Harlan reached the high point of his career as a director in the Nazi era; most notably his antisemitic film Jud Süß (1940) makes him controversial.

In 1934 he starred in the Berlin premiere of Eugen Ortner's tragedy Meier Helmbrecht, but it was a critical disaster and he later described it as his lowest point as an actor.

In 1939, Veit Harlan married the Swedish actress Kristina Söderbaum, for whom he wrote several tragic roles that included dramatic suicide scenes, increasing their popularity with the German cinema audience.

Film critic David Thomson asserts that Harlan, having just started directing in 1935, was able to attract Goebbels' attention only because so much directorial talent had emigrated from Germany after the Nazis had taken power.

Karsten Witte, the film critic, provided a fitting appellation for Harlan calling him "the baroque fascist".

He successfully defended himself by arguing that the Nazis controlled his work, that he was obeying their orders, and that he should not be held personally responsible for the content.

Nazi camp guards who watched Jud Süß, Jewish survivors told the court, had become crueller towards inmates afterwards, clearly affected by the propaganda contents which made them hate Jews more (although this allegation could not be proved).

[6][7][8] In 1951, Harlan sued for an injunction against Hamburg politician Erich Lüth for publicly calling for a boycott of Unsterbliche Geliebte (Immortal Beloved).

The District Court in Hamburg granted Harlan's suit and ordered that Lüth forbear from making such public appeals.