Hitler's Olympics (9 page)

I have the honour to bring to your notice that the meeting I had with the Chancellor of Germany has convinced me that nothing will prevent the Games. The required conditions by the Olympic Charter have been respected by the German Olympic Committee. Visitors and participants can be assured they will receive a perfectly cordial welcome without the risk of experiencing anything which might offend their principles. The boycott campaigns … are political …

The President of the Maccabi World Union, an international Jewish sports organisation, wrote to Baillet-Latour from London in response to an earlier letter:

I am perfectly in agreement with you that the Olympic Games should not be confused with any political issues but would remark that I, in common with all other Jews and many non-Jews, look upon the state of affairs in Germany today from the point of view of general humanity and social decency.

The Maccabi Movement has never attempted to question the decision of the IOC as to the venue of the Olympic Games, but we certainly do wish to urge all Jewish sportsmen, for their own self respect, to refrain from competing in a country where they are discriminated against as a race and our Jewish brethren treated with unexampled brutality.

As a sports Organisation, we hope we understand the meaning of the words ‘sport’ and ‘sportsmanship’! It is for this reason that we cannot as Jews accept lightly the situation created by the Olympic Games being held in Germany.

Finally, may I thank you for your sympathetic letter and express the hope that our attitude in this matter will not be misconstrued?

I am, Sir,

Yours faithfully,

S. Brodetsky

PRESIDENT

Baillet-Latour, now back in Lausanne after his visit to Hitler, responded.

I thank you for your letter of the 12th of November and am very happy about the Maccabi World Union’s and the IOC’s understanding of the meaning of the words ‘sport’ and ‘sportsmanship,’ and [am] in perfect agreement that the Olympic Games should not be confused with any political issues [and] share the same opinion on a question which has been misunderstood by so many others who have interfered in this matter.

The Maccabi World Union does not, as you say, question the decision of the IOC as to the venue of the Olympic Games.

The IOC holds the view that no athlete can be prevented from taking part in the Games but admits that nobody can be forced to go to Germany if he does not wish to do so.

As a proof I will quote what I wrote a few days ago to Mr. Avery Brundage, President of the American Olympic Association: ‘It goes without saying that the IOC, respecting the individual liberty of everyone, does in no way wish to coerce those – Christian or Jews – who, for personal reasons, which obviously concern them alone, may possibly object to go to Germany.’

You may be assured that your attitude in this matter is not misconstrued.

In full agreement with you, I remain

Yours sincerely

Baillet-Latour

The England
v
. Germany match caused consternation and controversy. There was a poster campaign against the match by the British Anti-Nazi Council, the Foreign Office and the Home Office tried to offload the problem on to each other, demonstrations were promised and many people adopted a traditional stance: politics and sport must be kept apart. Others thought the match would be a chance to improve relations with Germany. In the event, the 10,000 came and behaved impeccably, the match was played quite normally and Germany lost 3–0. Von Tschammer und Osten made gracious speeches complimenting England and talking of the spirit of sporting friendship that existed between the two countries while Lewald pointed out that work on the Olympic Village proceeded apace.

Johnson, Owens and Metcalfe wrote to Brundage saying they wanted the American team to go. Another sprinter, Marty Glickman, approached it from a different angle, and he was a Jew. He insisted his perspective was more typical: he was an athlete not a politician and of course he wanted to go, no question. The Olympics had been his goal from the earliest days when he first understood his sprinting ability. Bigotry against Jews had been going on for a long time and was, he knew, going on all over the place including America.
²⁴

The whole question demanded a proper resolution by the Amateur Athletic Union, whose officers duly met at the Hotel Commodore, New York, to debate a resolution for a boycott. It became a battlefield fought over so fiercely that only hunger and exhaustion beat down those attending. They retired to dinner with a gentleman’s agreement that they would not continue until the following day.

