By Walt Zlotow
I lost interest in the Olympics back in the 60s when they were hyped as one more contest in the death struggle between capitalism and communism: US v. USSR. What nonsense.
The ancient Olympics were held at Olympia in Greece every 4 years from 776 BC to 393 AD. They were of fundamental religious importance, evidenced by the athletic events coming after religious ritual sacrifices honouring Zeus and other deities. They were used by Greek city states to assert dominance over one another and spread Hellenistic influence throughout the Mediterranean.
The first modern Olympics, restarted in Athens in 1896, were modest affairs run on shoestring budgets and relatively devoid of nationalistic bravado through to the 1932 Olympics in Los Angeles.
That changed forever ninety years ago next year with Olympiad XI held in Berlin. Awarded the games in 1931 during the Weimar government, Germany changed course under Hitler, determined to use the games to promote the Nazi ideal and inevitability of their future world conquest. Hitler looked back at the ancient Olympics and decided that would be the model for his Nazi infused games, albeit without the religious ritual sacrifices.
Lavishly financed and first to be broadcast and televised, Hitler also commissioned Leni Riefenstahl to document them in likely the most famous sports documentary ever. Riefenstahl’s ‘Olympiad’ has never been surpassed and remains stunning ninety years on.
But Hitler and his Nazi thugs almost lost the games twice; in ’34 and ’35 when their virulent racism and antisemitism sparked threats of boycotts. The first effort followed the Nazi’s demand that no blacks or Jews compete. American Nazi enabler Avery Brundidge, head of the US Olympic Committee, met with Nazi and Jewish athletes in Germany, reporting back ‘no problem here’ when Hitler caved on other countries use of Jewish and black athletes. The Fuhrer even allowed a Jewish token on the German fencing team, one Helene Mayer, whose Nordic stature allowed fascists to pretend she was pure Aryan. Brundidge came back charging it was simply American Jewish communists who were agitating for an unnecessary boycott. In a close vote, the US Amateur Athletic Association voted to attend and US participation was secured.
A record number of countries and athletes descended upon Berlin for the August 1 opening event, not seeing the Gypsies who’d been shuffled off to local concentration camps or ‘no Jews allowed’ signs taken down for the duration.
American blacks were gung-ho for the games to show their prowess in one of few avenues of achievement open to them, and they didn’t disappoint. Along with most Americans they were unaware Hitler was inspired by US Jim Crow laws in the South to enact his own exclusionary laws. Jesse Owens’ 4 Gold in Track became an iconic Olympic moment, making Hitler sputter about America’s black ‘auxiliaries‘. But Owens didn’t spoil Der Fuhrer’s party as Germany crushed runner up US in medals 89 to 56, with Hungary a distant third with 16.
Berlin’s Jews got a respite during the ’36 Olympics, getting a velvet glove treatment for about nine months up to and during the Big Show.
And Hitler? He succeeded spectacularly in burnishing his image as a ‘wunderkind’ remaking a Germany devastated by the hard peace imposed by the vengeful Allies at Versailles in 1919 following WWI. No hard peace, maybe no Hitler and WWII. The road to his destruction of European Jewry and world war was paved in part by his vision of a grand Olympic propaganda show assisted by American and Western Europe enablers. In November 1938 their complicity was shattered literally by Kristallnacht, but it was too late to stop the march to madness 10 months later.
Walt Zlotow, West Suburban Peace Coalition, Glen Ellyn IL
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