Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1997/08/21

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Subject: Re: Riefenstahl
From: "Krzysztof Szecwka" <szecowka@ch.wssk.wroc.pl>
Date: Fri, 22 Aug 1997 00:54:21 +0200

You've got the point, Marc !

Chris

*********** REPLY PARTITION ***********

On 08/21/97, at 12:56 PM, Marc James Small wrote: 

>The lady was and is a superb photographer.  She did what was necessary at
>the time to have her work published.  She was never a Nazi, in any regard,
>though she was a long-time lover of Albrecht Speer, Hitler's architect,=
 and
>a favorite of Joseph Goebbels.
>
>Are we to condemn people because of the regime under which they must work?
>Let's not jump to any conclusions here  -- there are documented US war
>atrocities in the Second Imbroglio, and I haven't heard a bit of
>condemnation of, say, Carl Mydans for photographing the war in detail.
>
>No, Leni did the best in troubled times.  I doubt if any of us would have
>done much differently, given the tenor of the times in which she worked.
>Riefenstahl's "Nazi" work was at an early period, before the Camps, before
>Crystal Night, before the true nature of totalitarian rule was revealed.
>(A warning to those of us who worry in the night about the 'there oughta=
 be
>a law' mentality which afflicts the US public:  that was precisely how the
>Nazi's got started.)
>
>No, give MS Riefenstahl a rest.  She is a magnificent photographer with a
>magnificent ouevre developed over seventy years of active work.  
>
>Marc
>
>
>msmall@roanoke.infi.net  FAX:  +540/343-7315
>Cha robh bas fir gun ghras fir!
>