Just in Time for the Beijing Olympics
Posted by Jonathan on April 24th, 2008 (All posts by Jonathan)
The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum has an online exhibition about the 1936 Nazi Olympics:
In August 1936, Adolf Hitler’s Nazi dictatorship scored a huge propaganda success as host of the Summer Olympics in Berlin. The Games were a brief, two-week interlude in Germany’s escalating campaign against its Jewish population and the country’s march toward war. This site explores the issues surrounding the 1936 Olympic Games—the Nazis’ use of propaganda, the intense boycott debate, the history of the torch run, the historic performance of Jesse Owens, and more.
Change a few names and nouns and the above description fits the 2008 Olympics rather closely, no? Congratulations to the USHMM on its fine sense of timing. Let’s hope that the Chinese government benefits less from the 2008 games than Hitler did from the ones in 1936.
April 24th, 2008 at 8:38 pm
Just in Time for the Beijing Olympics
But, alas, a few days too late for this San Francisco protester…
April 25th, 2008 at 8:41 am
Can somebody from the other side of the Pond explain to me whether that poster is genuine or sarcastic? Sorry to sound dense but I cannot quite believe …..
April 26th, 2008 at 7:11 am
Some outstanding Jewish runners were sidelined so that American could participate and meet Hitler’s demands. Owens proved Hitler wrong. But boycott? well,why buy everyhthing made in China for your home and then protest the Olympics because of human rights violations in China? a bit hypocritical,no?