the enemy. But repeated use of such vocabulary changes societies using it, corrupting its soul and desensitising people to brutality or even genocide. It's About Control Ultimately, the goal of war vocabulary is to maintain control and justify actions that would otherwise be deemed as extreme or beyond the borders of reasonability. Writer John Rees says that George Orwell recognised this long ago. He understood that corruption of language was not a side-effect of political decay but the mechanism itself. Words only have meaning in relation to other words. And if one starts shifting those associations, meanings themselves change. Take Israel's war in Gaza following the Oct 7 terror attack. Israeli authorities have consistently deployed a strategy that plays on Israeli citizens' fears and anxieties to justify the relentless bombardment of the Palestinian enclave. Therefore, Israel's military actions are portrayed as necessary 'security measures'. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like 5 Books Warren Buffett Wants You to Read In 2025 Blinkist: Warren Buffett's Reading List Undo And the Israeli phrase that captures this perfectly is 'mowing the grass'. The latter essentially refers to Palestinians as weeds that need to be cut from time to time to keep the backyard neat. Former Israeli defence minister Yoav Gallant also referred to Palestinians as 'human animals', reinforcing the perception that Palestinian lives weren't equal to Israeli lives. Moral Detachment This strategy was also used by the Nazis, describing Jews as 'the tapeworm in the human organism'. Joseph Goebbels claimed that 'Jews have to be killed off like rats'. Stalin's USSR adopted this playbook, but in a more sophisticated form. Political dissidents in Soviet Russia were described as 'bloodsuckers', 'vampires' or 'vermin' that had to be purged. We see this Soviet vocabulary continue in Russia's war against Ukraine where Ukrainians are described as 'khokhols', a derogatory reference to hair, and Ukraine as 'malorossiya' or little Russia. But another layer has been added to the terminologies, that of moral detachment. The latter allows even greater flexibility to bend international rules and normalise brutality. Thus, the term war is replaced by 'special military operation' as Russia has done with respect to its Ukraine aggression. Similarly, American media came up with 'US military intervention' in Afghanistan and Iraq instead of US invasion that American actions against those two countries amounted to. Civilian Afghan and Iraqi lives lost in those wars were put down as 'collateral damage'. Impersonal War Machines Worse, sterile terminologies that justify mass death and suffering are likely to get a boost with AI and autonomous defence platforms. When a drone operator takes out a target thousands of miles away, he only sees a blip on the screen. When autonomous tanks roll through civilian areas, the operator is playing a video game in his bunker. These technologies desensitise us to the horrors of war and normalises conflict. Then people are no longer killed but 'neutralised'. Countries are not invaded but 'restructured'. Civilian targets become 'human shields' to be destroyed. And war becomes the solution for 'root causes'.
Middle East Eye
24-06-2025
- Politics
- Middle East Eye
Israel's failure to subdue Iran shows it can no longer dictate the regional order
The Luftwaffe regarded the blitz on Coventry on 14 November 1940 as an astonishing technological achievement. German propaganda broadcasts hailed the raid as 'the most severe in the whole history of the war'. The chief Nazi propagandist, Joseph Goebbels, was so delighted with the raid, that he coined a new term in its honour: 'to Coventrate'. It was not long, however, before the taste of total victory turned sour. The production of aero engines and aircraft parts was quickly shifted to shadow factories. Capacity had only been dented, not destroyed; within months, factories were back to full production. We also know now that the Germans were worried by the effect the image of the ruined Coventry Cathedral would have on the Americans who were yet to join the war. Indeed, the Germans underestimated the resilience of the British, who forged instead a resolve to hit back as never before. The Royal Air Force began a forceful bombing campaign of Germany shortly afterwards. It has taken Israel's high command just 12 days to see the total victory they claimed to have achieved in the first hours of their blitz on Iran turn into something that looks more like a strategic defeat. Hence Israel's massive reluctance to stick to a ceasefire, after promising US President Donald Trump it would abide by it. New MEE newsletter: Jerusalem Dispatch Sign up to get the latest insights and analysis on Israel-Palestine, alongside Turkey Unpacked and other MEE newsletters None of Israel's three war aims have been met. There is no evidence