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Leni Riefenstahl's Gypsy Question Revisited: The Gypsy Extras In Tiefland

2006; Routledge; Volume: 26; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/01439680500533375

1465-3451

Susan Tegel,

German legal, social, and political studies

Click to increase image sizeClick to decrease image size Notes Notes 1. Hans Barkhausen, Footnote to the history of Riefenstahl's Olympia, Film Quarterly, 28(1) (Fall, 1974), 8–12. Erwin Leiser, Nazi Cinema, trans. Gertrud Mander and D. Wilson (London, 1974), quotes (pp. 140–141) a letter of Goebbels to the Charlottenburg court dated 30 January 1936: ‘The Olympia-Film Co. Ltd. is being founded at the government's request and with government funds … since the state is unwilling to appear publicly to be the producer of the film.’ And one month later: ‘It is clearly impracticable to have the Treasury itself acting as film producer.’ See also Rainer Rother, Leni Riefenstahl, The Seduction of Genius, trans. Martin H. Bott (London, Continuum, 2002), pp. 81–83. 2. Leni Riefenstahl, The Memoirs of Leni Riefenstahl: the sieve of time (London, Quartet, 1992), pp. 103, 136–138, 143–147; Jürgen Trimborn, Riefenstahl: eine deutsche Karriere, Biographie (Berlin, 2002), pp. 125–36. Rother, Leni Riefenstahl, The Seduction of Genius, p. 190, n. 25 mentions the references to Jewish critics in the 1938 Tobis press-pack issued at the time of the film's re-release. 3. Wolfgang Benz, Das Lager Marzahn: zur nationalsozialistische Verfolgung, in Helga Grabitz, Klaus Bästlein, Johannes Tuches, eds, Die Normalität des Verbrechens (Berlin, Hentrich, 1994), pp. 260–279; Sybil Milton, Antechamber to Birkenau: the Zigeunerlager after 1933, in Grabitz et al., eds, Die Normalität des Verbrechens, pp. 241–259; Michael Burleigh and Wolfgang Wippermann, The Racial State Germany 1933–1945 (Cambridge, 1991), p. 117. 4. Erika Thurner, Die Verfolgung der Zigeuner, in Christa Mitterrutzner and Gerhard Ungar, eds, Widerstand und Verfolgung in Salzburg 1934–1945 (Vienna and Salzburg, Östereichischer Bundesverlag and Universitätsverlag Anton Pustet, 1991), p. 476; Erika Thurner, National Socialists and Gypsies in Austria, trans. Gilya Gerda Schmidt (Tuscaloosa, Alabama, University of Alabama Press, 1998), pp. 20–35. 5. Brigitte Hamann, Vienna: a dictator's apprenticeship, trans. Thomas Thornton (New York, OUP, 1999), p. 109. 6. Ibid., pp. 302–318; Riefenstahl, The Sieve of Time, pp. 153–156. 7. Trimborn, Riefenstahl: eine deutsche Karriere, pp. 198–199. 8. Riefenstahl, The Sieve of Time, p. 263. 9. I am grateful to Dr Anna Bohn for this suggestion, which she made as commentator at the IAMHIST conference in Cincinnati, July 2005. 10. Riefenstahl, The Sieve of Time, p. 263. 11. Ibid., pp. 261–263. 12. Riefenstahl, handwritten letter to Julius [no last name], 8 March 1940, Biographical Cuttings on microfilm, Wiener Library, London. 13. Revue, 1 May 1949; Riefenstahl, The Sieve of Time, p. 263 claims that she sent staff to Spain rather than go herself to Spain in spring 1940. 14. Riefenstahl, The Sieve of Time, p. 265. 15. Elke Fröhlich, ed., Die Tagebücher von Joseph Goebbels (Munich, K. G. Saur, 1998), viii, p. 34 (4 April 1940). 16. Riefenstahl, The Sieve of Time, p. 266. 