Heir Donates Estate of Hitler’s Filmmaker, Leni Riefenstahl

A German cultural foundation says it has been bequeathed photos, films, manuscripts, letters and files from the estate of Leni Riefenstahl, the legendary filmmaker best known for the propaganda films she made for Nazi Germany.

The Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation said Monday that Riefenstahl’s sole heir, her former secretary, donated the complete collection amassed by the filmmaker, who died in 2003.

Her films included one about the Nazis’ 1934 rally at Nuremberg, and one about the 1936 Berlin Olympic games.

Riefenstahl always defended her work, saying she knew nothing of Nazi atrocities.

Foundation president Hermann Parzinger says his organization will treat the material with “a special responsibility for the critical examination of this controversial person of contemporary history.”