yet that Iran's nuclear enrichment programme has been 'completely and fully obliterated' as Trump claimed. Iran had time to move at least some of its centrifuges out of harm's way, and it's not clear where the existing stockpile of more than 400 kilogrammes of highly enriched uranium is being stored. Meanwhile, the scores of generals and scientists killed in the first hours of the attack were swiftly replaced. Weathering the storm If Coventry is anything to go by, uranium enrichment and missile-launcher production will be up and running within months, not years, as the Americans claim. The technology, the know-how, and above all the Iranian national will to restore and rebuild key national assets have all weathered the storm. Evidently, from the damage Iranian missiles inflicted within hours of Trump's announcement of a ceasefire, its ballistic missile force, the second Israeli war aim, remains a palpable and continuing threat to Israel. Israel sustained more damage from Iran's missiles in 12 days than it did from two years of Hamas's homegrown rockets, or indeed from months of war with Hezbollah. In 12 days, Israeli crews have come to grips with the sort of damage to apartment blocks that before only Israeli planes had inflicted on Gaza and Lebanon - and it's been something of a shock. Strategic targets have been hit, including an oil refinery and a power station. Iran has also reported strikes on Israeli military facilities, although Israel's strict censorship regime makes these assertions difficult to verify. Far from turbocharging Netanyahu's ambitions to grind Iran into a Gaza-grade dust, Trump called time on a war that had only just started And finally, the Iranian regime is still standing. If anything, the regime has rallied the nation rather than dividing it, if only out of nationalist fury about Israel's unprovoked attack. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's other great 'achievement' - dragging the US into its war - now looks like a poisoned chalice. For how much longer will that banner - 'Thank you, Mr President' - be up on a central highway in Tel Aviv, after Trump applied a massive and premature handbrake on Netanyahu's war machine? Twelve days ago, Trump started by refuting the notion of any US involvement in Israel's surprise attack on Iran. When he saw it was succeeding, Trump attempted to muscle his way in on the project, saying it could only have been achieved with US technology. As the attack wore on, Trump suggested that he, too, would not be opposed to regime change. But in the final 24 hours, Trump lurched from demanding Iran's unconditional surrender, to thanking Iran for warning the US of its intention to strike al-Udeid air base in Qatar, and declaring peace in our time. Turning the tables Far from turbocharging Netanyahu's ambitions to grind Iran into a Gaza-grade dust, Trump called time on a war that had only just started. And unlike in Gaza, Netanyahu is in no position to defy the will of the US president. Trump had serious problems of his own in pursuing a venture that half of his party was vociferously against. For Netanyahu, these past 12 days have been a steep learning curve. If day one proved that Israeli intelligence could achieve the same success in Iran as it did against Hezbollah in Lebanon, by eliminating the first echelon of its military and scientific command - and that Israel could do all of that on its own, without direct US help - by day 10, it was becoming apparent that Israel could achieve none of its war aims without the US joining in. But before the ink had dried on all the praise Netanyahu garnered in Israel by getting Washington involved in what had been an Israel-only project, Trump turned the tables on his closest ally once again. He proved to be a one-hit wonder. Without even pausing to assess whether the nuclear enrichment site buried deep underground at Fordo had indeed been disabled, Trump declared mission accomplished. Israel-US attack on Iran: The price of Netanyahu's forever wars Read More » He did it with a speed that was suspicious, as indeed, from Israel's view, was his haste in congratulating Iran for not killing any of his troops. It was very much like the way he came to a deal with the Houthis in Yemen before flying to Riyadh to cash in on the proceeds. Iran, on the other hand, is emerging from this conflict with strategic gains - although the immediate battering it has sustained, and the hundreds of casualties it has suffered, should not be ignored. Its air defences failed to bring down a single Israeli warplane, although they appeared to have downed drones. Israeli warplanes were free to roam the skies of Iran, and Israeli intelligence once again showed that it had penetrated deep into the Revolutionary Guard Corps and Iranian scientific community. These were all clear failings. But none proved decisive. In the end, all Iran had to do was, in the words of 