An exhibit currently on display at the Vancouver Holocaust Education Centre provides a comprehensive look at the 1936 Olympic Games in Germany and its impact on the world.
More Than Just Games: Canada & the 1936 Olympics explores the Nazi anti-Semitic policies that marred the German Games.
By relating the stories of individual athletes from Germany and abroad who competed—or refused to compete—in the 1936 Games, the exhibit puts a human face on this dark part of Olympic history and the controversial Games held under Adolf Hitler’s fascist regime.
In 1931, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) chose Germany as the host of the 1936 Summer and Winter Games, welcoming the country back into the international fold after its defeat in World War One. The Weimar Republic democracy in power at the time would soon be ousted as Hitler quickly rose to power, becoming Chancellor in 1933.
On March 23, 1933, the Enabling Act was forced through the German Parliament, effectively turning the fragile democracy into a fascist dictatorship.
After Hitler seized power a quick succession of policies were implemented that stripped the Jews of their rights as citizens and their ability to compete in sporting events. On April 25, 1933, the Nazi Sports Office implemented an “Aryans only” policy in gymnastics and sport. Jewish athletes were excluded from German sports clubs and not permitted to compete against non-Jews.
In the fall of 1935, the Nazi government introduced the Nuremberg Laws, which stripped Jews and other “enemies of the state” of their basic civil rights. In the time leading up to the Olympics, anti-Semitic propaganda was rife throughout Germany and was gaining international attention.
However, the Nazi anti-Semitic policies of the time ran contrary to the Olympic ideals of inclusion, and the IOC and the international community pressured Germany to allow German Jews to participate in the Games.
The Nazi dictatorship stood to win a huge propaganda success in hosting the Olympics, so at the behest of the IOC and out of fear that the event would be boycotted, Germany conceded and allowed the participation of two “half-Jewish” athletes: hockey player Rudi Ball and fencer Helene Mayer.
Ball was a star member of the German hockey team who was initially barred from competing in the 1936 Olympics and was only reinstated because his star teammate, Gustave Jaenecke, refused to play without him. Without Ball and Jaenecke, Germany had no chance of winning a medal in hockey. It is reported that in return for agreeing to compete, Ball’s family was given permission to leave Nazi Germany for South Africa.
The exhibit, which runs until June 10, also explores Canada’s participation in the Games.
The international community was undecided when it came to the question of whether to boycott Hitler’s Olympics. Heated arguments on both sides brought the racial policies of Nazi Germany to the consciousness of the masses. In the end Canada followed Great Britain’s lead and decided to participate. Not all athletes agreed with the decision and many refused to make the trip to Germany, essentially boycotting the Games.
One was boxing champ Sammy Luftspring, who was born to a Jewish working class family in Toronto. Between 1932 and 1936, Luftspring lost only 5 of 105 fights, inching his way closer to his dream of competing in the Olympic Games. However, after heeding the advice of his family and refusing to endorse Hitler’s racist policies, Luftspring turned his back on his Olympic dream. He published an open letter stating his case.
“We are making a personal sacrifice in refusing the chance and we are sure that all true Canadian sportsmen will appreciate that we would have been very low to hurt the feelings of our fellow Jews by going to a land that would exterminate them if it could.”
Canadian journalist Matthew Halton was the European correspondent for the Toronto Daily Star who spent time in Germany recording what he saw. He observed much more than sports when reporting from Germany in 1933 and during the 1936 Games. His writing was often prophetic in its predictions and observations.
On March 30, 1933 he wrote for the Star, “I saw a parade of hundreds of children, between the ages of seven and sixteen, carrying the swastika and shouting at intervals, ‘The Jews must be destroyed.’ My guess is ... that Hitler has come to stay until he is displaced by assassination, civil war, or a disastrous foreign war.”
The exhibit tells a comprehensive tale of the 1936 Olympics and offers new insight into the Nazi regime and the complicity of the international community in allowing the games to take place. The morality of supporting an Olympic Games hosted by the Nazi regime is effectively portrayed through the courageous and shameful personal stories of those who orchestrated and participated in them.