17. Susan Tegel, “The Demonic Effect”: Veit Harlan's use of Jewish extras in Jud Süss (1940), Holocaust and Genocide Studies, 14 (2000), pp. 215–241. 18. Jay Hoberman, Far from Lincoln Center, Village Voice, 2 October 1981 cited in Rentschler, The Ministry of Illusion, p. 317, n. 88. 19. For an account of how Riefenstahl was almost taken to court over this issue in 2002, see Susan Tegel, Leni Riefenstahl's “Gypsy Question”, Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television, 23(1) (2003), 3–10. 20. Rother, Leni Riefenstahl, The Seduction of Genius, pp. 99–103. 21. Trimborn, Riefenstahl: eine deutsche Karriere, pp. 298–300. 22. Bundesarchiv, Berlin (cited hereafter as BArch) R43II/810b, Funk to Goebbels, 11 March 1942. 23. Ibid. 24. Ibid. 25. Ibid. 26. BArch, R43II/810b, Groskopf to Bormann, 31 July 1942. Groskopf (spelled as Grosskopf in Riefenstahl's memoirs) mentioned that the money for Italy had seemed assured but had failed in Rome on formalities. 27. Ibid. 28. BArch R43II/810b Bormann to Lammers, 2 August 1942. It is possible that Bormann did not actually show the papers to Hitler. See also Rother, Riefenstahl, The Seduction of Genius, p. 124, 234, n. 21–23. 29. BArch R43II/810b Lammers to Funk, 6 August 1942. See also Riefenstahl, The Sieve of Time, p. 290. 30. BArch R43II/810b Funk to Lammers, 17 August 1942. Funk mentions that Riefenstahl had requested and obtained 825,000 lire for Italy and 470,000 pesetas for Spain and was now making available 350,000 lire. 31. BArch R43II/810b, Riefenstahl GmbH to Walther, 27 February 1943. Riefenstahl had obtained approval for Spanish pesetas on 15 May 1941, via her account with the Tobis Film Company for money owed her, but later claimed she could not use the funds for technical reasons. Her new request was made on 9 September 1942. 32. BArch R43II/810b Riefenstahl GmbH to Walther, 11 December 1942; BArch. R109/111 Riefenstahl to Winkler, 18 June 1944 33. Trimborn, Riefenstahl: eine deutsche Karriere, p. 257. 34. Fröhlich, ed., Die Tagebücher von Joseph Goebbels (Munich, K.G. Saur, 1996), Teil 2, Diktate 1941–1945, vi, p. 456 (16 December 1942). This entry also appears in Louis Lochner, trans. and ed., The Goebbels Diaries (London, Hamish Hamilton, 1948), p. 186. 35. BArch R43II/810b, Funk to the President of the Reichfilmkammer, 13 March 1943. 36. BArch R43II/810b, Bormann to Lammers, 9 May 1943. Riefenstahl, The Sieve of Time, p. 290 plays down the possibility that Bormann actually consulted with Hitler. Rother, The Seduction of Genius, p. 113, also suggests that it is not clear whether Bormann obtained Hitler's personal approval. 37. Arch R43II/810b, Bormann to Lammers, 9 May 1943. 38. Rother, Leni Riefenstahl: the seduction of genius, p. 113. She claimed they were linking shots for the Spanish and Dolomite location sequences as well as close-ups of Minetti, the actor playing Pedro, and also of herself. 39. BArch R109/111 Riefenstahl to Max Winkler, 18 June 1944; 11 August 1944; Winkler to Hans Hinkel, 26 June 1944; Winkler to Riefenstahl, 26 June 1944; Walter Müller-Goerner to Riefenstahl, 5 July 1944; Berlin Document Center, Riefenstahl file, reproduced in David Culbert, ed., Leni Riefenstahl's Triumph of the Will (University Publications of America, 1986), microform (cited hereafter as BDC), Riefenstahl to Hans Hinkel, 11 September 1944; Riefenstahl, The Sieve of Time, pp. 291–292. 