1940s-era Britain, 'keep calm and carry on'. That meant sending a steady stream of missiles towards Israel, knowing that even if all were knocked out of the sky, the entire population was penned up in shelters, and Israel's precious and expensive supply of Arrow missiles was being consumed. What Iran thus established was exactly what the Israeli economy could not handle after 20 months of war: a war of attrition on a second front. Netanyahu needed a quick knockout blow, and despite the first day of success, it never came. Even so, Israel could not stop itself from bombing, after being told not to by Trump. So another not-so-subtle message had to be delivered over the megaphone: 'Israel. Do not drop those bombs. If you do it it is a major violation,' Trump boomed in capital letters. War of narratives For in the end, this conflict was never about ending a nuclear-bomb programme that never existed (if it had, Iran would have long ago been able to build a bomb). This conflict was essentially a war between two narratives. The first is well known. It goes like this. The Hamas attack on 7 October 2023 was a strategic mistake. No force that Arabs or Iranians can muster can ever match the power of Israel and the US combined, or even Israel armed with the latest generation of weapons. Israel will always defeat its enemies on the battlefield, as it did in 1948, 1967, 1973, 1978 and 1982. The only option for Arabs is to recognise Israel on its terms, which means to trade with it, and leave Palestinian statehood for another day. This view is held with variations, and unofficially, by all Arab leaders and their military and security chiefs. The alternative narrative is that while the state of Israel exists in its current form, there can be no peace. This is the source of the conflict, as opposed to the presence of Jews in Palestine. Resistance to occupation will always exist, no matter who takes up or puts down the cudgel, as long as that occupation continues. Iran's existence as a regime that defies the Israeli will to dominate and conquer is more important than its strategic rocket force. Its ability to stand up to Israel and the US, and to keep fighting, shows the same spirit that Palestinians in Gaza have shown in refusing to be starved into surrender. If the ceasefire holds, Iran has a number of options. It should be in no rush to return to a negotiating table abandoned twice by Trump himself - once when he withdrew from the Iran nuclear deal in May 2018, and again this month, when his envoy Steve Witkoff was engaged in direct talks. Trump boasted that he had deceived the Iranians by engaging them in talks and allowing Israel to prepare its strikes at the same time. Well, he won't be able to pull that trick again. Tehran's options To return to talks, Iran would need guarantees that Israel will not attack again - guarantees that Israel itself will never give. As I and others have argued, being part of the Non-Proliferation Treaty has served Iran's interests poorly. It could walk away from the treaty, having every incentive now to develop a nuclear bomb to stop Israel from ever doing this again. In reality, Iran does not have to do anything. It has weathered maximum-pressure sanctions and a 12-day armageddon with the latest American weaponry in use. It does not need an agreement. It can rebuild and repair the damage it has sustained in these attacks, and if past experience is anything to go by, it will emerge stronger than before. The Iranian people will never forgive or forget US-Israeli attacks Read More » Netanyahu and Trump have some accounting to do to an increasingly hostile and sceptical domestic audience. Israel's former defence minister, Avigdor Lieberman, is worth quoting in this regard. He noted after the ceasefire announcement: 'Despite Israel's military and intelligence successes, the ending is bitter. Instead of unconditional surrender, we're entering tough talks with a regime that won't stop enriching uranium, building missiles, or funding terror. 'From the start, I warned: there's nothing more dangerous than a wounded lion. A ceasefire without a clear deal will only bring another war in 2-3 years - under worse conditions.' Israel has swapped Gaza's homemade rockets for Iran's ballistic missiles. It has swapped an indirect enemy and sponsor of proxy militias, for a direct enemy - one that has no hesitation in sending the entire population of Israel into bunkers. That is some achievement, but not the one Netanyahu was thinking 12 days ago. The major European states - all signatories to the Iran nuclear deal - have absolutely nothing to say to Iran. They have abdicated all ability to mediate in their spinelessness and acquiescence to an attack on Iran that had absolutely no legality in international law. Once again, they have undermined the international order they claim to be upholding. The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Eye.
