Subscribe to Print Edition | Fri., April 25, 2008 Nisan 20, 5768 | | Israel Time: 12:38 (EST+7) web haaretz.com   Back to Homepage Rosner's Domain Diplomacy Defense Jewish World Opinion National Print Edition Advertising Books Arts & Leisure Business Real Estate Easy Start Travel Week's End Anglo File

A poster for the 1936 Olympics in Berlin. (Reproduction) Last update - 00:30 25/04/2008 U.S. exhibit on 1936 Berlin Olympics echoes current debate By The Associated Press Tags: Olympic Games, Germany  Does participating in the Olympics risk lending legitimacy to a repressive regime? That was the debate ahead of the 1936 Berlin games, but parallels to the recent controversy over China are hard to ignore. The Nazi Olympics: Berlin 1936, a timely look at the issue, opens Friday at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum. A version of the exhibit first opened at the museum in 1996, ahead of the Atlanta games. It returns now after a 10-year tour, enhanced by all new artifacts, including medals won by Jesse Owens and other U.S. athletes and a torch holder used for the torch relay, a tradition of the modern Olympics that began with the Berlin games. Advertisement The exhibit comes as this year's torch relay has been dogged by protests over China's human rights record in Tibet and elsewhere. British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and German Chancellor Angela Merkel will not attend the opening ceremonies, and senior U.S. lawmakers have urged U.S. President Bush to skip them, too. Speaking against a boycott Wednesday, Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte said Bush believes that it is important to show the Chinese people that we welcome their entrance on the international stage. Curator Susan Bachrach noted that when the International Olympic Committee awarded the games to Beijing, few people were raising objections. "The current event we had in mind was that an Olympics was coming," she said. The decision to hold the 1936 games in Germany also was not particularly controversial. In 1931, when that decision was made, Adolf Hitler had not yet come to power, and the games were considered an opportunity to welcome Germany back into the Olympic community. The country was supposed to host the 1916 games, but they were canceled because of World War I. As 1936 approached, however, the direction Germany was heading was becoming clear. Concentration camps had been established for political opponents of the regime, and signs everywhere proclaimed Jews were not welcome. But, as the exhibit documents, there was no consensus in the U.S. on how to handle the Olympics. Many groups, including the anti-Fascist activists and some Jewish groups, said the U.S. should not send its athletes at all. But other Jewish groups worried a boycott could provoke an anti-Semitic backlash at home. Blacks also were divided. Owens himself expressed doubts about going after the passage of the Nuremberg laws, which made Jews second-class citizens, though he ultimately changed his mind and went on to win four gold medals in Berlin. His performance and that of other black athletes undermined Nazi propaganda of Aryan superiority. Many blacks felt it was hypocritical to boycott Germany because of discrimination there, when segregation was still alive and well in the U.S. Indeed, many were treated better in Berlin than at home. Runner John Woodruff, whose videotaped interview is included in the exhibit, described how after returning home with a gold medal, Jim Crow laws prevented him from traveling with his team at the University of Pittsburgh to the Naval Academy in Annapolis, Md., for a track meet. Ultimately, the games served as a propaganda victory for Hitler. A facade of tolerance was projected in Berlin for those two weeks, Bachrach said. The Nazis removed many anti-Semitic signs, and token Jewish athletes - ice hockey star Rudi Ball and fencer Helene Mayer - competed on the German team. Even as Berlin was preparing this show of hospitality, the exhibit notes, the Nazis were building the Sachsenhausen concentration camp, jdust north of the city. Two years after the games, the events of Kristallnacht, a well-orchestrated pogrom that swept the country, marked the beginning of the Holocaust. More Jewish World news and features Bookmark to del.icio.us   JDate wins the 'Oscars' The leading Jewish dating Web site is an official honoree of the Webby Awards. 'Worse than Nazi camp' A Libyan envoy to the UN says the situation in Gaza is worse than in concentration camps.   1.   Bhuddist power 00:34  |  Mark B. 25/04/08   2.   Chinese Fascism 03:36  |  Yo 25/04/08   3.   I personally won`t be watching China olympics on tv 07:16  |  Mikey 25/04/08   4.   1936 Berlin Olympics was a disgrace. 12:04  |  Michael J 25/04/08

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