August 18, 2017
Today I will keep it short – between the tragedy in Barcelona and the insanity coming out of the White House and its congressional enablers, I have to catch my breath. Below is the link to a selection of choice propaganda films and a link to the full documentary that Leni Riefenstahl made of the ReichsPartei Tag in 1934 in Nürnberg, as a timely reminder. She was such a gifted filmmaker in the service of such an evil force.
Holocaust Memorial Berlin
Triumph of the Will, choreographed like a Wagnerian opera, is renowned and reviled as the best propaganda film ever. Here is a short overview of her life as Nazi supporter, no matter how much she later denied it.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2003/sep/10/film.germany
Yesterday the Boston Holocaust Memorial was vandalized, the glass shattered with rocks. I told myself all week, that history does not repeat itself, but my skin is covered with goosebumps.
Entrance to the Jewish Cemetery in Berlin
Steve Tilden
Watched portions of Riefenstahl’s Triumph of the Will . . . among many thoughts, two: North Korea, and the concentration camps. In high school we were shown the films of the starving and dead bodies in several concentration camps at the end of WWII. I don’t know whether all schools in Hawaii did this, but Punahou did. Horrible scenes, just horrible. I was 15, about ten years after the war. I wonder if the neo-nazis of today have any inkling. And Trump, for that matter.
I wonder if Trump watches news-clips of the North Korean parades and turns to Kellyanne and says ‘I like that, Kellyanne, why can’t we have parades like that? Set it up, OK? Nifty!’