1936 Olympic Games, Berlin, Germany
Germany built a massive stadium ahead of the 1936 Olympic Games, with new and improved facilities for athletes from around the world.
The Olympics, however, were held a mere two years before the Nazi Party came to power, with then-Reich Chancellor Adolf Hitler overseeing proceedings to ensure the Olympics served as a propaganda machine for the SS.
Ahead of the Olympic Games in Berlin, Hitler declared in the Nazi Party’s official paper that ‘Jews and black people would not be allowed to participate’ – a decision that he was forced to withdraw after most other nations threatened to boycott the games.
But beneath the guise of this ‘acceptance’ and capitulation, Hitler’s forces rounded up the Romani population of the city and placed them in concentration camps.
With Hitler’s government coming to power in the years before, countries had considered boycotting the games in light of the human rights atrocities that were already being committed, but the Games would go ahead nevertheless.
Spain, the then-Soviet Union and Turkey all boycotted the Olympics that year, with several political figures condemning the games.
American track-and-field legend Jesse Owens won four gold medals that year, with the soon-to-be-dictator refusing to shake hands with him. Several athletes who medaled at the games also refused to perform the Nazi salute on the podium in a form of protest.