Yahoo
13-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
The Incredible True Story of How the Mona Lisa and the French Crown Jewels Escaped the Nazis
"Hearst Magazines and Yahoo may earn commission or revenue on some items through these links." At 8 A.M. on August 25, 1939, two months after Reich Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels roused the people of Danzig to 'come home to the Reich,' the German warship Schleswig-Holstein entered the port of the city with over 200 naval shock troop soldiers. Hitler was starting to make good on his threats. At 5 p.m., the French museums received a message they knew would come: start packing. To Rose Valland, a forty-five-year-old French art curator at the Jeu de Paume museum, the previous year felt in hindsight like 'one long and continuous slide to the inevitable.' She was used to operating solo but there was a new sense of gravity. Packing materials overflowed from the Jeu de Paume's basement and storage rooms onto the exhibition floors. It would also be a long time before her boss, André Dezarrois—attached to the French Air Force—might return, if at all. The responsibility of the Jeu de Paume—the art collection, the building, and the staff—rested entirely on her shoulders. As Rose reflected later, 'Whatever the threats weighing on its inhabitants, France had above all to save the spiritual values that it held as an integral part of its soul and its culture. Sheltering its works of art, its archives, its libraries was indeed one of the first reflexes of defense of our country.' Rose was incredibly efficient, as usual. By evening on August 25, only hours after the green light, the packaging of the most precious paintings was done. Unlike the Louvre, the Jeu de Paume did not get extra packing volunteers from Parisian department stores like the Samaritaine, the Grands Magasins du Louvre, or the Bazar de l'Hôtel de Ville. But under Rose's direction, the handful of guards at the museum did the job, most of whom were tough, independent-minded knew Rose well and trusted her, as she trusted them. They packed a total of 119 paintings from the Jeu de Paume into 18 crates, ready to be trucked to Chambord Castle. The crates could fit between two and 26 paintings, depending on the artwork size. Among the boxes were works of art by Picasso, Klee, Kandinsky, Chagall, Modigliani, Juan Gris, John Singer Sargent, and Mary Cassatt. All the smaller paintings would have been wrapped in fiber quilt batting for cushioning and a special oiled moisture-wicking paper to protect them from humidity, then placed flat into wood packing cases. As per the instructions, each crate was stenciled with 'JP' for Jeu de Paume and the words 'MUSEES NATIONAUX,' 'FRAGILE,' and 'MN.' Each crate also had a unique number. At the Louvre, the largest evacuation ever attempted was underway. Immediately after the museum was closed, the workers and volunteers took the 50 most notable paintings off the walls, gingerly detached them from their frames, and brought them down to the Louvre basement on trolleys to be prepped for departure. They even unhooked the largest history paintings in the Grande Galerie, including Eugène Delacroix's Liberty Leading the People, Théodore Géricault's Raft of the Medusa, Jacques-Louis David's The Coronation of Napoleon, and Paolo Veronese's The Wedding Feast at Cana, which measured 33 feet wide and 22 feet tall. The workers wrote the names of the paintings in chalk on the walls to aid their future return, and placed the empty frames on the ground or left them in place. Where the face of the Mona Lisa once peered inscrutably at visitors, a worker scribbled her French name: La Joconde. He smudged out his first try and rewrote it more neatly just above, perhaps in deference to her iconic status. There was little chatter, just the rustling sounds of paraffin paper and the sound of hammering as the masterpieces were shut in their temporary wooden tombs. The Venus de Milo was also slated for removal, taken off her pedestal and put onto a hand truck. Four men moved her carefully onto a wood platform and tied her waist with rope for additional stability. A custom crate would soon be built around her. The French Beaux-Arts ministry was working furiously to protect Paris's monuments, too. Specialist workers led by Georges Huisman, the director general of the Beaux-Arts last seen in charge of the World's Fair in New York, unsealed and removed the ancient and priceless stained-glass windows in the cathedrals of Notre-Dame, Saint-Chapelle, and Chartres, piece by piece. Each piece was numbered and placed into wooden crates, then trucked away to storage locations, which included the vaults of the Bank of France and the basement of Saint-Chapelle. At Chartres, it would take just four days for 100 artisans to remove the 5,803 pieces of glass—a task that took over five months at the onset of World War I. Overnight, the famous lights of Paris were darkened as a practice run for air raids. Workers climbed