Argumentative Essay: The Nazi Olympics Of 1936

The Berlin Olympics set many PRECEDENTS for future Olympics, it was the first Olympic games to be televised; as well as the first to reintroduce the torch relay at the start of the games. (“THE NAZI OLYMPICS BERLIN 1936”).These precedents are just some of the things Germany used to make the 1936 Olympics a success, Although The 1936 Olympics were a major success, they should never have occurred as the U.S and other countries should have boycotted the games rather than turn a blind eye to the horrors being committed by the Nazi regime.

Hitler and the Nazi regime had no interest in hosting the Olympics at first. Hitler was voted into office after the 1936 Olympics had already been chosen to take place in Germany.(“The 1936 Olympics”) Hitler and

the Nazi regime decided to use the Olympics to further their ideology of superior Aryan race. Once chosen to host the olympic games, Germany made many preparations for the 1936 Olympics including, building a massive three hundred and twenty five - acre sports facility For the Olympic Games (“The 1936 Olympics”). The sports complex and all of Berlin were covered with Olympic flags, swastikas and Nazi master race rhetoric during the Olympic games. Forty-nine athletic teams from around the world competed in the Berlin Olympics,(“NAZI OLYMPICS BERLIN 1936”) more than in any previous Olympics. Germany fielded the largest team with three hundred and forty eight athletes. The US team was the second largest, with three hundred and twelve members, including eighteen African Americans. (“THE NAZI OLYMPICS BERLIN 1936”) On August first, 1936, Hitler opened the XIth Olympiad Hundreds of athletes in opening day marched into the stadium, team by team in alphabetical order. INAUGURATING a new Olympic ritual, a lone runner arrived bearing a torch carried by relay from the site of the ancient Games in Olympia, Greece. (“THE NAZI OLYMPICS BERLIN 1936”). During the Olympic game every German was talking about the spectacle. The 1936 Nazi Olympics set many precedents and was widely viewed as successful.
Hitler and the nazi regime were also successful at creating propaganda which showed their Aryan race ideology. during the 1936 Olympics, Hitler, and the Nazi regime used the Olympics to showcase their “master Aryan race” IDEOLOGY. “Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party viewed the Olympics as an opportunity to advance Nazi ideology. Pamphlets and speeches about the natural superiority of the Aryan race were Everywhere,” (“Berlin 1936 Olympics”). In arts and other propaganda, German artists created athletes who had god like bodies; well-developed muscle tone and Aryan facial features. Such imagery also reflected the importance the Nazi regime placed on physical fitness, “a prerequisite for military service”. (“THE NAZI OLYMPICS BERLIN 1936”) “German sports imagery of the 1930s served to promote the myth of “Aryan” racial superiority and physical PROWESS.” (“THE NAZI OLYMPICS BERLIN 1936”). The Aryan race ideology was disproved by Jesse Owens an African American who was the most successful Athlete at the 1936 Olympics, winning 4 gold medals for the U.S in the one hundred meter dash, two hundred meter dash, four by one hundred meter relay and the long jump, as well as other African American, Jewish and Gypsy athletes who were able to claim medals during the 1936 Olympics. Germany was still the overall winner of the 1936 Olympics with eighty nine medals total. To showcase “Aryan race superiority, the Olympic games were documented by filmmaker Leni Riefenstahl, which resulted in the documentary Olympia(1938), which was filled with “Nazism's glorification of physical strength and Nordic beauty,” (“The 1936 Olympics”). Nazi ideology was widely accepted throughout Germany and was helped by the 1936 Olympics as Germany pulled the most medals in the 1936 Olympics.
Prior to the start of the 1936 Olympics, the Nazi regime removed all athletes that were not of the master Aryan race from their Olympic team. In April 1933, an "Aryans only" policy was instituted in all German athletic organizations. "Non-Aryans" Jewish or part-Jewish and Romani (Gypsy) athletes—were excluded from German sports facilities and associations. (“THE NAZI OLYMPICS BERLIN 1936”). Jewish athletes barred from German sports clubs went to separate Jewish associations, including the Maccabee and Shield groups, and to improvised segregated facilities. These Jewish sports facilities were not comparable to well-funded German groups. Germany’s exclusions of Jewish athletes from their Olympic team sparked outrage among the international community; The exclusion of Jews from the German national team was viewed as a “violation of the Olympic code of equality and fair play and called for a boycott” of the German Olympics (“The 1936 Olympics”). The treatment of Non Aryan athletes as if they were less than human and the removal of Non Aryan athletes from the German national Olympic team was an atrocity that was overlooked too easily when the United states and other European nations decided on participating in the Nazi Olympics.
The U.S knew what was happening in Nazi Germany During the holocaust and even attempted to boycott the 1936 Olympics but the movement failed. Movements to boycott the 1936 Berlin Olympics surfaced in the United States, Great Britain, France, Sweden, Czechoslovakia, and the Netherlands (“The Nazi Olympics Berlin 1936”).
Individual Jewish athletes from a number of countries also chose to boycott the Berlin Olympics. In the United States, some Jewish athletes and Jewish organizations such as the American Jewish Congress and the Jewish Labor Committee supported a boycott (“The Nazi Olympics Berlin 1936”). A different competition called the “people’s Olympics,” was to be held and hosted by Spain. This plan was forgotten due to the Spanish civil war. (“Berlin 1936 Olympics””). Avery Brundage whom at the time was the head of the United States Olympic Committee supported the boycott at first, but later decided against the boycott “after a Nazi-led inspection of the new facilities” (“The 1936 Olympics”). Jeremiah Mahoney, who was a leader of the Amateur Athletic Union, believed that America's involvement in the Olympic games meant “giving American moral and financial support to the Nazi regime, which is opposed to all that America holds dearest,” (“The 1936 Olympics”). Despite Mahoney’s protest, The American Athletic union voted to participate in the 1936 Olympics(“The 1936 Olympics”). Once the Amateur Athletic Union of the United States voted for participation in December 1935; other countries fell in line and the boycott movement failed.
Many Americans and American athletes were unhappy with the decision to participate in the Berlin Olympics. They felt that American participation in the events meant turning a blind eye to the mistreatment of Jews by Nazi Germany. By rejecting a proposed boycott of the 1936 Olympics, the United States and other western democracies missed the opportunity to take a stand that some claimed “might have given Hitler pause and bolstered international resistance to Nazi tyranny.” (“THE NAZI OLYMPICS BERLIN 1936”). Despite strong support for the boycott of the 1936 Olympics, based on the unjust treatment of Jews and other atrocities by the Nazi party. The boycott movement failed and allowed Germany to continue with its Tyrannical and sadistic treatment of Jews in Nazi Germany.
Another unfortunate outcome of the 1936 Olympics is Germany used the games to create a false image of a tolerant Germany.

