Nazi Olympics - Goebbels Would've Been Proud

[Derek]

The Olympic torch relay in which a flame is carried from Greece to the Olympic venue every four years (every two including the winter games) has nothing to do with the ancient games at all. It was instigated at the 1936 Nazi Olympics in Berlin, which were overseen by Hitler's propaganda chief and <span style="font-size: 14pt"><span style="font-weight: bold">occult</span></span>ist, Joseph Goebbels.

In the run-up to the Berlin games, the International Olympic Committee agreed to German requests that a flame should be kindled from the rays of the sun in Olympia, Greece and carried by torch to the host city. The 'Olympic' tradition of the flame relay had begun and it is being continued on the streets of Britain today.

Some <span style="font-weight: bold"><span style="font-size: 14pt">3,330 </span></span>runners carried the flame to Berlin through Greece, Bulgaria, Yugoslavia, Hungary, Austria, Czechoslovakia, and Germany in 1936. The Nazis also made the Olympic rings popular and brought them into widespread use. They ordered that a milestone with carved Olympic rings be installed at the ancient site of Delphi before the torchbearers trotted off for Berlin.

Later, two British writers visited Delphi and found the said milestone with its Olympic rings and recorded in their work, History of the Ancient Games, that the ring symbol originated in ancient Greece when it was actually designed by the originator of the modern games and promoted to prominence by the Nazis.





<span style="font-style: italic">And after this extravagant ritual full of occult symbolism dedicated to racial supremacy, Hitler refused to shake Jesse Owens' hand</span>

[RichD]

Re: Nazi Olympics - Goebbels Would've Been Proud

The Nazi Origins of the Olympic Flame Relay
MAY 10 2012, 12:23 PM ET 18
Though dressed up as an ancient Greek tradition, the torch relay ceremony was originally designed to further Hitler's nationalist propaganda.


Nazi soldiers salute to greet the arrival of the Olympic torch and commencement of the 1936 games. / AP

Adolf Hitler hadn't wanted to host the Olympics. They were &quot;an invention of Jews and Freemasons,&quot; he'd said, a celebration of the internationalism and multiculturalism he loathed. But he loved propaganda, the lavish shows of German power and prestige, and by 1934 Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels had convinced him of the Olympics' value in the greater Nazi mission. &quot;German sport has only one task: to strengthen the character of the German people, imbuing it with the fighting spirit and steadfast camaraderie necessary in the struggle for its existence,&quot; Goebbels said in April 1933.

The 1936 Berlin Summer Olympics were to be, according to Arnd Krüger and William J. Murray's history of &quot;The Nazi Games,&quot; a means of furthering Hitler's ethnic and nationalist messages, a tool of Nazi soft power. Few aspects of the bizarre and highly political '36 games exemplified Hitler's propaganda mission better than the Olympic torch relay and ceremony. Though propagandists portrayed the torch relay as ancient tradition stretching back to the original Greek competitions, the event was in fact a Nazi invention, one typical of the Reich's love of flashy ceremonies and historical allusions to the old empires. And it's a tradition we still continue today, with this morning's lighting of the flame in Olympia, the birthplace of the original games circa 776 B.C., from which it will be carried by a series of relay runners to the site of the games, in this case London.

Though Goebbels and Hitler both seemed to have loved the idea of the torch relay, it wasn't their idea. A man named Carl Diem, the secretary general of the organizing committee of the Berlin games, proposed it, inspired by the torch that had burned over the 1928 games in Amsterdam. Though an official in the Nazi government, Diem was a sport administrator first. After his years-long campaign to hold the Olympics in Germany had finally trickled up to the top of the government, he had lobbied, though unsuccessfully, to more freely allow German Jews to participate in the Olympics. So it's tough to blame Diem entirely for the Nazi propaganda piece that his torch relay became.

Whether or not Diem meant it to, a torch relay fit neatly within Nazi propaganda. Beginning the relay in Greece and ending it roughly 1,500 miles away in Berlin reinforced the idea of a shared Aryan heritage between the ancient power and the new one. It also hinted at Hitler's idea of a natural, civilizational progression from the Greek Empire to the Roman to the German. And the route happened to go through Czechoslovakia, where the stream of Nazi propaganda that surrounded it inspired some members of the ethnic German minority to clash with member of the Czech majority. Two years later, Hitler would invade and occupy part of Czechoslovakia, where he claimed the German minority was at risk.

Hitler found yet more ways to engineer the torch relay as Nazi propaganda. The head of the Reich sports office, Hans von Tschammer und Osten, convinced him to sponsor excavations of the original Olympic game sites in Olympia, further reinforcing the image of Germany as heir and caretaker of the ancient powers. Official Nazi anthem Die Fahne Hoch was played at the torch-lighting ceremony in Greece.

According to German sports historian Arnd Krüger, &quot;The Krupp Company, Germany's largest armament producer, created and sponsored the torches, which were to burn for ten minutes. The first torch manufactured was used to ignite a new furnace for the production of long-range Krupp canons.&quot; Krupp's rapidly expanding artillery production would be crucial for early Nazi military successes, and would be staffed in part by slave labor, later including female Jewish prisoners trucked from Auschwitz to a nearby Krupp artillery plant that CEO and convicted war criminal Alfried Krupp had named for his mother, Bertha.

