[AnalogReigns]

Leni Riefenstahl, though she indeed worked for Hitler, was actually a brilliant film maker—whose career was totally wrecked after the war. Her remarkable skills are what made her so dangerous...and those skills used post-war were basically ignored by Hollywood until very recently.

The US Space program was built upon the work of differently skilled brilliant German rocket scientists—who were also rewarded for their work for us (and who during the war also helped Hitler nearly succeed).

I really don’t see a lot of moral difference—except the rocket scientists were used and recognized early on—but Reifenstahl basically had to wait until her death.

[research99]

"The US Space program was built upon the work of differently skilled brilliant German rocket scientists—who were also rewarded for their work for us (and who during the war also helped Hitler nearly succeed)."

And much of the US consumerist media propogated after WWII was influenced by social control techniques (adopted from Nazi propogandists who were also imported after the war).

[americanophile]

...you make a good point, but to my mind the U.S. government using NAZI scientists to further our own national security goals is different than the gratuitous honoring of a NAZI propagandist. Perhaps it was the venue that I found so astonishing as well. To my mind she's a sinister figure who made NAZI propaganda films for Hitler and Goebbels and used concentration camp prisoners as extras...it's just hard to imagine that the heavily Jewish Academy with their incessantly preachy and moralistic acceptance speeches could put this woman up with Bob Hope and applaud loudly in tribute.

[ohioman]

Good post. My father worked/golfed a few times with these German Scientists when he was in Alabama. In fact, he met Von Braun a few times and thought the good Dr. was nothing but a brilliant dreamer.