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Witness History

Triumph of the Will: A Nazi propaganda film

Witness History

BBC

Personal Journals, Society & Culture, History

4.5 • 1.6K Ratings

🗓️ 9 March 2026

⏱️ 11 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

In 1934, one of the most controversial propaganda movies ever made - Triumph of the Will – was filmed at the Nazis’ Nuremberg rally. The two-hour picture was directed by Leni Riefenstahl, once described as Adolf Hitler’s favourite filmmaker. Over four days, scenes of military marches, speeches, and parades were shot from dramatic angles. Long-focus lenses recorded close-ups of the crowds, and cameras filmed from moving cars. But, while to some Riefenstahl was an artistic genius, to many others, she glorified a regime that would go on to be responsible for the death of millions. And for portraying a genocidal dictator as a god-like saviour. Jane Wilkinson has been through the BBC archives to find out more.

Eye-witness accounts brought to life by archive. Witness History is for those fascinated by and curious about the past. We take you to the events that have shaped our world through the eyes of the people who were there.

For nine minutes every day, we take you back in time and all over the world, to examine wars, coups, scientific discoveries, cultural moments and much more.

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(Photo: Leni Riefenstahl filming in Nuremberg, 1934. Credit: Corbis/Corbis via Getty Images)

Transcript

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0:00.0

BBC Sounds, Music, Radio Podcasts.

0:05.6

Hello, I've just nipped in before your BBC podcast starts to tell you all about

0:09.4

You're Dead to Me. We're the comedy podcast that takes history seriously. Also from the BBC

0:13.9

and presented by me, Greg Jenner. I should have told you that at the beginning. Sorry.

0:17.9

Anyway, like many other BBC podcasts, such as Desert Island Discs, Evil Genius, or

0:22.4

in Our Time, your dead to me is available first on BBC Sounds, a whole month earlier

0:27.6

than anywhere else, in fact.

0:29.2

So if you can't wait another day to hear the very latest in history and loads of other

0:33.7

good stuff, then listen first on BBC Sounds.

0:41.1

Hello. of other good stuff, then listen first on BBC Sounds. Hello and welcome to witness history from the BBC World Service with me, Jane Wilkinson.

0:46.5

If you've heard us before, feel free to skip on a few seconds.

0:50.4

But if you haven't, and thanks for dropping by.

0:53.0

We're the podcast that brings history to life in just nine minutes

0:56.6

through the eyes of one key witness and lots of truly amazing archive.

1:01.9

So if you enjoy it, please subscribe wherever you get your BBC podcasts.

1:07.0

And now I want to tell you a story about one of the most controversial films ever made,

1:12.6

Triumph of the Will, a propaganda tool for Adolf Hitler and the Nazis.

1:18.3

Powerful, seductive, terrify.

1:21.3

Leni Riefenstals' film of Hitler's 1934 Nuremberg rally, Triumph of the Will.

1:26.8

The film's spectacular images glorified, in

1:29.6

Hitler's words, the beauty and power of the Third Reich. They brought the filmmaker herself,

1:35.3

fame and notoriety. Yet despite her film's glorification of Hitler, she always denied that she'd set out to make propaganda.

...

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