The Nazi Olympics - Berlin 1936

As an Italian, I had a lot of occasions to visit exhibitions about the Holocaust and Fascism-Nazism. Moreover, I went to Berlin and also there I paid a visit to memorials and museums. They say: it's because we have not to forget. I'm totally aligned with this goal, but at the August Wilson Center I could really add that we have also to sincerely understand it. The current exhibition about the Nazist Olimpics in 1936 it is incredibly well done, clear and rich of contents. It is really a precious contribution to the memory and the understanding of an awful era. Written boards, pictures, videos, everything is incredibly clear and easily readable, with a path the explains the big History and the many individual Stories History is made of. 

(Image: The official poster for the 1936 Summer Olympic Games shows an Olympian rising above Berlin's landmark Brandenburg Gate. (1936). )

The theme is very painful of course, but the presentation is not approaching the subject of Holocaust in the typical way we are acquainted in Europe. It is schematic and effective in listing data and dates. Moreover, great attention is here paid to the Afro American Athlets that participated to those. Very touching and interesting, this is a part of the story that must me remembered as well. Racism is still rooted in our society and differences between ethnicities are still source of unfairness (just check out the unemployment rates between white people and Afro Americans: October, 2012!!).

© photo from http://www.pittsburghurbanmedia.com/

The presentation introduces the historic background, in Germany and all over the world, and then presents the issue: Germany and Hitler that do want the Olympics to be in Berlin, but had to cover the regime of oppression the wordl knows is going on there.

From this, all the exhibit explains the different positions on that event: the Jewish community (German and American), the US government, the US Olympic Committee (historically independent from the government), Europe point of view... but the most interesting point of view is the one of the Afro American community.

Before the events, lots of marches and public debates were held all over the world. At first, USA seemed to be  mainly contrary to those Olympics by Hitler. The Afro American community (we are in the 1936) was very disappointed by this position, affirming that also in the US they were discriminated as well, not being able to freely attend sport competitions.

In the end, USA participated (and consequently all the rest of the world did) in order to <guarantee the fairplay and the respect of human rights>. 

Germany got the biggest number of medal, but US did well also thanks to the Afro America athletes (that were anyway presented as "helpers" by German newspaper.

In the end, Germany created the most gorgeous Olympics ever, very welcoming for everybody, and this distracted a lot of people, from really understanding what was going on.

Here http://www.pittsburghurbanmedia.com/Holocaust-Center-of-Pittsburgh-and-August-Wilson-Center-Partner-to-Present-The-Nazi-Olympics-Berlin-1936-Exhibition/ you can find an interesting article about the way the exhibit is organized, with related activities.

Another interesting feature of the exhibition is the presence of original videos that show how sports were played in the Thirties. Pretty amazing and different from today.

An exhibition to remember, and to understand.