Five hours after battle did resume – amid all manner of accusations of double-crossing, trickery and compromises – a vote was taken which Mahoney lost. He withdrew the resolution and, feeling his position as head of the American Athletic Union no longer tenable, resigned. Brundage was nominated as his replacement and unanimously elected. In his victory speech he set out again his fixed position: he would devote all his energies to getting the American team to Berlin.

As President of the American Olympic Committee as well, Brundage had moved into an immensely strong position. It was one he would occupy for the rest of his life.
²⁵

On 21 December Jewish doctors in Germany were forced to resign their posts in private hospitals.

The New Year began with news that advance ticket sales had reached 2 million Reichsmarks but it was the Olympic bell that grasped everyone’s attention. It was cast,

16.5 tons of molten steel being necessary. Following the cooling, polishing, chasing and tuning, all of which required several weeks, the Olympic Bell was finished. It was pitched in E of the minor octave, and the first overtone lying in the interval of the minor third of the main tone was pitched in G so that the total effect was a minor tone. The plainly audible overtones resulting from the strokes of the clapper combined with the mighty undertone to produce a rich, full sound.
²⁶

It had a diameter of 9.10 feet, a height of 8.78 feet and weighed 21,197 lb. Between 16 and 26 January it was transported from Bochum to Berlin and its slow but imperious progress created enormous interest. At Bielefeld it was ‘escorted into the town by a squadron of the National Socialist Motor Corps as well as runners. Members of the Municipal Administration and of the Reich Association for Physical Training made speeches of welcome, characterising the Bell as the herald of Olympic peace and honourable competition.’

At Brunswick ‘a festive reception was arranged on the Market Square, the band of the Air Force providing music and Municipal Councillor Mehlis delivering an address of welcome. The radio broadcasting stations in Western and Central Germany informed their hearers about the transportation of the Bell to Berlin, and the festivities and demonstrations which were held in various towns along the route. The sirens of the factories were blown and church bells pealed in greeting.’

On the way to Potsdam, the town on the outskirts of Berlin, a wooden bridge had to be reinforced. In Potsdam, ‘the band of the Labour Service, political organisations and thousands of people thronged the streets to greet the Olympic symbol, the police department having installed special lighting effects on the large town square’.

The bell inched into Berlin to an official reception. ‘Accompanied by large crowds of pedestrians and cyclists and joyfully greeted from all sides’, the procession moved past 1,600 members of the Hitler Youth while ‘45 youths from the Reich Association for Physical Training awaited the arrival with flags and pennants’. It progressed to the Brandenburg Gate and went down Unter den Linden to a square where it ‘was presented with fitting ceremony to the Organising Committee’.
²⁷
The bell stood as a symbol of the Games, together with the five rings, the oath and the flame. On it bystanders could read the great, historic Olympic call: ‘I summon the youth of the world’ which had been forged into it.

On 6 February, Hitler declared the Winter Games at Garmisch open. The picturesque Bavarian resort, dwarfed by the Alpspitz mountain at 2,628 metres with the Zugspitz further away rising 2,966 metres, lay clad in snow. Hitler, sitting in the grandstand with Goebbels beside him, leant down to receive notebooks, postcards and pieces of paper from those entreating him for his autograph. He smiled broadly.

These fourth Winter Games were very much the younger sibling. Alpine skiers made their debut, taking their place among the skaters, Nordic ski racers, curlers, two- and four-man bobsleigh teams, speed skaters and ice hockey teams. Therein lay a paradox.

Rudi Ball, regarded as Germany’s best ice hockey player, was a Jew who had fled the country as the anti-Semitism became a political reality. Officially invited back, he returned a month before to lead the team. That this happened without provoking much comment or affecting potential boycotts of Berlin can only be explained by the humble status of the Winter Games.

During the Garmisch events a lot of people in military uniform milled around and a lot of people gave a lot of Nazi salutes. Berlin would be just the same. At the Opening Ceremony, as the parade of nations entered the main stadium, most of the crowd gave the salute, as did many of the competitors. Germany’s Maxi Herber and Ernst Baier won the pairs skating and, at the medal ceremony, stood on the top rung of the podium, saluting ostentatiously.

