August 1-16 1936

10th occurrence of modern Olympics

Berlin was designated to be the 1936 Olympic host in 1931 as a show of goodwill after their
defeat in WWI, but a boycott was discussed as Nazis rose to power in 1933
To prevent a boycott the German Government claimed Jewish athletes were included on the
German team and Nazism wouldn’t be promoted
This was mostly false, Nazism was promoted and there was only one Jewish athlete
While hosting the Olympics the Nazis tried to hide their racism to remain in other’s good graces
Helene Mayer was the only person of partially Jewish descent (on her father’s side) allowed on
the German team, even though she was stopped from participating in any official sports in 1933
along with every other Jewish and Roma person
Like all other German medalists, she gave the Nazi salute
At the time of her nomination to the German team she was living in the USA and she continued
to live there until 1952
Other highly skilled Jewish athletes were deemed “unqualified”