Mike
Walsh
August
1, 2016 marks the 80th anniversary of the opening day of1 the 1936 Berlin
Olympics. The Berlin event was unique in that it boasted the largest number of
foreign athletes in the history of the Olympics. The Berlin Olympic Village was
so beautifully designed that every Olympic village since has been modelled on
it. The Berlin stadium boasted seating for 100,000 spectators. Attending were
four million fans and journalists from 41 nations. The Berlin Olympics was the
first to be televised. Competing in the
1936 Games were a record number of participants: 4066 athletes including 331
women from 49 countries.
The
1936 Berlin Olympics is invariably referred to as the Olympics during which
American Negro, Jesse Owens, 'humiliated Nazi Germany and destroyed the myth of
Aryan superiority.' The truth is quite
the opposite.
Jesse
Owens was a fine athlete and citizen of one of the world’s most racist
countries. The contrast between the
United States and the Workers Reich would have been quite remarkable for this
humble and likeable ex-cotton picker. In Hitler's Germany, Jesse Owens could
share a bus or tram ride with white people.
Treated equally in all respects the athlete could enjoy a movie
accompanied by German friends. Unlike the United States the sprinter would use
the same toilet facilities, dine with Europeans in restaurants and stay in
hotels without discrimination being shown towards him. There was much that the track athlete could
do in Hitler's Germany forbidden to coloured people in the United States.
In
his homeland coloureds were required to eat apart from White associates and
fellow athletes. If coloureds approached
a hotel they were required to do so through the tradesmen's entrance. There
were no Negroes on any major league baseball team and no Negro swimmers. This
was in the so-called enlightened north. In the southern states there was no
possibility of a Negro being allowed to participate in any sport unless he
competed solely with other Negroes.
For
Jesse Owens, his days in Hitler's Germany must have been blissful. The German
people idolised him. His biographer,
Richard D. Mandell writes: "Once at the stadium, the mere appearance of
Jesse Owens neatly moulded head from some pit below the stands would cause sections
of the crowd to break out in chants of, 'Yes-sa Ov-enss! Yes-sa Ov-enss!'
Awakening
in the Olympic Village the Olympian “was greeted by paparazzi and amateur
photographers ‘who were gathered outside his bedroom window to click at the
athlete before he could gather poise for one of his many appearances before the
mobs in Berlin." The coloured athlete’s coach, Lawrence N. Snyder wrote in
the Saturday Evening Post, November 7, 1936, "Jesse Owens was cheered as
loudly as any Aryan."
The
recycled media lie is that at the 'Nazi Olympics', Adolf Hitler snubbed Jesse
Owens by refusing to shake his hand. What
are the facts? The elected German leader on the first day of the Berlin
Olympics did indeed shake the hands of several successful competitors. That same
evening the Fuhrer received a message from Count Baillet-Latour. The President
of the International Olympic Committee respectfully pointed out that he was ‘a
guest of honour at the Games and should congratulate all or none, in public at
least.’
In
common with all other national leaders Germany’s head of state chose the latter
as being the most sensible course. With
156 gold medals being awarded at various locations and times it was physically impossible
to congratulate every winner. Jesse Owens was not congratulated by the Fuhrer;
nor was any successful competitors, white or otherwise.
It
is interesting to note that America’s Jewish President Roosevelt refused to
meet the coloured athlete despite there being no such restriction imposed upon
his doing so. After the 1936 Berlin Olympics wards, Jesse Owens said:
"When I passed the (German) Chancellor he arose, waved his hand at me, and
I waved back at him. I think the writers
showed bad taste in criticising the man of the hour in Germany."
On
their arrival in London Owens and his coach Larry Snyder complained that they
felt like 'trained seals'. The two were
subjected to a barrage of 'fraudulent publicity offers'. Such was the lack of
integrity and respect shown to the pair they refused further engagements. Time was
to prove Larry Snyder and Jesse Owens right as none of the publicity offers
came to anything. However, big name promoters like Eddy Cantor did receive free
of charge much favourable publicity.
Norman
Katkov is author of Jesse Owens Revisited. The World of Sport, p.289): “Back
home in the United States, Jesse Owens was treated like a freak and an animal.
“Before curious crowds he raced horses (and won). He ran against cars, trucks, dogs, and
baseball players with a head start."
This
was a 1930’s America that had seen 26 Negroes lynched. It was an America where
Negroes used separate public facilities; coloureds were schooled at all-black
schools. Unlike the Workers Reich, in the United States non-Whites could not mix
with white people in restaurants, cinemas, hotels, stadiums, etc.
What
about the claim that ‘Owens swept the scoreboard and destroyed the Nazi myth of
Aryan superiority.” The Workers Reich earned a total of 101 medals, 41 of which
were gold and gathered an impressive 223 points.
Germany’s
only credible rival was the United States.
Though three times Germany’s population the U.S. won 40% fewer medals
and points than did Hitler’s Germany. United States athletes gained 25 gold
medals, four of which were awarded to Jesse Owens. The U.S point’s total tally
was a mediocre 132 points. America’s
geographical size and its reliance on coloured athletes did little to reduce
its humiliation. Despite the U.S boasting many coloured sportsmen the combined
total of medals awarded to such athletes amounted to only eleven gongs. The
outcome ~ without Germany saying so ~ suggested that coloured athletes simply
do not match the performance of their ethnic-European rivals.
Adolf
Hitler's Germany won more gold medals than the United States, Great Britain,
India, Canada, Argentina, France, and Norway combined. These countries’ total population
stands at 1,160 million and in terms of population size 14 times bigger than is
Germany's population.
AUTHOR’S
NOTE: During the current Olympics the myths
will be recycled by idle journalists and sports columnists. It is easy to email this true history article
to them or quote from this article when the Jesse Owens myth appears in readers
comment.
WITNESS TO HISTORY Mike
Walsh
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