Purely Commentary
36-Year-Old Tragedy Echoes at Olympics
A 36-year-old tragedy will have its echoes in Munich when the
1972 Olympic summer games take place there in Augusl
The Hitler era already is being recalled in relation
in the making for the worldwide sports tournaments.
'he plans now
Will Jews participate, and what will be the reaction to another
Olympics, recalling the games in Berlin. in 1936, when Hitler showed
his venom and Jews and Negroes were vilified?
German spokesmen have an opinion. They say, as one diplomat
has already told The Jewish News, that the present is not the Ger-
mans of the past, that the youth reject every aspect of the brutalities
that were enacted in the lifetime of their parents. They point with
pride to the announcement that the outstanding hero of the 1936
Munich Olympics, the Negro Jesse Owens. will he at the games in
August as a guest and as one who has said that the Germans treated
turn well, in spite of Hitler's abuso.
The Germans are elated because Israel has announced the par-
ticipation of 15 of its athletes in the August Olympics in Munich:
that Israel's national soccer and basketball teams will qualify for
preliminary tournaments in which they are already participating: and
that the Israel Olympic Committee is planning for Olympics com-
petitions by Israelis in swimming, weight-lifting, shooting, yachting,
wrestling and fencing.
Also—German spokesmen ridicule as sheer nonsense the plans
to extreme rightists, by neo-Nazis, to organize "alternative Olym-
pl. names' to prove to the world the strength of right-wing elements
Germany. The statements by the neo-Nazi Action Resistance, in
their official organ Mut—Courage—is branded as an exaggeration,
as milt of the boasting by elements who have no status. who have lost
erountl. who haze been relegated to a defeated political position
Ill Germany.
Pot there are other factors: there are the memories of the past.
the recollection of what had taken place under the direction of Hitler
in 19;16, there are the athletes who were humiliated 36 years ago.
I' .sktll Cohen, a leader in Sports for Israel activities, a basketball
star, a noted sports writer (our JTA sports expert). takes a firm
stand on the subject: he won't join the "forgive and forget" school,
he won't go to Germany for the Olympics, he recalls the disappearance
ef has grandmother's family, who resided in Frankfurt, under Hitler.
.n•+ on the idea of mingling with Germans his own age. ''wondering
,hat they did during the holocaust . ." Cohen quotes one of Amer.
..-a's leading sports writers, Jerry Izenberg, telling him he won't set
'..••tit in Germany to cover the Olympics.
Ttw ro•e of the Amateur Athletic Union now is recalled. Avery
:• arc! a group of misled Americans fought fur U.S. participa-
the 1936 games. The courageous Judge Jeremiah Mahoney
o. n
leader of the opposition Haskell Cohen recalled the experi-
et his article m which he defined his present attitude. lie told
:attended the Hapoeliada- the 11g.poel Sports Games in
t May. as g representative of the Jewish Welfare Board, to.
••ettao with other JWIt delegates, Nat Holman, president of the U. S
!■ ;•• ∎ rt• for Israel Committee. and Harold Zimman, chairman of the
IWI: pht al education committee. In relation to the emerging cm-
ear,- sc:ents over the 1972 Olympics, Cohen's story of the Israel
ore. at..1 a confrontation with a German is worth relating. Cohen
!-• "tt•I 11:11 ,, e:lada
took place
, :ue
Winga:e School of
Ph: • ,sal Education, and the occa-
sion was to honor the M•rnOry of
Jeremiah Mahoney
the Isde
and c. norles Ornstein, who were
Waders anal in that
wow ity fought Mo- il against per-
we the 1936 I6jutpic Games
take plwe in Berlin After a
drawg zoo Little. the Ma-
.oein faatton lost nut to
tt.,• .1sers Brundage led :troop by
,ate
g
on,
.o
r
:ow; e.