Internal IOC politics reared its head, too. Commodore Lee Jahncke, an American member and one-time assistant secretary in the US Navy and by ancestry a German Protestant, held strong views against Berlin. He had been exchanging postal broadsides with Baillet-Latour and, when the IOC met at Garmisch, Baillet-Latour

after having spoken on the campaign being conducted in the United States against American participation … informed his colleagues about the intervention … of Mr Lee Jahncke, who by a public announcement, proved that he was opposed to the opinions unanimously held by Members of the International Olympic Committee. The President read the letter which he had written to the American Members, the letter of Mr Lee Jahncke and his own reply.

The Members, who objected strongly to the attitude of Mr Lee Jahncke in view of the fact that he had clearly infringed upon the Status of the International Olympic Committee in betraying the interests of the Committee and in failing to preserve a sense of decorum toward his colleagues, unanimously requested the President to make known to all Members the correspondence which had taken place between himself and Mr Lee Jahncke in order that a decision might be reached regarding the matter at the first Meeting in Berlin.
²⁸

In the restrained terminology of the time this represented strong stuff and before Berlin Jahncke became the only member in IOC history to be expelled. Brundage replaced him, consolidating his own power base.

At the meeting Lewald gave a progress report on Berlin and said the current estimation for officials and competitors was about ten thousand.

The timetable to Berlin and the Opening Ceremony there on 1 August ticked insistently now, each week bringing it closer.

On 13 February, Helene Mayer boarded the luxury liner SS
Bremen
in New York, bound for Germany and her family. She had not seen them for four years, and not been in the country since Hitler got hold of it.

The twin currents of sport and politics flowed into one another, as they had always been destined to do.

After Garmisch the official word went out to the German media that ‘no comments should be made regarding Mayer’s non-Aryan ancestry or her expectations for a gold medal at the Olympics’. Rudi Ball’s presence had not made much difference to the ice hockey team because Great Britain took the gold, Canada the silver and America the bronze, but Mayer might be more problematical.

In March the torches were distributed to the countries through which the relay runners would pass.

In Paris some leading French sports people met and passed a resolution requesting the French government not to provide funds for the team. A former minister presided and one speaker claimed the Nazis were both exploiting the Games for propaganda and using them to raise money for themselves.

The French cycling authority, La Commission Sportive de l’Union Vélocipédique de France, allocating resources for 1936, decreed that their professionals would compete for a total of 107,000 francs in prize money but their Olympic team would receive no funding.

In Sweden 6,000 people prepared to go as spectators while their Olympic Committee prepared to send a large team (150), but two teams of gymnasts, each 600 strong, were also going to take part in non-competitive displays and the Swedish Olympic Committee made negative noises about that. After strong words they disclaimed all responsibility for them. ‘They will receive no pecuniary support, will not be members of the Olympic team and may not stay in the Olympic village.’
²⁹

Thereby hangs a tale and one, no doubt, among many. Werner Schwieger, born in 1913 in the Wedding district of Berlin, would take part in these gymnastic displays. In 1927 he went to art college and was taught to paint in watercolours. He went twice a week on a sort of scholarship. He worked, however, as a foundry pattern maker, creating wooden and metal patterns for industrial machines.

From the age of twelve he had been a member of his local gymnastics club before moving on to the club for all Berlin, where he also did track and field sports. He
also
went to a class painting the animals in the Natural History Museum and after more than a year the teacher said, ‘You can come and take part in my nude painting class.’ Schwieger was delighted because not everybody received invitations and he had visions of beautiful models. When he arrived for the first time he saw the model was aged between forty-five and fifty and had hanging breasts. He took his easel into a corner of the room and began to paint. After half an hour the teacher inspected his work and found Schwieger had been diplomatic. ‘Good Lord, what did you paint there? You are supposed to paint the breasts and behind as they are.’