40. BDC, Riefenstahl file, Riefenstahl to Hinkel, 20 August 1944; 11 September 1944; Riefenstahl to Müller-Goerne, 9 December 1944. 41. BArch, R/109/111, Riefenstahl to Winkler, 18 June 1944. 42. Ibid., Müller-Goerne to Riefenstahl, 5 July 1944. 43. BDC, Riefenstahl file, Riefenstahl to Hinkel, 22 October 1944. 44. Ibid., Riefenstahl to Müller-Goerner, 8 April 1945. 45. Ibid., Riefenstahl file, Bauer to Scheibner, 18 April 1945. 46. BDC, Riefenstahl file, Riefenstahl to Müller-Goerner, 8 April 1945 47. Riefenstahl, The Sieve of Time, pp. 265–267, 274, 288. 48. Helma Sanders-Brahms, Tyrannenmord: Tiefland von Leni Riefenstahl, in Das Dunklen zwischen den Bilder: Essays, Porträts, Kritiken, Verlag der Autoren, 1992, p. 246; Robert von Dassanowsky, “Wherever you may run, you cannot escape him”: Leni Riefenstahl's self-reflection and romantic transcendence of Nazism in Tiefland, Camera Obscura 35 (1995–1996), pp. 106–129. 49. Riefenstahl, The Sieve of Time, p. 262. 50. Eric Rentschler, The Ministry of Illusion (Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press, 1999), p. 48 writes that ‘for all its putative resistant energy, Lowlands still relishes yet another Riefenstahl persona who is patently helpless, indeed subservient to male power,’ a description which supports her initial attraction to National Socialism. 51. Riefenstahl, The Sieve of Time, p. 261. 52. Trimborn, Riefenstahl: eine deutsche Karriere, pp. 351–352. 53. Guenter Lewy, The Persecution of the Gypsies (Oxford, 2000), p. 38. 54. Ibid., p. 42. 55. Thurner, National Socialists and Gypsies in Austria, p. 9. 56. Burleigh and Wippermann, The Racial State Germany 1933–1945, pp. 113–116. 57. Lewy, The Persecution of the Gypsies, p. 219. 58. Saul Friedländer, Nazi Germany and the Jews (London, 1997), p. 148. 59. Lewy, The Persecution of the Gypsies, pp. 136–39. 60. Ibid., pp. 142–143. 61. Ibid., pp. 221–222. 62. Landesarchiv, Salzburg, RSTH I/346/1940. 63. Landesarchiv, Salzburg, RSTH I/346/1941. 64. Landesarchiv, Salzburg, RSTH I/346/1940, 1941. Some of the lists are reproduced in Henry Friedlander and Sybil Milton, eds, Archives of the Holocaust (New York and London, 1991), pp. 178–180 and in Thurner, Die Verfolgung der Zigeuner, p. 504. 65. Dokumentation Östereichischen Widerstands, E 18518/3, Vienna (hereafter cited as DÖW) E185/18/3. 66. Landesarchiv, Salzburg, RSTH1/246/1940. 67. Revue, 1 May 1949. 68. Riefenstahl The Sieve of Time, pp. 358–359 cites a letter of gratitude from an Antonia Reinhardt, whose name however does not appear on the Maxglan lists of extras. There is an Anna Reinhardt, but she is Josef's mother and also illiterate. Riefenstahl refers to a letter she received from the owner of the barn, Maria Kramer, whose relatives Josef and Katharina Kramer owned the adjacent hotel, confirming their good treatment. See also Thurner, Die Verfolgung der Zigeuner, p. 479. Surviving extras refer to Tante Leni in the Nina Gladitz documentary, Zeit des Schweigen, Zeit des Dunkelheit (1982). The chocolate is mentioned by the judge in his summing up of the trial: DÖW E 18518/3. 69. DÖW, E185/18/3, Dr. Reinl's sworn testimony. 70. Salzburg, Landesarchiv, 17 October 1940, RSTH I/3 98/1940, Memo from Dr Pitter on behalf of the Salzburg Police Director, to the Reichstatthalter. 