Hitler film maker photos on sale

The photographs are expected to fetch up to £3,000

Photographs taken during the shooting of a controversial film by Hitler's favourite film-maker, Leni Riefenstahl, go on sale in Shropshire this week.

The 33 original photos from Tiefland (Lowlands) include shots of young gypsy children who were allegedly taken from Nazi internment camps.

A letter written by Ms Riefenstahl in 1954 denying the youngsters were then taken to Auschwitz is also included.

The photographs will go on sale at Ludlow racecourse on Thursday.

They have a guide price of between £2,000 and £3,000 and are thought to have been personally taken by Ms Riefenstahl.

Nazi sympathiser

It has been claimed that the gypsy children were forced to take part in Tiefland against their will and later died in the gas chambers at Auschwitz.

In October 2002, when Riefenstahl was 100, the German authorities dropped a case against her for falsely claiming that "each and every one" of the gypsies who were in the film survived the war.

Documents specialist Richard Westwood-Brookes, from Shropshire auctioneers Mullock Madeley, said: "The present photographs of the gypsy children are extremely moving in their simplicity and tragic beyond belief if the claims against Riefenstahl are true."

Ms Riefenstahl, who was officially declared a Nazi sympathiser after the war, is noted for her 1934 propaganda film about the Nuremberg rallies, Triumph of the Will.

She is also recognised for breaking new ground in film-making techniques and aesthetics in her depiction of the 1936 Berlin Olympics.

Tiefland was Riefenstahl's last feature film and although it was started in the 1930s, it was not premiered until 1954. She died in September 2003 at the age of 101.