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Similar qualities were also to be found in ''Olympia'', Riefenstahl’s film concerning the 1936 Olympics held in Germany. The opening sequence shows men of physical perfection participating in feats of athleticism, strength, and endurance. Throughout the two part piece, women are shown primarily in the audience cheering. This is how Hitler wanted women depicted to the world. The National Socialist ideology did not support women achieving greatness as athletes or politicians; another reason Riefenstahl fit so perfectly into his utopian fantasy.

[[File:leniandhitler.jpg|thumbnail|200px|Riefenstahl with Adolph Hitler.]]

A self-possessed artist, Riefenstahl remained intentionally ignorant to the realities taking place in her environment when such realities interfered with her ambitions. She was filming in the Swiss Alps in 1933 when the book burnings took place but was immediately informed of the events upon her return to Germany. In Muller's documentary, she admits to confronting Hitler and supposedly admonishing him for sanctioning the destruction. She continues by describing the details of being escorted out of his Austrian home after he became enraged with her for raising the issue. As an intelligent woman, it must have been apparent to Riefenstahl that something was dreadfully wrong with Germany's new regime yet she chose to ignore the incident and never again disagreed with the Fuhrer on any social or political issues. When she discovered friends emigrating from Germany and Jewish shops were being closed and boycotted, she chose to ignore the reality and scope of what was transpiring in order to maintain her place in the Party and Hitler's circle.

In interviews with Ray Muller, Leni Riefenstahl maintained that she believed Hitler and the National Socialist Party conveyed a message of peace. She claimed to have sent Hitler the congratulatory telegram under the pretense that she thought the conquering of Paris meant that the war was over. The telegram captured feelings of awe and adoration and Riefenstahl admitted that Hitler had indeed “stirred feelings” in her. She claimed to have believed the Reich’s message was one of peace yet ''Triumph of the Will'' contained uniformed soldiers in most frames. There was a militaristic theme throughout conveyed through the use of salutes, parades, and flags. In defending her telegram to Hitler, she did not denounce the invasion of another country or express any sympathy for French civilians. By remaining silent, she was giving her tacit approval for Germany to be a conquering nation. She was in awe of Hitler and continued to view him as her country’s savior, as is evident by the way she filmed him in ''Triumph of the Will.''

[[File:germantriumph.jpg|thumbnail|200px|German movie/propaganda poster for ''Triumph of the Will'', 1935.]]

In the 1935 award winning Nazi propaganda film,''Triumph of the Will,'' Riefenstahl exposes the viewer to her magnificent talent as a film maker. She was unquestionably a pioneer and innovator with regards to cinematography and a genius in her application of lighting technique. From the very first appearance of Hitler in the film, as he emerges from the sky to the blaring tones of Wagner, Riefenstahl casts him in a glowing light reminiscent of a deity. During his speeches, she films him from below so he appears as a tall and imposing figure. All flags and soldiers are perfectly aligned and the soldiers’ eyes remain in the shadows of their helmets to signify blind obedience. The scenes from the Nuremberg Rally are magnificent in scope and purposefully depict the Nazi party as a civic religion. In fact, she films Hitler walking down the center aisle of the massive gathering with a man at each side. The trio stops at the altar of the Unknown Soldier, conjuring an image of the Holy Trinity, thus intentionally equating Hitler to Jesus Christ. She filmed segments of the event from above to show the mass of people and flags as being united with one being indistinguishable from the next. All of these images are based on fascist ideologies. The film was funded by the Nazi party and Leni Riefenstahl helped choreograph and stage the event.

Leni Riefenstahl lived to be 101 years of age. She travelled the world and was emotionally intimate with one of the most horrific dictators history has ever known. Leni Riefenstahl was not a war criminal. She was an arrogant and jealous woman who was concerned with no one but herself. She was morally bankrupt and devoid of human emotion and enjoyed being blind to her surroundings. Ignorance, however intentionally assumed, is not a crime.

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*[[What were the goals of the Axis powers and the Soviet Union during World War Two?]]

*[[How Did the German Military Develop Blitzkrieg?]]