The German court found in favour of Gladitz, agreeing that Riefenstahl had known the extras were from a concentration camp, and they agreed with Riefenstahl on only one count ( finding that Riefenstahl had not informed the Gypsies that they would be sent to the Auschwitz camp after filming was completed ).

At first, according to Riefenstahl ’ s memoir, she resisted and did not want to create further Nazi films ; instead, she wanted to direct a feature film based on Hitler ’ s favourite opera, Eugen d ' Albert's Tiefland.

After the Nuremberg rallies trilogy and Olympia, Riefenstahl began work on the movie she had tried and failed to direct once before, Tiefland.

Later, he co-wrote ( with Carl Mayer ) and helped Leni Riefenstahl direct the film Das Blaue Licht ( 1932 ).

To the end of her life, despite overwhelming evidence that concentration camp occupants had been forced to work on the movie unpaid, Riefenstahl continued to maintain all the film extras survived and that she had met them after the war.

Riefenstahl sued a filmmaker, Nina Gladitz, who said Riefenstahl personally chose the extras at their holding camp ; Gladitz had found one of the Gypsy survivors and matched his memory with stills of the movie for a documentary Gladitz was filming.

Riefenstahl ’ s prominence in the Third Reich, along with her personal association with Adolf Hitler, destroyed her film career following Germany's defeat in World War II, after which she was arrested but released without any charges.

Olympia was very successful in Germany after it premiered for Hitler ’ s 49th birthday in 1938, and its international debut led Riefenstahl to embark on an American publicity tour in an attempt to secure commercial release.

The last time Riefenstahl saw Hitler was when she married Peter Jacob on March 21, 1944, shortly after she had introduced Jacob to Hitler in Kitzbühel, Austria.

At age 72, Riefenstahl began pursuing underwater photography after lying about her age to gain certification for scuba diving ( she cut 20 years off her age ).

Riefenstahl took dancing lessons and attended dance academies from an early age and began her career as a self-styled and well-known interpretive dancer, traveling around Europe and working with director Max Reinhardt in a show funded by Jewish producer Harry Sokal.

Breaking from Fanck's style of setting realistic stories in fairytale mountain settings, Riefenstahl — working with leftist screen writers Béla Balázs and Carl Mayer — filmed Das Blaue Licht as a romantic, wholly mystical tale which she thought of as more fitting to the terrain.

Upon its 1938 re-release, the names of co-writer Béla Balázs and producer Harry Sokal, both Jewish, were removed from the credits ; some reports claim this was at Riefenstahl ’ s behest.

Closeup photographs of a distraught Riefenstahl survive from that day.

50 stills from the filming in Krün near Mittenwald were later found and from these, surviving prisoners were able to identify 29 camp inmates who worked for Riefenstahl and were then deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau in the first weeks of March 1943 following Himmler ’ s December 1942 decree.

In 1960, Riefenstahl unsuccessfully attempted to prevent filmmaker Erwin Leiser from juxtaposing scenes from Triumph of the Will with footage from concentration camps in his film Mein Kampf.

In the 1960s, Riefenstahl became interested in Africa from Hemingway's book and from the photographs of George Rodger.

In her later years, Riefenstahl became known for her longevity and physical stamina, although she often suffered considerable pain from old injuries.

The event was filmed by Hitler's favorite director, Leni Riefenstahl, and branded with the giants of German industry: the lighting-mirrors were made by the Zeiss corporation, and the torches themselves, fueled with magnesium to prevent them from going out in bad weather, were constructed by Krupp, the huge steel and munitions conglomerate that armed Germany for both world wars.

On the other end of the focal length spectre, Leni Riefenstahl used extreme telephoto lenses to compress large crowds in Triumph of the Will while their allmighty Führer Adolf Hitler is seen through normal lenses and often from a low angle to appear tall in comparison.

Riefenstahl later removed his and Mayer's name from the credits because they were Jewish.

Lectures and workshops given by prominent artists have been a staple of the camp since its inception, with visits ranging from Leni Riefenstahl to Maury Yeston.

Riefenstahl went on to star in many of Fanck ’ s mountain films as an athletic and adventurous young woman with a suggestive appeal ; she became an accomplished mountaineer during the winters of filming on mountains and learned filmmaking techniques.

Riefenstahl accompanied Fanck to the 1928 Olympic Games in St. Moritz, where she became interested in athletic photography and filming.

Riefenstahl received private funding for the production of Tiefland, but the filming in Spain was derailed.

Nevertheless, by October 5, 1939, Riefenstahl was back in occupied Poland filming Hitler ’ s victory parade in Warsaw.

Eisberg ( 1933 ), filmed in Engadin, Switzerland and in Greenland, with Leni Riefenstahl and Gibson Gowland

Helene Bertha Amalie " Leni " Riefenstahl (; August 22, 1902 – September 8, 2003 ) was a German film director, actress and dancer widely noted for her aesthetics and innovations as a filmmaker.

Triumph of the Will gave Riefenstahl instant and lasting international fame, as well as infamy.

Although she directed only eight films, just two of which received significant coverage outside of Germany, Riefenstahl was widely known all her life.

In the 1970s, Riefenstahl published her still photography of the Nuba tribes in Sudan in several books such as The Last of the Nuba.

Riefenstahl was born on August 22, 1902.

Riefenstahl gained a reputation on Berlin's dance circuit and she quickly moved into films.

Riefenstahl produced and directed her own work called Das Blaue Licht ( 1932 ), co-written by Carl Mayer and Béla Balázs.

In the film, Riefenstahl played a peasant girl who protected a glowing mountain grotto.

Instead, Riefenstahl met Luis Trenker who had starred in Fanck's films, who wrote to the director about her.

Riefenstahl went on to have a prolific career as an actress in silent films.

SOS Iceberg was Riefenstahl ’ s only English-language film role as an actress.

She co-wrote, directed and starred in the film and produced it under the banner of her own company, Leni Riefenstahl Productions.

However, it was not universally well-received, for which Riefenstahl blamed the critics, many of them Jewish.

Riefenstahl received invitations to travel to Hollywood to create films, but she refused the offers in order to stay in Germany with a boyfriend.

Riefenstahl heard candidate Adolf Hitler speak at a rally in 1932 and was mesmerized by his talent as a public speaker.

Describing the experience in her memoir, Riefenstahl wrote: " I had an almost apocalyptic vision that I was never able to forget.

According to the Daily Express of April 24, 1934, Leni Riefenstahl had read Mein Kampf during the making of her film The Blue Light.