The 1936 Olympics can go down in history as one of the most memorable events that have ever occurred. From Jesse Owens representing the United States and winning 4 gold medals along the way, to the emerging strength of the Nazi movement, the 1936 Olympic games can stand as one of the most prominent worldwide games ever held. Although the games that year were held to test the strength of the hundreds of athletes competing, it was also used as a publicity stunt by Germany. By promoting themselves as a strong and powerful regime, it masked the reality of the condemnation of the Jews and the growing military force. Indeed, the Germans went so far as to remove anti-Jewish signs (Juden Verboten) from surrounding areas and had newspapers become much less harsh (in their words and tone) against non-Aryans. The first two weeks of August 1936, the German state reduced its militarism and attacks on non-Aryan races; instead, they used propaganda to "bedazzle journalists with an image of peaceful, tolerant Germany"[source 1]. After the games ended, the Germans surged forward into the full fledged Holocaust and WW2.
The propaganda in the games made sure to place emphasis on the strength of the Aryan race. With athletes (with noticeable Aryan features) drawn with impressive muscle tone, its aim was to highlight Aryans as being the strongest in society, physically. A large amount of war propaganda modeled Aryans after Greek gods, again placing emphasis on the importance to preserve and respect their race. Although the US nonetheless sent athletes to Germany regardless of the racial persecution, it was actually in 1933 that Jews, Gypsies, and other non-Aryans were banned from competing in the games. It seems to me that this should have been a warning flag for the Americans to boycott the games and call out the Germans on their attack on people's rights. Even more surprising, less than one month before the games on July 16, around 800 Roma Gypsies were forced out of Berlin and sent to a camp in the suburb of Marzahn. You would think that this would be a warning sign, again, to the rest of Europe and America. Although there were boycott movements in the US to not partake in the 1936 Olympics, it was overturned as the then president of the Olympic Committee, Avery Brundage. He had stated that the "Olympic Games belong to the athletes and not to the politicians.”Interesting enough, the German government also relaxed its enforcement of strict homosexuality laws to incoming athletes as another way to mask their true motives.
Jesse Owens a was one of the most prominent athletes in the 1936 Olympics, humiliating Hitler and destroying his idea of racial superiority. When Joe Lewis, the American boxer was defeated by German Max Schmeling, it gave Hitler and the rest of the Nazi party the ability to strengthen their claims of Aryan superiority. Owens disproved this statement- winning 4 gold medals in the long jump, 100m, 200m and 4x100m relay. The son of sharecroppers and the grandson of slaves, was the first American to win 4 gold medals. When whites were winning, Hitler would shake their hands personally- but as black Americans medaled in their events, Hitler actually left the stadium. One of the most prominent events that happened during Owens' participation was his interaction with the German long jumper Luz Long, who congratulated on his black counterpart for winning the event. Hitler was astounded, angry, and annoyed at Owens' victories, fuming and refusing to watch the events. Other American athletes who competed in the games included Louie Zamperini, an athlete from Torrence, California. In the 1936 Olympics, Hitler referred to him as the "boy with the fast finish", as he finished his final lap of the 5 kilometer race in 59 seconds (A 5k is 12.5 lap race). Hitler's racism, although toned down quite a bit, was apparent in his interaction with athletes from over the world.
1) The Fuhrer watches the 1936 Berlin Olympics
2)Nazi Olympics Propaganda
3)Jesse Owens
4)Luz Long and Jesse Owens
5)Louie Zamperini (not Olympics)
Sources:
https://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10005680&utm_source=mktg_cal18&utm_medium=print&utm_campaign=2018%20calendar#
http://time.com/4432857/hitler-hosted-olympics-1936/
https://splinternews.com/80-years-ago-jesse-owens-destroyed-the-olympics-racial-1793860976
https://www.awesomestories.com/asset/view/ZAMPERINI-and-the-1936-OLYMPICS-Unbroken-Louis-Zamperini-Story
Your post gave a very insightful analysis of how Hitler covered up his racism during the 1936 Olympics and plunged straight into wartime atrocities afterwards. Like you, I find it surprising that Americans were not alarmed when Jews were banned from sports clubs, national teams, and competitions in 1933. Perhaps this merits a further exploration of the interplay between politics and sports before the war. Between 1914 and 1933, there was an huge sports boom in Germany--the athlete population grew from 100,000 to 6 million. Jews were respected, voted on the board, and given many prestigious honors. This was a time when religion and race did not matter in sports. However, the political and social situation shifted drastically after Hitler took power. Among many others, some notable athletes killed by Nazis included Lilli Henoch, Gustav Felix Flatow, and Julius Hirsch.
