The
ninth edition of the Modern Olympics was held in Berlin not because the Nazis
chose to host the games. In 1931, two years after Hitler came to power, the
delegates of the International Olympic Committee gave victory to the German
headquarters. The result were 43 votes for Berlin and 16 to Barcelona. Even
though the Catalan city had won the seat of the dispute, the Civil War would
make the city unviable for the games in Spain and certainly they would happen in
Berlin. The idea of holding the Games in the German capital was to recover the
self-esteem of the vanquished people in the 1st War. It has been seen since the
Cold War.
Berlin
Olympics were practically reduced to two men: Jesse Owens and Adolf Hitler. The
1936 Olympics were more complex than it could be imagined. Owens, for example,
only attended the event because the US Olympic Committee wanted to avoid
problems with the German government and cut two Jewish athletes from their
delegation.
Third
Reich encouraged the sport with only two goals: to produce more and better war
machines and generate a "healthier" race. The Nazi obsession was not
just about the Jews, like the Holocaust Industry loves to quote, but the
political, mentally ill, homosexuals, gypsies, slaves and physically
debilitated, which had already been selected for the final solution.
The
search for the Nordic ideal was relentless. blond and blue-eyed children were
abducted in neighboring countries to be educated in human stud farm - created to
"purify" the German race. Women who wanted to marry someone of the SS
had to have a Reich sports medal. Every citizen who didn't have the Nordic
appearance was subject to discrimination, including southern Europeans. This
bizarre thought had many supporters around the world, including those of mixed
American countries. Once Hitler took over the Jews began to be excluded from
German life.
In
sports was no different: Cultural Association Physics Reich forbade Jews
partners. Every day the Nazis frightened the people with stories about an
international Jewish conspiracy to increase the already anti-Semitism present
in German culture. With the Nazis in power the Jews became responsible for all
the problems and failures in the country.
With the
support of some companies, such as IBM, the Nazis were able to encode and
identify the genealogy of all Germans through censuses, also with the help of
the US which gifted tabulating machines to Germany.
Anti-Semitism
was not born with Nazism. In the 1932 Germany sent only a Jewish athlete to Los
Angeles. Racism was also present in European countries, in the US and the
figures of Mussolini and Hitler were admired by many leaders and entrepreneurs
of the time.
Some events were held in order to repel an Olympiad in Hitler's Germany.
In 1935 the Maccabiah Games (most known as Jewish Games) took place in Tel Aviv
and in the next year, the unsuccessful attempt of Popular Olympiad in
Barcelona. It was shoot down. Right after the opening ceremony conflicts stared
to overthrow the semi autonomus government of Catalonia. In the USA, the
members of the boycott movement to the Olympic Games decided to perform their
own Games in parallel of Berlin's featuring college athlets from all over
the country plus Canada. All anti Games movement was fruitless in trying to
change the host country or cause a major boycott. However, this act forced the
nazis to tone down their actions against the jews in the Winter Olympic Games,
in february that year.
It was a preparation to the Summer Games. Both of them happening
simultaneously. Only after the Lilehammer in 1994 the dates were changed. Since
the Winter Games were also attended by european athletes, prejudice went
unnoticed. The games were an effort fron the government to ensure the presence
of other countries. The visitors had the impression that the alarmists just
wanted to confuse the public with false rumors of racism and misconduct from
germans. Many leaders, entrepreneur and athletes left with another impression,
beside the ones who already liked facism.
One can not say that the Berlin Games were made only to prove the
superiority of the aryan race. They wanted to show the world
a reconstructed, economically strong and a military power, such as
the olympic village. The had already built one years before, but they wanted to
overcome the grandiosity of the games held in Los Angeles. An entire city
was built to lodge the athletes during the games, they really wanted to have
the best enviroment, they also allowed drinking alcohol. For the very firts
time radio station broadcast live the games, due to the german technology
In the opening ceremony played the nazi anthem. the French were
applauded due to the Olympic greeting, much like the fascist, the English were
repudiated by just looking at the audience. Fritz Schilgen was the athlete
chosen to bring the light to the pyre, he was blond and tall, the nordic model
that Germany would dream of one day becoming fully
To contain the US, rules were created so that the other teams had
chances, as the weight limit for athletes. Even maimed, the US team won the
tournament easily.In the soccer there was confusion in several games, the main
was the scandalous victory of Peru over Austria. When the South American team
was winning by 4-2, the referee suspended the game due to field invasions and
demanded a new departure. The Peruvians tried to complain, but who would face
the countrymen of the Führer? In Peru the Reich consulates were stoned while
the entire Peruvian delegation abandoned the games in protest against .This was
not the only confusion Some american athletes were expelled for criticizing the
racism in German. Hitler had the custom of shaking hands with the winners, but
he refuse to grant it to Cornelius Johnson, a black man. The audience was
embarrassed. The fuhrer also had to watch other american black athletes winning
in several competition.
The Berlin game was a great national event to promote the country to the
world, very successful and hid very well the conflicts and prejudice that was
about to happen in all German
. It even made the Furher the cover of Times magazine the
following year.
W12 - Teacher Vinicius - Wizard Centro
Pedro de Sá
Victória Righi
0 comments:
Postar um comentário