For two weeks in August 1936, Adolf Hitler’s dictatorship masked its racist, militarist character while hosting the Olympic Games. To divert attention from its anti-Semitic agenda and plans for territorial expansion, the regime exploited the
Games to dazzle spectators with a false image of a peaceful, tolerant Germany.

Prior to the Games a controversial proposed boycott was hotly debated due to the racial discrimination of the Nazi regime. Once the International Olympic Committee quelled concerns about the safety of black athletes in Nazi Germany, most African American newspapers opposed a boycott. Many pundits underscored the hypocrisy of pro-boycotters who did not first
address discrimination against black athletes here at home. In the end, eighteen African American athletes, including Jesse Owens, Mack Robinson, and Ralph Metcalfe, competed for the United States at the 1936 Berlin Olympics.

Politics, Race, and Propaganda: The Nazi Olympics, Berlin 1936 features historic photographs and documents, riveting films, Olympics promotional materials, and first-person accounts. Together they tell the stories of athletes who were barred because of their ethnic heritage, those who boycotted the Games in protest, and the African Americans who competed and won a total of
fourteen medals, refuting the Nazi myth of “Aryan” supremacy. The exhibition, organized by United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, is presented in Los Angeles for the first time and features a number of key additions, including one of the gold medals Jesse Owens earned during the 1936 Games.

This exhibition was produced by the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, presented by the Southern California Committee for the Olympic Games, and sponsored by the Foundation for Global Sports Development.