LENI RIEFENSTAHL

Leni Riefenstahl (born Helene Bertha Amalie Riefenstahl) was a German swimmer and artist, who became an accomplished actress and director in the 1920s and 1930s. She became a favorite of Adolf Hitler, and she made the best-remembered (and highest quality) German movies of the Nazi-era, The Olympiad, Triumph of the Will, Victory of Faith, and Day of Freedom, all of which glorified Hitler's Third Reich. After the war, she was tried for collaborating with the Nazis, but she insisted that she knew nothing of the concentration camps and that she saw "only the good" in Hitler! She had four trials and was detained for a while, and later won 50 libel suits she pressed against people who claimed she was a Nazi herself. She later became a noted photographer (often of African natives), and towards the end of her life, she began taking photos while diving underwater! She passed away in 2003 at the age of 101, having lived one of the most extraordinary lives.