:tml debt r
,,iit.d tu a ,nun.ata
IierLr
Jesse
athletes
in track and
•.1,•4
gel I
7ht , groop of Americans who
. ac ne to Israel in May, inc hiding
tt:a committee, wives and friends.
bused to the Wingate School
nticre e
we were ushered
to the
de-
sniot spot for the Mahoney-
, o- ii.teitt tree planting ceremony .
' , mad:lc:Gm of the dignitaries
• , ant 1m1:10, at.d. to my dismay.
reps- . sentato.- from Germany,
corneltus Von Horora was
-,,me of there
in d,he!It'f %St, n the
As
a, kauW11• ■1■ 2,CCI,
but
Zia anty tea: tiroi at the precise
wor•-nt. wag
!,1 - 11 to illy
parnon and long tone buddy, Wen-
,WE z:ntd_h. a black televa-,on news
reporter and sport colomntst for
the Chicago American a Today , ,
an mutter. "I wonder %Ber ge he
was when they were shipping our
Jewish people to the furnaces
2 — Friday, May 5, 1972
and crematoriums " Perhaps a
nasty remark, but a thought that
just had to he expressed and,
undoubtedly. one that will be re-
peated frequently. by Jews attend-
ing the Munich contests, watching
own of their generation hosting
the proceedings.
1
will say this, the German, ill
at ease. tried to appear as unob-
trusive as possible but didn't quite
make it come off Ile was embar-
ra,wil
When it came time to start the
actual planting of the trees, an
of WIn - t.at• Pitroached and
asked me to shov•l the debris and
The Olympics' historical background is now a matter of Wide
discussion, regardless of the embarrassments that may be cr ted
for Germany and the Germans.
The current issue of the American Jewish Historical Quar erly
published by the American Jewish Historical Society carried a 32-
page article. "The American Controversy Over the Olympic Games."
by Dr. Moshe Gottlieb, professor of history at Beit Berl College in
Tsofit, Israel, and Tel Aviv University, who formerly taught Hebrew
and Jewish history at Queens College of the City University of
New York.
About a week or two after the publication of Prof. Gottl eb's
article, Saturday Review devoted its March 25 issue to "The Sun -10er
Olympics—Munich and the German World." and among the articles
on the subject was William L. Shirer's 'From Jesse Owens to the
Summer of "72."
Both important articles drew' upon historical experiences to point
to the terror that dominated the scene in Germany and to the sub-
mission to Nazi pressures by Americans at a time when even some
gesture of rebuke to the emerging Ilitlerite terror would have been
an act of resistance to tyranny and might have averted genocide.
Shirer's recollections, as they appeared in Saturday Review, are
an indictment of the Americans . who were deluded into believing Nazi
propaganda. Shirer's revelations serve as a valuable asset to truth
in viewing the past experiences as they relate to the current emot onal
reaction to the call to another Olympics in Germany. In part, Stainer
stated in recapitulating the events, 36 years ago, as he experienced
them:
sent to the world at Munich "It
Shortly before the fourth winter
is to be hoped that the Mirnich
Olympics opened in Germany in
games will expunge impresSions
1936 I mentioned in a dispatch
that have been prejudicial to Ger-
from Garmisch-Partenkirchen that
many's good name ever since .936.
the Nazi authorities were quietly
They will certainly give the world
removing certain signs, "Jews Un-
an introduction to a new and dif-
wanted , " "Jews Get Out!" from
ferent Germany."
the Bavarian resort where the
To his own people Daume point-
games were to take place, and that
Jew-baiting, would be discontinued ed out that the selection of MUnich
for
this year's games 'meant the
until the summer games in Berlin
world's gift of renewed trust in
ended in mid-August . . .