up long, precariously perched ladders to put safety caps atop the city's Belle Époque lanterns. New blue lights popped up indicating the location of air-raid shelters. The packers at the Louvre, who worked nearly all through the night, could only use the small lamps provided to them for emergency lighting. Over the next few days, Rose and the staff packed up the next batch of important paintings in the Jeu de Paume, 165 in total. The greatest challenge lay ahead—securing the art to be sheltered on-site. Approximately two-thirds of the entire collection still needed to be safeguarded, but the Jeu de Paume's basement was too small, consisting only of a few rooms immediately surrounding the central staircase. Of those, only one room was intended for storage; the rest were functional: a boiler room, a former coal storage area, a break room for the museum guards and caretakers, and bathrooms. Furthermore, the basement storage room was not large enough to accommodate everything that remained, so Rose had the boiler room converted into an additional storeroom. Between the two rooms, they fit 524 paintings, nearly 100 sculptures, and the museum's archives. The doors were then padlocked closed. The museum guards moved 20 sculptures, too large to be lowered into the basement, into the walled garden and piled sandbags to their highest features. The electric torches and lighting apparatuses in the museum were stored and secured. The Louvre staff sent the first artworks, including the Mona Lisa—gingerly ensconced in a red velvet-lined custom crate—to Chambord at 6 a.m. on August 28. Jacques Jaujard, director of the Musées Nationaux, calmly directed the whole evacuation from ground zero in the Cour Carrée, the enclosed open-air courtyard of the Louvre. It was a 100-mile journey on a carefully plotted route. Armored guards rode in each truck, and Musées Nationaux staff bookended the convoys in private cars. The energetic arts administrator Albert Henraux, who valiantly guided the 1938 art evacuation at top speed in his Hotchkiss car, led the first convoy of eight trucks. The French crown jewels and 225 other crates from the Louvre were also on board the first trucks. Another convoy with six trucks left at 2 p.m. From then on, two convoys departed daily from the Louvre. The first 70 paintings from the Jeu de Paume, packed into 15 crates, left for Chambord on the morning of August 30. Outside of the museum world, the English, French, and Americans were still having meetings with Hitler and his ministers, trying last-ditch efforts to stop a major conflict. But privately, the diplomats doubted that war could be avoided. The Western European nations continued to mobilize. The border between France and Germany was closed, and telephone and telegraph communications were shut down. Restrictions on the French populace began, with cafés and restaurants to be closed by 11 p.m. daily. The French military took control of the radio. On August 31 and September 1, a subsequent shipment of 163 paintings from the Jeu de Paume, mostly placed uncrated in padded trucks, left for Chambord. Rose was working so rapidly, she grabbed two tickets to the opening of a Tibetan painting exhibition at the Musée Guimet as scrap paper, noted the convoy number, date of departure, and number of paintings on the back, and pinned it to her inventory lists. These paintings ended up stacked dozens deep in the chapel of Chambord castle. With all the important artwork now at Chambord and the final preparations at the Jeu de Paume fully in process, Rose could take a small breath. But any sense of relief was short-lived. On one hand, Hitler was making assurances that he would meet directly with Poland, a sign that perhaps the conflict could be de-escalated at the 11th hour. But his follow-up demands became more and more unreasonable and contradictory. In addition to Danzig and the Polish Corridor, he suddenly added Silesia and Gdynia to his territorial wish list and stated that he no longer envisioned that Poland could stay independent. He told the British ambassador that he would only meet and negotiate with Poland if they agreed in advance to all his demands. During the night on August 31, German SS officers disguised in Polish military uniforms, under direct orders from Gestapo director Reinhard Heydrich, attacked the Sender Gleiwitz radio station in Germany and broadcast an anti-German message in Polish to make it seem like Polish anti-German factions were behind it. Dozens of similar incidents took place the same night. Polish men, as well as prisoners from concentration camps, were executed, then dressed as Polish saboteurs and left at the sites of the attack as further 'evidence.' In the early hours of September 1, Hitler issued a proclamation to the Wehrmacht, the German Army, that clearly showed his formal resolve to attack Poland, stating that 'the time has come to oppose force with force.' At the port of Danzig, the Schleswig-Holstein fired its cannons on a military depot. As