The Sarah Evans Chronicles Pt 325 'Victory of Faith'

Re: Re:
From:
Mr Sheldrick
To: Sarah Evans

Mmmmmm!

I don't know the answer as to which is correct Sarah and I don't think that you will ever find out. In our particular case, where the questions in the exam on Leni are so generic it is much better to concentrate on the big picture rather than technicalities like these. Just say there is controversy over just who commissioned it and also about just how happy she was to do it and mention the two versions of events. To be quite honest it is worth more marks. It shows that you are thinking as an historian.

A copy of this film has only been recently found. It was thought to have been lost forever. Why did it vanish??? Why such scketchy details about its making???? Because... it was a big embarrassment for Hitler by 1934 and for Riefenstahl many years later when she didn't want to know the Nazis any more.

The BIG BIG problem was that film made Ernst Rohm look good!!!

Victory of Faith was a record of the 1933 Nazi Party rally at Nuremberg. Released in early 1934, the film was enthusiastically promoted by the Nazi Party as a masterful piece of art in presenting itself to the German people. Later that same year, however, Hitler had his "Night of the Long Knives" and had Rohm, who had leading role at the 1933 rally - second only to Hitler - killed. Overnight, Rohm became persona non grata, and all references to him were obliterated from the public record (Hatshepsut style! lol). As a result, the thousands of prints of Victory of Faith in circulation across Germany were tracked down and destroyed. But just as the Nazi regime was eradicating memories of its 1933 celebration, party leaders were preparing for the next Nuremberg rally, on the calendar for September 1934. Again, Riefenstahl was commissioned to film the proceedings; the result was Triumph of the Will and that got all the publicity.

Now that is the big picture that you should talk about in an essay!

Cheers,

Mr S

From: Sarah Evans
To: Mr Sheldrick
Sent: Sun, 30 May, 2010 9:01:51 PM
Subject: Re: Re:


sir! i'm still really confused.
ok, so 'sieg des glaubens' is 'victory of faith'. i'm confused about when she was asked to make it and what her reaction was (her commission for the film is one of the syllabus points). one textbook says hitler asked her in feb 1933 and she declined, but later reconsidered. and the other one has something about goebbels asking her in may 1933. i'm not sure which textbook to go with?


From: Mr Sheldrick
To: Sarah Evans
Sent: Sunday, May 30, 2010 8:32 PM
Subject: Re:

hey Sarah!

She did make a Nazi film in 1933 - SIEG DES GLAUBENS
First performance: 01 December 1933 - a documentary film about the NSDAP's 5th Reich Party Congress, which was held in Nuremberg from August 30th until September 3rd 1933.

SOS Iceberg also came out in August of 1933 - but that was am adventure film that she had worked on in 1932.

These are the only two Leni films I can find records of in 1933.

Cheers,

Mr S


From: Sarah Evans
To: Mr Sheldrick
Sent: Sun, 30 May, 2010 6:50:31 PM
Subject:

hey sir :)
another question: the textbook (Mason) says that hitler asked leni to make a nazi film in feb 1933, that she declined, and then later in that year said yes. according to the webb and broadbridge handouts, leni left germany a few days after hitler became chancellor, she met goebbels in may 1933 and he suggested a nazi film to hitler (which according to his diaries she was eager to do) and then in august 1933 hitler asked her how preparations were going and she claims she said she couldn't do it and didn't know about it. what's right? some combination of the two?? i'm confused :(