THE NAZI OLYMPICS: BERLIN 1936

For two weeks in August 1936, Adolf Hitler’s Nazi dictatorship camouflaged its racist, militaristic character while hosting the Summer Olympic Games. Soft-pedaling its antisemitic agenda and plans for territorial expansion, the regime exploited the Games to dazzle many foreign spectators and journalists with an image of a peaceful, tolerant Germany. Having rejected a proposed boycott of the 1936 Olympics, the United States and other western democracies missed the opportunity to take a stand that — some observers at the time claimed — might have given Hitler pause and bolstered international resistance to Nazi tyranny.

This exhibition, which originally opened at the Museum in 1996 to coincide with the 60th anniversary of the 1936 Games and the opening of the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta, explores the ways in which the Nazis used the Games successfully for military training, pageantry, and propaganda. It addresses some of the controversy surrounding the Games and explores the stories of individual athletes who were barred from competition because of their ethnic or racial heritage, who chose to boycott and forfeit their chance of individual glory, or others who — like Jesse Owens — won medals and put the lie to Nazi racial beliefs.

• LAUNCH ONLINE EXHIBITION >