Germany, a trust that is not a
Several nations, including the
matter of course, but that perhaps
United States, had threatened to
is not undeserved either."
boycott the games because of
There will be few, if any re-
Hiller's savage treatment of the
Jews—he had deprived them of minders of the Nazi time. The
their citizenship and civil rights party itself is verboten. The iswa-
the year before by official decree. stika symbol that so dominated the
The threat had caused much con- sea of flags at the Olympic Stad-
cern in Berlin, but now it had ium in 1936, may not be displayed
es aporated. Fifty nations were today, even on the cover of a book
sending 5.000 athletes to the about Nazi Germany. There is a
neo-Nazi movement, to be sure,
games.
which now and then scores a• vi ocal
The day the contents of my dis-
success, but it does not amou t to
patch were cabled back to Berlin
much. Among the older Gerthans
all hell broke over my head. The
there will be many who 'once
Nazi-controlled radio and press
proudly wore the swastika bitton
hysterically denounced me as "a
on their lapels, denoting mentiber-
tool of the Jews" and accused me
ship in Hitler's party. It is not held
of trying to torpedo the Olympic
against them in Germany teday.
Games. I was threatened with ex-
Kurt Kiesinger. the Christian Dem-
pulsion.
ocrat leader and Willy Bra idt's
In the end the Nazi wrath sub-
predecessor as chancellor, it an
sided. I covered the winter and
example. I saw him in the first
the summer games, as I had those
war years when he was broadcast-
eight years before at St. Moritz
ing the Nazi line for Ribbentrop's
and Amsterdam, and by the time
Foreign Office from the . ame
the Olympic flame high above
studios I worked in as a CBS cor-
the stadium in Berlin was ex-
respondent. He always wore the
tinguished on the evening of Aug.
familiar party buitori in his 1 pet.
16, 1936, I readily conceded that
Muriel" the birthplace of the
Hitler and his Nazi thugs had suc-
ceeded in making the XI Olympiad Nazi Party and the scene of Hitler's
early
triumphs, is dominatec, to-
the most colorful in history and.
what was more important, had day by the Social-Democrats, who
used the Olympics to fool the world control the City Council and whose
into believing that Nazi Germany leader is the 45-year-old bunco-
was a peaceful, civilized, and con- master, Dr. Ilans-Jochen Fogel.
tended nation. Moreover, the tens In Berlin in 1936, for the of
of thousands of visitors and the us who were stationed there and
athletes from supposedly hostile who covered the Olympic Ga nes,
foreign lands seemed, by their It was the distortions that dis-
friendliness and expressions of ad- turbed us most. We knew tha4 the
miration, to give their approval Third Reich that Hitler, Goe-ing.
to the new Germany. This helped Goebbels and the German (l ym-
to strengthen Hitler's hold on his pie Committee put over on the
visiting athletes and spectators
people.
Now 36 years later, Germany was a facade. It was made toilook
is again host to the summer Oly rn- peaceful and happy and re' son.
ap-
plc Games. The XX Olympiad will able. but behind the glitterin
he held in Munich. Germany's most pearance, we correspondents iyed
beautiful and genial city, from daily with a darker side: a egi-
Aug. 26 to Sept. 10. Thousands of named, anti-Semitic, militailistic
dirt away so that a photo could
he taken of the German liapoeli-
ada delegate and myself. I begged
off. in discreet fashion, and the
picture was taken with others less
sensitive than I.
After the ceremony my good
who is
friend, Chaim Glovinsky
to Israel what Dan Ferris is to
American sports, the doyen, apol.
°cited for Von llorora's attend-
ance at the affair Chaim felt, as
I dial. that his very presence at
this simple ceremony was a sort
of profanation of what Judge Ma-
honey and Charley stood for in
'port.
I won t be available for duty in
Iunicla this summer. It goes with-
out saying that I'll be rooting for
an American victory in basketball
The t i. Olympic basketball team
had .no choice
in selecting the
venue for the games and will be
going es erseas with the blessings
of its backers, whether these root-
ers du or do not attend the games
proper.
THE DETROIT JEWISH h IEWS
William Shirer, American Jewistii Historical
Society Researcher Recall 36-Y ar-Old Battle
Against Hitler Terror During Bed n Olympics
athletes from 126 countries, 4,000
journalists. and tens of thousands
nation, contemptuous of the de -noc-
racie , , and preparing fever shly"
of visiting spectators from all over for war and conquest.
the, world will find it a quite dif-
None fell more victim to the
ferent Germany- from
the
one Nazi distortion than the At eri-
Hitler ruled. None are more con- cans, the American Olympic om-
scious of this than the hosts. who rnittee abeve all. and the thousands
al* putting up more than $150.- of athletes and spectators from
enit,600 to ensure the success of Berlin we had watched with some
the summer games.
interest the devious hut sue tess.
