Gratitude Friday 8 1 25 The Long View Lessons of the Games of the XI Olympiad

89 years ago today, Adolf Hitler opened up the 1936 Summer Olympics. Even people who do not follow history have seen photos of the spectacle of that opening, with the German military goosestepping about giving Hitler the Nazi salute and huge flags with swastikas flying everywhere. Hitler wanted to show the world the mastery of the Aryan race and the superiority of Germany as a nation. They even temporarily relaxed some of their anti-Jewish policies and removed anti-Semitic signs as a facade to impress foreign visitors about who and what they actually were. Germany did win the most medals, although accounts I read about in the book the Boys in the Boat, one way that the Germans won was by cheating.

Imagery like this have long fueled authoritarians and the 1936 games were the center piece to the Nazi version of a Potemkin village. At the time of the 1936 Olympics, some of their propaganda was effective. The Nazi’s had their supporters, like Henry Ford and Charles Lindberg here in the US and others abroad. The propaganda about their superiority, at least in the early years after the invasion of Poland helped keep the US in neutrality. There was opposition here at home when FDR later set out to support England as WW2 intensified. The games and the spectacle was all part of how all that unfolded as was the subtext that non-Aryan people were inferior. The latter facet fit in with racism here at home. That truth is often omitted from our history books.

But that is not how we remember the 1936 Games. What we remember are the underdogs who won gold, much to the dismay of Adolf Hitler and his machinery of propaganda. Of course, the most well-known example is that of Jesse Owens. Owens won four gold medals in the games and set records that stood for decades. He was a national hero, at least for a moment. While he was celebrated here, he was not allowed to walk through the front door at a ritzy hotel in New York where he was being honored. In later life he pumped gas to pay his bills. While he showed the world that Aryan superiority was a myth and we cheered him, we did not honor his example by how we treated him. We do also remember German long jumper Luz Long publicly befriended Jesse Owens, offering him advice during the long jump competition. When Owens won the gold medal, Long, the silver medalist, was the first to congratulate him. Their display of friendship remains a powerful symbol of the human spirit triumphing over prejudice. These narratives are quite complicated when you think about it.

There were other heroes on that field of games. One  was Louis Zamperini, whose parents immigrated here from Italy. He grew up poor and got involved in track to avoid being bullied. He made the Olympic team.  He might have won the event, but like many kids during the Depression he did not have much food. He gained 15 pounds on the trip over with the team on the SS Manhattan. He finished 8^th in the 5,000-meter event but had a record time final lap. Adolf Hitler, said, "Ah, you're the boy with the fast finish." A few years later he enlisted in the Air Force to join the war effort. In 1943, he ran a mile in sand in 4 minutes 12 seconds, which is astounding. Had he competed in the 1940 Olympics, he probably would have won gold but they were canceled. What made Zamperini great is he never gave up in life. His story is told in the book “Unbroken”, including the account of his plane crashing in the pacific, surviving 47 days in a life boat and being tortured by Mutsuhiro "The Bird" Watanabe. Years later, Zamperini attempted to meet with Mutsuhiro to forgive him but the Bird refused to see him. Zamperini won the real contest, which is to avoid being consumed by hatred.

Then was the story of the young men University of Washington rowing team. In a sport generally dominated by the upper crust, these poor kids won out over the Ivy League schools and went to Germany in 1936. The Nazi’s put them on the outside of course, requiring them to have to row farther than the other teams, while the German team had the track with the shortest distance. If you read the book or saw the movie, the Boys in the Boat, you know that they won anyway.

The 1936 Olympic games can be recalled for the hubris of a vile ideology but also the triumph of the human spirit that cannot be repressed or denied. Propaganda can distract momentarily from the truth, but it never wins the day. On this gratitude Friday, I reflect on the 1936 Olympic game. It is one of the reasons that I am grateful for what history can reveal.

What are you grateful for today?