[Leica] Riefenstahl ...apolitical alternate view

[hellman at comcast.net (Jesse Hellman)]

"What would your answer be if you were approached by a government agency 
to make a film, photo essay, book about the country you love?" and

"Remember, liberals, socialist, conservatives and neo-Nazis all love 
their country equally ...they just don't agree on how it should be run."

This has been an interesting thread. The ways in which thread subjects 
change often reflect how statements made are picked up in differing ways 
by each of us. The quotes above made me think about what we mean when we 
say "I love my country." We frequently use words without stopping to 
reflect on what we mean by them, and how they will be understood.

I had never thought that glorifying Hitler and the idea of Aryan 
supremacy was an expression of love of Germany or even that LR's "The 
Triumph of the Will" was "about Germany," and I wonder if German LUG 
members could comment on whether LR is regarded in Germany today as 
having expressed her love of Germany through her films. Did Hitler love 
Germany? It seems to me a novel idea.

"...should make you wonder what you might have done if you had been in 
her shoes" If I had been in her shoes I would have had to have had the 
chameleonic powers of Woody Allen's Zelig to avoid being shot.

There were plenty of heroic people back then, like August Sander and his 
wife, and we can only hope that we would have been among them.

Jesse