Willi Daume, president of the ful efforts of the American 011ym-
German Olympic Committee and pie Committee to dampen and de-
chief organizer of the games, has strot; the movement at hone to
.
been quite frank in discussing the boycott the Olympics in Germany
image he hopes Germany will pre- because of Hitler's barbarous t - eat-
-
............... ....................
By Philip
Slomovitz
ment of the Jews and because
Jews were excluded from the
German Olympic teams.
Late in 1933 the AAU had voted
overwhelmingly to
boycott the
Olympic Games in Germany un-
less Jewish athletes were permit-
ted to participate in them on Ger-
man teams. The American Olym-
pic Committee had approved. A
year later it had a change of heart.
It dispatched its president, Avery
Brundage, the fanatical champion
of amateurism (as he demonstrat-
ed again at the recent winter
games in Japan), to Germany to
se , : . t if the Nazis were sincere in
claiming that Jews could make
their Olympic teams if qualified.
Brundage found that the Nazis
were sincere. On his return he
recommended American participa-
tion in the 1936 games, and the
American Olympic Committee ac-
cepted his recommendation.
Still, the agitation for a boycott
continued. Gen. Charles E, Sher-
rill, a member of both the Ameri-
can and the International Olympic
committee, was sent over in Sep-
tember 1935 to have another look
at the German Olympic situation.
While he was touring the Third
Reich, Hitler promulgated the in-
famous Nuremberg Laws, depriv-
ing Jews of their citizenship and
other civil rights. Undaunted, the
brisk general returned to New
York in October and announced:
"I went to Germany for the pur-
pose of getting at least one Jew
on the German Olympic team, and
I feel that my job is finished."
Actually, Sherrill had got two
Jews on the German team, both
of whom returned from exile to
provide window dressing for the
Nazis: Rudi Ball, the star hockey
player, who was living in France:
and Helene Mayer, a half - Jewish
fencer, who had won a gold medal
in the 1928 games at Amsterdam
and who was studying in Los An-
geles. In Berlin We correspond-
ents noted that no Jews living in
Germany were named. And in the
case of Miss Mayer, she Was
promptly declared an Aryan by the
Nazi authorities.
These minor concessions from
American
Berlin satisfied the
Olympic Committee, and on Oct.
23, 1935, The New York Times
quoted Frederick W. Ruhien, sec-
retary of the American Olympic
Committee, for the final words
"Germans are not discriminating
against Jews in their Olympic try-
outs. The Jew's are eliminated be-
cause they are not good enough
as athletes. Why there are not a
dozen Jews in the world of Olym-
pic caliber."
The troth was quite otherwise
Jew's in Germany were - eliminat-
ed" because they were not allowed
to participate in the pre - Olympic
qualifying trials. They had been
kicked out of all the sporting clubs
and were not even allowed to
practice or train at any athletic
field, private or public, in the en-
tire Reich, Helene Mayer herself
had been expelled from the Offen-
bach Fencing Club. Even the ven-
erable and distinguished president
of the German Olympic Committee.
Dr. Theodor Lewald, the "father
of German sports" and active in
Olympic circles since 1904. was
hooted out by Hitler when it Ka ,
discovered that. though a practic
mg Christian, he had 5 paternal
grandmother who was a Jew. Sin-
glehandedly he had won the 1936
games for Germany. Now he was
replaced by the Reichssportfuhrer.
a Nazi hack by the name of lians
von Tschammer and Osten.-
There was one other prominer:
German organizer who was re
placed for similar reasons. This
was Capt. Wolfgang Fuerstner of
The German army, who conceived.
built, and organized the magnifi-
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