The 1936 Berlin Olympics: The Success Of The 1936 Olympics

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The 1936 Berlin Olympics was one of the most difficult, yet most memorable of all the Olympics. Even with the Great Depression and tough conditions some athletes still managed to be victorious. This was not an easy task with a Holocaust raging in the background. However, if there was ever a time that people needed to feel victorious it was within this time period when people’s spirits felt squashed by the heavy hand of Hitler. There, in Berlin, people were able to rise above Hitler and show that no matter race or religion-one could be victorious.
The summer Olympics of 1936 was held in the broken city of Berlin, the games were attended by a large audience of spectators and athletes from numerous countries of the world. The Olympic Games were a misleading triumph of the Nazi government and for the German officials. The harsh anti-Jews signs had been removed, along with the negative attitude toward the Jews. Hitler managed to create a whole new environment during the Olympic games, completely masking the injustice acts that happened during the Holocaust. Furthermore, Hitler during this time was able to fool many of the partial-Jewish athletes and those in the audience into believing that there was no crude mistreatment toward those of other races or the Jewish. (Kieran)
The debate over cooperation or participation in the 1936 Olympic games was greatest in the United States, which the United States traditionally sent one of the largest teams to the Games. By the end of the year 1934, the lines on both sides were clearly already drawn. Avery Brundage who disagreed with the idea boycotting the 1936 Olympics, argued that politics had no place in being involved sports. Brundage fought to send a United States team to the 1936 Olympics,...

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... led the people of Berlin to worship him, he respected for being an African-American, and looked as a hero. Owens was able to prove that blonde hair and blue eyes wasn’t needed to be successful.
In Hitler’s Nazi-state Jewish athletes and other raced athletes were banned from German sports club, and they instead had to flock to separate Jewish associations. These associations weren’t nice inside or adequate for the amount of people in them, compared for the well-funded German associations. With all the hostility and judgement passed Mayer and Owens, they still were able to prove that sports and the idea of right and wrong do occasionally mix. These athletes proved Hitler and all of the Nazi-supporters wrong, and that the Olympic Flag stood for sport sport alone, clear of political obstacles, and without distinction with regard to the color, race, or creed.(Kieran)

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