During the 1936 Olympic games, Hitler, and the Nazi regime hid its racist; militaristic character while hosting the summer Olympics. (“THE NAZI OLYMPICS BERLIN 1936”) “Soft Pedaling its anti-semitic agenda and plans for territorial expansion, the regime exploited the Games to BEDAZZLE many foreign spectators and journalists with an image of a peaceful, tolerant Germany.” (“THE NAZI OLYMPICS BERLIN 1936”) Most anti-Jewish signs were temporarily removed and newspapers toned down their anti-semitic rhetoric (“The Nazi Olympics Berlin 1936”). Avery Brundage, the head of the United States Olympic Committee, after a Nazi-led inspection of the new facilities, publicly stated that he felt the “Jewish athletes were being treated fairly,” (“The 1936 Olympics”). “Most newspaper accounts echoed the New York Times report that the Games put Germans "back in the fold of nations," and even made them "more human again."(“THE NAZI OLYMPICS BERLIN 1936”) Some even found reason to hope that this peaceable interlude would endure. Only a few reporters, such as William Shirer, understood that the Berlin glitter was merely a facade hiding a racist and oppressive, violent regime” (“THE NAZI OLYMPICS BERLIN for 1936”). The false image of a tolerant and peaceful Germany, which allowed Germany to continue with their anti Semitic practices going unchecked by the rest of the

world.
While some might argue that Athletes who chose to participate in the NAZI Olympics, were unaware of the horrors being committed in Germany, and Germany even had a Jewish athlete compete on their behalf. One would simply have to look at the reasons for the push for boycotts in the first place to show that the United states and other European nations were aware of what was happening in Germany. As well as that the Germans only allowed part Jewish fencer Helena Mayer to participate on their Olympic team simply to avoid the potential boycott that would have occurred if they took away all Jewish athletes away from their national team.
Overall the 1936 Olympics was a major success, it set many precedents for future Olympic games, but the decision to not boycott the games was a bad decision. As it missed an opportunity to take a stand against Nazi German Anti Semitism and it allowed Nazi Germany to create a false image of a tolerant nation which allowed Germany to continue with its mistreatment of Jews.