Good Morning from the Zundelsite:

I love to tell you inspirational stories - and I am sure that this one is bound to warm your heart. A frient sent it to me with this comment:

"A large amount of what has been written about Hitler and Nazi Germany has been particularly subject to the pressure of political correctness: a good example is the story of 1936 Olympics and the Black American athlete Jesse Owens."

Here is an excerpt from a book my friend fished out of the Internet:

The 1936 Olympics

The story most repeated about Hitler and the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin, which were unquestionably put on as a political showcase for Nazi Germany, is that Hitler refused to shake the hand of the American Black athlete Jesse Owens after the latter had won a race. This myth is extremely widespread: the Encarta Encyclopedia, issued by Microsoft (1998 edition) states the following in its entry under Jesse Owens:

"Owens, Jesse (1913-80), one of the greatest track-and-field athletes of all time . . . A member of the U.S. track team in the 1936 Olympic Games, held in Berlin, Owens won four gold medals. He won the 100-m dash in 10.3 sec, equaling the Olympic record; set a new Olympic and world record of 20.7 sec in the 200-m dash; and won the running broad jump with a leap of 26 ft 5I in., setting a new Olympic record. He was also a member of the U.S. 400-m relay team that year, which set a new Olympic and world record of 39.8 sec. Despite Owens' outstanding athletic performance, German leader Adolf Hitler refused to acknowledge his Olympic victories because Owens was black. Owens went on to play an active role in youth athletic programs and later established his own public relations firm. His autobiography, The Jesse Owens Story, was published in 1970."

In reality what happened was that Hitler personally attended the first day of the track and field competition on 2 August 1936, and did personally congratulate the German athlete Hans Woellke, who became the first German to win a gold medal in the Olympics since 1896.

Throughout the rest of the day, Hitler continued to receive Olympic champions, German and non-German, in his VIP box.

The next day, 3 August, the chairman of the International Olympic Committee, Comte Baillet-Latour, approached Hitler early in the morning and told the German leader that he had violated Olympic protocol by having winners paraded to his box.

Hitler apologized and gave an undertaking that he would from then on refrain from publicly congratulating any winners, German or otherwise. During this day, Owens won his gold medals - and in line with the Olympic Committee's ruling, Hitler did not shake his hand, or anybody else's for that matter, at the games again.

It is therefore utterly false to claim that Hitler deliberately chose to ignore Owens. In fact, in the very autobiography that the Encarta Encyclopedia extract above refers to, The Jesse Owens Story, Owens himself recounted how Hitler had stood up and waved to him:

"When I passed the Chancellor he arose, waved his hand at me, and I waved back at him. I think the writers showed bad taste in criticizing the man of the hour in Germany."

Another common story about the 1936 Olynpic games is that Owens' victory "disproved the Nazi master race theory" - in fact the Olympic games as a whole were won by the German team with 89 medals, compared to the 56 medals won by the second placed USA team.

In what was to become an act of extreme irony, the American president of the time, Franklin D. Roosevelt, then involved in an election and concerned about the reaction in the USA's southern states, refused to see Owens at the White House: Owens was later to remark that it was Roosevelt, not Hitler, who snubbed him.

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Thought for the Day:

"It's interesting to see a photo of the French contingent entering the Olympic arena behind the French flag, and every one of them is giving Hitler's private box the National Socialist salute."

(Letter to the Zundelsite)

Back to Table of Contents of the March 2000 ZGrams