The 1936 Berlin Olympics

On August 1, 1936, the Summer Olympics opened in Berlin before a hundred thousand spectators and forty-nine visiting nations. For sixteen days, Nazi Germany took down its antisemitic signage, confined Roma and Sinti outside the city, and presented itself as a modern, hospitable host. Behind the ceremony stood the officials who built the bid, the athletes kept off the German team, a boycott campaign, and a torch relay invented for the occasion. Historians still argue over what the Games actually bought the regime. This is the day the world came to Berlin.Send me a text!Support the show