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Where to start?
1) I am pretty sure that we can all agree that religion can be and has been used to justify some very horrible things.
2) Turning #1 into a Universal statement about all religions and all people who practice religions completely ignores the millions (billions?) of people who practice their religion in peace.
There is no way you can convince me that Nazism in the 30s and 40s was in anyway a religion. To say that Triumph of the Will is religious entirely misses the point of propaganda. Riefenstahl and the Nazi PR machine were geniuses when it came to the image and manipulating the public.
They knew the imagery that would sell Hitler. They understood what the public wanted to see. You have to remember that Hitler was one of the frist politicians to use modern mass communications to sell himself. If you have a Catholic audience, you use their imagery. This is the same thing as someone like George W. Bush, a native of Maine, adopting a folksy accent. It's what the people want.
The mass rally at Nuremburg and the film that documents it, also use symbolism from ancient Rome, Wagner and Faust. Does this mean that National Socialism is also a Pan-Theist, opera-loving, literary genius? No. It means they knew how to play on the heart strings of a nation. Again, it is for these same reasons that advertisers associate their products with certain things (Come to Canada and ally your product with hockey. It will do well.).
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"My hands are on fire. Hands are on fire. Ain't got no more time for all you charlatans and liars."
- Old Man Luedecke
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