Joseph Goebbels (left) and Adolf Hitler watch the Olympic Games in Berlin in August 1936. Hitler hoped the spectacle would showcase Germany’s “rebirth” and promote Nazi ideals of racial supremacy and antiSemitism. (Files)

Hitler’s Showcase: The 1936 Olympic Games

STORY BY STEPHEN J. THORNE

It is a blight on the hypocritical, arguably corrupt and highly politicized International Olympic Committee (IOC) that the 1936 Olympic Games were ever allowed to take place in Nazi Germany. But the controversial call gave one Black athlete a grand platform on which to upstage Adolf Hitler and the racist policies of his fascist regime.

Jesse Owens’ four gold medals “humiliated the master race” and “single-handedly crushed Hitler’s myth of Aryan supremacy,” wrote ESPN columnist Larry Schwartz.

READ MORE

More from Front Lines

• Take no prisoners: Canadians and battlefield executions
• The badass bagpipers of the 16th Battalion
• Soldier’s remains identified 107 years after he was killed at Hill 70

Canadian soldiers of the Mackenzie-Papineau Battalion.(U/VEROSTEIN/REDDIT)

Canada and the Spanish Civil War

STORY BY ALEX BOWERS

“Canada does not propose to be dragged into a war in which she has no interest,” said Prime Minister Mackenzie King in a speech before the ill-fated League of Nations on Sept. 26, 1936.

Perhaps that was true for most in the country, as it was for most western democracies that had, since July watched with increasing unease as Spain tore itself apart. Nevertheless, for a proportion of politically motivated—and often disillusioned—Canadians, it would take more than just words.

READ MORE

More from Military Milestones

• Canada’s First American Victoria Cross
• A Canadian connection to WW II’s Great Escape
• The Canadian connection to Victoria Cross recipient Edmund De Wind

Member Benefit Partner

Learn more