ReplyDeleteAlso adding onto your discussion of Hitler's cover-ups, fencer Helene Mayer was permitted to compete in the 1936 games and made it to the finals. This allowance was meant to show to other countries that the Nazis were tolerant of Jews. At the same time, other Jews were cut from the team for supposedly "non-transparent" reasons, highlighting how Hitler masked his blatant racism.
http://www.dw.com/en/olympics-1936-how-the-nazis-treated-jewish-athletes/a-19451409
I really liked your article and found that there were a lot of facts in there that were very interesting. I was rather surprised by the effort the Germany made to make it seem as if there really weren't any kind of anti-semitism occurrences going on. To me I thought that they may even want to increase so that they would be able to c=broadcast to people all around that jews are "bad people". Reading your article I saw that towards the end you brought up Louie Zamperini which reminded me of the book and movie "Unbroken" which I had read a couple years ago. It told the story of Zamperini who was an army piolet in WWII. His plane crashed into the sea and he was lost there for 47 days! He later was captured by the Japanese and held in a POW (prisoner of war) camp for around 2 years. I had kind of forgotten that I had read this book and reading your blog post reminded of it and I decided to investigate a little further into the POW camps and the brutality of the Japanese soldiers towards the American soldiers. I found that "There were more than 140,000 white prisoners in Japanese prisoner of war camps. Of these, one in three died from starvation, work, punishments or from diseases for which there were no medicines to treat." The brutality here towards that Americans could even be compared to the brutality that people faced in the concentration camps in Germany even those these are known much less about for people.
ReplyDeleteSource: https://www.historyonthenet.com/world-war-two-japanese-prisoner-of-war-camps/
This was a cool post to read because while it doesn't necessarily involve the war, the social and symbolic importance that Jessie Owens had for Americans as well as Nazi Germany must have been great. While many boycotts, strikes and protests all occurred during this period, the ability for a black American to succeed in the politically charged climate represented American resolve. The nazi germans only willing to host because they wanted to showcase their aryan race and prove that they were superior, however Owens was able to prove that all wrong.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you. Especially considering that they were dominating the war. However, even with something as simple as a sporting event, having an American, to top it off, a BLACK AMERICAN, succeed gave America the boost they need to continue the fight. I believe that Jesse Owens was the key to uplifting the American spirit as he defied almost everybody's opinions and shocked the world with his amazing performance.
DeleteThis blog post does a great job of illustrating how the world got its first look inside Nazi germany in these olympics. Another example would be how 2 american jewish athletes were not allowed to compete because they were jewish. Not only does this show how germany was serious on its racial and religious policies but it showed how at the time the world was more accustomed to it as well. The nuremberg laws of 1935 placed restrictions on jewish citizens was also applied to the olympic athletes from around the world. As you said Luz Long was a german athlete who helped Jesse owens in the olympics and because of it was sent to war in italy as punishment and killed in action. So although Jesse Owens strongly proved the arian superiority nazi ideology Hitler was still able to dampen the blow significantly. At this time, no matter what you did in Germany there was no stopping the radical nazi changes. Great article!
ReplyDeletehttp://www.cnn.com/2015/07/31/sport/germany-berlin-jewish-olympics-maccabi/index.html
http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/olympics/jess-owens-anniversary-luz-long-rio-2016-olympics-berlin-1936-nazi-games-7166831.html