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== Ignorance ==
[[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 Nazi 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 the 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.
On June 30, 1934 the event called the Night of the Long Knives took place wherein the SA was purged and its leader, Ernst Rohm was assassinated. Hitler sanctioned Rohm's murder yet Riefenstahl never questioned him as to Rohm's fate. By 1934 little was done within the Third Reich without the Fuhrer's authorization, a fact with which Riefenstahl was aware. Why then did she continue a relationship with a man she knew to be a killer? Either she did not care that Hitler was a murderer of she did not care that Rohm was murdered. By not questioning anyone as to Rohm's whereabouts, she was able to remain blissfully ignorant and maintain deniability.
Perhaps the most blatant example of Riefenstahl’s preferred ignorance presented itself during the German invasion of Poland in September 1939. Riefenstahl went to the front as a war correspondent and was horrified at the atrocities being committed on civilians by German soldiers. A still photo in Muller’s documentary confirms her repulsion at what she was witnessing. Without delay she removed herself from her front line position. In the documentary, filmed fifty-four years after the Polish invasion, she claims to have left the front line due to the horrific violence and atrocities she was witnessing. It is just as likely that she distanced herself from the fighting as way of maintaining her ignorance. Riefenstahl was an apathetic woman who was primarily concerned with her career and artistry. Remaining blind to what was unfolding before her eyes was a means by which to retain plausible deniability. For , if she had been truly aghast by what was transpiring, she may not have filmed Hitler’s victory parade through Warsaw one month hence. It can be further argued that had Riefenstahl not chosen ignorance, she might not have sent Adolph Hitler a telegram congratulating him after the German army successfully invaded France and seized Paris.
In interviews with Ray Muller, Leni Riefenstahl maintained that she believed Hitler and the Nazi 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''.