71. Rosa Winter, Soviel wie eine Asche, in Karin Berger, Elisabeth Holzinger, Lotte Podgornik, Lisbeth N Trallosi, eds, Ich geb dir einen Mantel, dass du ihn noch in Freiheit tragen kannst: Widerstehen im KZ, Öesterreichische Frauen erzählen (Vienna, Promedia, 1987), pp. 77–81. 72. Offener Brief, Süddeutsche Zeitung, 22 August 2002. 73. Nineteen of these photographs can be found in the Bildarchiv Preussischer Kulturbesitz, Berlin. But others can be found in other collections. 74. I am grateful to Nina Gladitz for this information. 75. Her photographs can be found in several university archives such as Augsburg, Marburg and Munich (Institut für deutsche und vergleichende Völkerkunde). 76. DÖW, E 18518/3. 77. Riefenstahl, The Sieve of Time, pp. 262–263, 266. 78. I am grateful to Martin Boswell of the Imperial War Museum for help in identifying the military uniforms. 79. Ibid., p. 287. 80. Ibid., p. 288. 81. Reimar Gilsenbach and Otto Rosenberg, Berliner Zeitung, 17–18 February 2001. 82. Ibid. Only a part of the list is reproduced; the complete list appeared on the Rom e V website between August and September 2002: http://www/netcologne,de-nc-hollku3. 83. I am grateful to Nina Gladitz for this information. She identifies this role as not being performed by a professional actor. 84. Sterbebücher von Auschwitz, Death Books from Auschwitz (Munich, K. G. Saur, 1995), 3 vols; Memorial Book: the gypsies at Auschwitz-Birkenau (Munich, K. G. Saur, 1993), 2 vols. The Rom e V website between August and September 2002: http://www/netcologne,de-nc-hollku3 provided this information. 85. See Tegel, Leni Riefenstahl's “Gypsy Question”. 86. Trimborn, Riefenstahl: eine deutsche Karriere, pp. 399ff, 418ff; Rother, Leni Riefenstahl, The Seduction of Genius, pp. 125, 139ff. 87. Revue 1 May 1949. 88. Thurner, Die Verfolgung der Zigeuner, p. 622, n. 32. Anton Böhmer had lost his post in May 1944 for not following Führer orders and decrees and initially was sent to a concentration camp, but after a rehearing was condemned to hard labour in Salzburg and Hamburg to the end of war. 89. DÖW, E 18518/3. The laughter was reported by critic and feuilletonist Alfred Polgar, Volksrecht, 24 December 1949, Biographical Cuttings on Microfilm, Wiener Library, London. See also Der Spiegel, 1 December 1949, p. 33; Riefenstahl, The Sieve of Time, pp. 358–359, 365, 385. 90. DÖW E 18518/3. 91. Ibid. 92. Rother, Leni Riefenstahl, The Seduction of Genius, p. 124. 93. American Film, 9(5) (March 1984), 13. 94. Riefenstahl, The Sieve of Time, pp. 361–362. 95. Die Zeit, 9 October 1987. The line which was to be cut was: ‘I told aunt Leni—as we had to call her—that Maxglan would be dissolved and at the very least at the end of filming and all would be destroyed in Auschwitz. I said to her what we then knew about Auschwitz that no one came back from there’. 96. Riefenstahl, The Sieve of Time, p. 358. 97. The Independent, 20 October 2000. 98. Heribert Fritz and Mareen Linnartz, “Ich bin sehr müde”, Leni Riefenstahl über ein Leben im Schatten Hitlers, ihren ersten Film seit 60 Jahren und die Sehnsucht nach dem Tod, Frankfurter Rundschau, 27 April 2002. 99. Landesarchiv, Salzburg, RSTH1/246/1940. 100. Benz, Das Lager Marzahn: zur nationalsozialistische Verfolgung, pp. 275–276.