the last cases of art from the Jeu de Paume were loaded up onto trucks, German troops crossed the Polish border at multiple entry points and began their assault. Danzig was officially declared part of the Third Reich. Nazi agents within Poland took over the railways, arrested officials, requisitioned trains, and occupied stations. In a mass attack, German planes dropped bombs on Warsaw and 150 towns all over Poland. Hitler also made a speech at the Reichstag, laying out the basis for his actions and proclaiming the superiority of the German military. He pledged to protect women and children but swore that 'whoever departs from the rules of human warfare can only expect that we shall do the same.' He would fight 'until victory is secured' or 'not survive the outcome.' He also appointed his second in command. 'If anything should happen to me in the struggle, then my first successor is Party Comrade Göring,' his portly Generalfeldmarschall in charge of the Luftwaffe, the German Air Force. On September 2, French president Albert Lebrun addressed the French Parliament. To loud applause, he confirmed that 'with great calmness, with cool resolve, and in perfect order, France had taken the steps required by her own safety and her faithfulness to her obligations.' 'Vive la France!' he concluded to even more thunderous clapping. Then French prime minister Daladier followed with an even longer speech, stating, 'France rises with such impetuous impulses only when she feels in her heart that she is fighting for her life and for her independence. Gentlemen, today France is in command.' The deputies rose to their feet and applauded loudly and at length. Both England and France demanded that Germany announce a withdrawal from Poland by the next day, September 3. Over at the Louvre, around midday, a large group of museum workers gathered atop the grand staircase where the Winged Victory of Samothrace still stood triumphantly. The sculpture was originally intended to be sheltered in place at the museum, but a new study showed that the vaulted ceiling above her would not survive a bombing. The Louvre's Asian Arts department curator, George Salles, came to tell everyone, on behalf of Jacques Jaujard, that war was about to be declared. The sober news meant that Victory needed to be moved out urgently. Made up of 118 fragile pieces of white Parian marble, the winged sculpture was encased in an open scaffolding and attached to a complex rope and pulley system. At 3 p.m., Victory was lifted off of her prow pedestal. Two groups of men held up the sculpture as it rolled inch by inch down a wooden ramp, shaking perilously. 'The rope is cracking!' one of the men yelled. When the sculpture made it miraculously down the grand staircase without a scratch, the elderly curator nearly collapsed from stress on the stone steps. 'I will not see her return,' he said ruefully, while wiping away a tear. at By nightfall, the Louvre was nearly empty. Over the prior week, 95 trucks had whisked away most of the museum's most precious objects—more than 1200 crates, thousands of paintings, and tens of thousands of sculptures. At half past noon on September 3, Robert Coulondre, the French ambassador in Berlin, met with German foreign minister von Ribbentrop, who informed him that Germany did not agree to the ultimatum. Coulondre responded, 'I have the painful duty to notify you that as from today, September 3, at 5 p.m., the French Government will find itself obliged to fulfill the obligations that France has contracted towards Poland, and which are known to the German Government.' 'Well,' von Ribbentrop replied, 'it will be France who is the aggressor.' 'History will judge of that,' Coulondre replied. And with that, war had come to Europe once again. From the book THE ART SPY: The Extraordinary Untold Tale of WWII Resistance Hero Rose Valland. Copyright 2025 by Michelle Young. Reprinted by permission of HarperOne, an imprint of HarperCollins Might Also Like 12 Weekend Getaway Spas For Every Type of Occasion 13 Beauty Tools to Up Your At-Home Facial Game
Times
09-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Times
Riefenstahl — a devastating, five-star portrait of Hitler's propagandist
★★★★★It's not often that films get better on a second viewing, but this dense, challenging and intellectually rigorous documentary about 'Hitler's favourite film-maker' Leni Riefenstahl is one of those exceptions. I gave it a four-star rave when I saw it last year at the heady, buzzy Venice Film Festival. But a subsequent, and more composed, encounter reveals even greater depths and bolder ambition from the German writer-director Andres Veiel. He has delivered an expansive work about the woman behind the Nazi blockbusters Triumph of the Will and Olympia, and someone who was counted as, according to the diaries of Joseph Goebbels, a 'friend' of Hitler and his propaganda minister. It's a disturbing film that knits together previous Riefenstahl profiles (including TV interviews, newsreel