Today's lighting ceremony has nothing to do with Nazis or with Hitler's ethnic nationalism, of course, and though the runners may follow a slightly similar route to London this summer as they did to Berlin in the summer of 1936, it seems safe to say that the world has repurposed the Olympic torch relay from its dark origins to a brighter message of friendly international cooperation. Still, watching today's torch-lighting ceremony, you can discern the faint echoes of that first ceremony 76 years ago: the costumes, the careful orchestration, the iron and the flame, the evocations of an ancient tradition that is in fact quite modern. For all of Hitler's legacies we've excised from the world, this seems to be contribution one we're comfortable maintaining. After all, it is a nice tradition.

[Nunya]

Re: Nazi Olympics - Goebbels Would've Been Proud

Wow! I learnt something new today! Thanks Derek and Rich!

[Derek]

Re: Nazi Olympics - Goebbels Would've Been Proud

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: Nunya</div><div class="ubbcode-body">Wow! I learnt something new today! Thanks Derek and Rich! </div></div>


Wow! Me and Rich agree on something! Thanks Rich!

[RichD]

Re: Nazi Olympics - Goebbels Would've Been Proud

is early still ...

[jah_yout]

Re: Nazi Olympics - Goebbels Would've Been Proud

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Quote:</div><div class="ubbcode-body">

<span style="font-style: italic">And after this extravagant ritual full of occult symbolism dedicated to racial supremacy, Hitler refused to shake Jesse Owens' hand</span> </div></div>


What about those pesky rumors I hear about Jesse Owens saying he was treated better in nazi Germany than he was at home in the USA

[blugiant]

Re: Nazi Olympics - Goebbels Would've Been Proud

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: RichD</div><div class="ubbcode-body">is early still ... </div></div>

watbout de arigin aff dw swatzticka

[Derek]

Re: Nazi Olympics - Goebbels Would've Been Proud

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: blakkgiant</div><div class="ubbcode-body"><div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: RichD</div><div class="ubbcode-body">is early still ... </div></div>

watbout de arigin aff dw swatzticka </div></div>

India.

And in true occult style, when you reverse the image, you reverse the meaning.

[jah_yout]

Re: Nazi Olympics - Goebbels Would've Been Proud

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Quote:</div><div class="ubbcode-body">And after this extravagant ritual full of occult symbolism dedicated to racial supremacy, Hitler refused to shake Jesse Owens' hand</div></div>


depends on who tells the story;

from my research it seems hitler had left the stadium by the time owens won and therefore shook nobody's hands at that point...
i read that at an official ceremony honoring the winners that hitler did shake owen's hand...
owens claims hitler waved at him at the stadium...
he also claimed it was not hitler who snubbed him, but f.d. roosevelt and the american political class;
and that he was treated better in nazi germany than in jim crow amerikkka

[Derek]

Re: Nazi Olympics - Goebbels Would've Been Proud

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: jah_yout</div><div class="ubbcode-body"><div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Quote:</div><div class="ubbcode-body">And after this extravagant ritual full of occult symbolism dedicated to racial supremacy, Hitler refused to shake Jesse Owens' hand</div></div>


depends on who tells the story;

from my research it seems hitler had left the stadium by the time owens won and therefore shook nobody's hands at that point...
i read that at an official ceremony honoring the winners that hitler did shake owen's hand...
owens claims hitler waved at him at the stadium...
he also claimed it was not hitler who snubbed him, but f.d. roosevelt and the american political class;
and that he was treated better in nazi germany than in jim crow amerikkka </div></div>

To be honest I can't find footage of Hitler shaking or not shaking Owens' hand.

[St_Bess]

Re: Nazi Olympics - Goebbels Would've Been Proud

There is a documentary that I have seen many times on PBS on Jesse Owens and it shows official footage of the '36 olympics games. You can clearly see Hitler sitting down and watching the games and when Owens won the first track event his face was &quot;mekk up&quot; like he smell sh**t and then when he kept winning especially the long jump he looked like if he could have killed him (Owens) he would have. . This documentary showed how some athletic organization wanted Jesse to tour after the games were finished. He did tour maybe 2 or 3 countries and then he went home due to how he was being treated. I think they banned or fined him. This guy could not support his wife and infant child (I think he had an infant or his wife was pregnant). In the end in order make money he had to run races against horses - very demeaning. Of course you can always catch this documentary in February (Black History Month).

[jah_yout]

Re: Nazi Olympics - Goebbels Would've Been Proud

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: St_Bess</div><div class="ubbcode-body">There is a documentary that I have seen many times on PBS on Jesse Owens and it shows official footage of the '36 olympics games. You can clearly see Hitler sitting down and watching the games and when Owens won the first track event his face was &quot;mekk up&quot; like he smell sh**t and then when he kept winning especially the long jump he looked like if he could have killed him (Owens) he would have. . This documentary showed how some athletic organization wanted Jesse to tour after the games were finished. He did tour maybe 2 or 3 countries and then he went home due to how he was being treated. I think they banned or fined him. This guy could not support his wife and infant child (I think he had an infant or his wife was pregnant). In the end in order make money he had to run races against horses - very demeaning. Of course you can always catch this documentary in February (Black History Month). </div></div>



The footage at the stadium could have easily and most likely was edited to look like reaction between hitler and Owens...that Owens had to resort to stuff like that is more of an indictment on America than it is on hitlers Germany. After all he lived in America ----which segregated him -- while Germany never did