Hitler's Olympics (21 page)
Authors: Christopher Hilton
In Berlin, as the IOC met in formal session Baillet-Latour proclaimed that politics and religion had not been permitted to infiltrate these Games. His assertion represented another statement from a fixed position, and by now those such as Baillet-Latour and Brundage were either in denial or trapped within the reality that in these last moments soothing words, however surreal, were required. No practical alternative offered itself. Ernest Lee Jahncke would discover within the week that IOC politics was very much alive.
Other Americans were about to make painful discoveries. Two boxers, featherweight Joe Church and welterweight Howell King – their team’s best in each category – had been spirited out of the Village under cover of darkness, taken to Hamburg and put on board the
Manhattan
for the return journey to New York. The man in charge of the boxing said they were ‘homesick’, an explanation greeted with some derision in the press. What had they done? Brundage confessed all, but only when he no longer felt trapped by the proximity of the Games. He would wait until they were over.
In training shot-putter Torrance (a.k.a. Baby Elephant), who held the world record, found himself hemmed in by too many spectators and it niggled him. Someone said he’d move these people away but Torrance, fingering his 16lb shot, said ‘Leave them be. I’ll clear them with this.’
The flame flickering through Austria was the shortest stretch of all and, covered on good roads, the day’s total (292 kilometres) was easily the furthest so far. Outriders on motorbikes parted the crowds for the runners and a swarm of cyclists followed in their wake. The flame reached Vienna at 7.30 that evening.
The last runner into the city was silhouetted against the evening sky as he padded along to and through the Heldentor, the heroes’ gate separating the inner ring road and a big square, to light the Olympic Fire at the high altar there. As he came a great cry went up: ‘Hitler!’ The streets teemed, sporting flags fluttered from a tower and spotlights played across them.
One report suggests that local people noticed a mob which looked ‘poor, ragged and half starved’, but they sang the
Horst Wessel Lied
.
45
With darkness coming on, a ‘Heil Hitler!’ chant began and the police made no effort to stop it. Schmidt tried to make a speech of welcome but was drowned out by jeering that grew into a great swell of abuse when he mentioned the President, Wilhelm Miklas. Vice Chancellor Starhemberg followed but, even with the volume on the loudspeakers at maximum, the jeering drowned his voice out, too. When Starhemberg set off with the flame thousands of Nazi sympathisers heaped abuse on him.
It made nonsense of what Baillet-Latour had said.
The Official German Report, written from its fixed position – don’t touch anything unpleasant – recorded disingenuously that neither ‘through the Burgen district to Vienna nor the richly wooded highlands of Lower Austria [were the runners] offered difficulties.’
The tempo sharpened in Berlin, the railway stations and airports busy as they disgorged more and more arrivals. The German railways braced themselves for a total of 4 million movements during the Games: 2 million arrivals and departures. Cars from out of Berlin filled the streets. The Lodgings Bureau struggled to find accommodation for the growing army of visitors (1.2 million by the end of the Games, 150,000 of them foreigners).
The information office at the Reich Sports Field opened. Personnel required a working knowledge of languages and stamina because their task proved ‘extraordinarily strenuous. Women assistants were also employed … but they proved to be incapable of standing the strain of constant service during the rush hours. Before the competitions began, this office was often crowded with thousands of applicants, but the personnel proved to be extraordinarily capable in every respect even under the most difficult conditions.’
46
Six interpreters, recognisable by armbands, manned the stadium’s entrances dealing with whatever came along. ‘A foreign lady visitor, for example, wished to be introduced to the Führer, and after her reasons for making this unusual request had been considered, the interpreter established connections with the proper officials and was actually successful in arranging an audience with the German Chancellor.’
47
The competitors from Denmark, Malta and Poland – including Stella Walsh – arrived at the Village.
Fritz Wandt remembers ‘a problem with the Polish team. Each house was named after a German city and, since these houses were named after Upper Silesian cities like Oppeln, Gleiwitz and so on [Silesia was once part of Poland] the Poles said “This is a provocation, we won’t move into these houses.” The Canadians and the Afghans I think, did. This is why the Poles were the only team that had to be divided, one part in the Village and the other part in the barracks to the north.’
48
The British men’s team left Liverpool Street Station, London, at 8.30 p.m. for Harwich, the ferry to the Hook of Holland and the train to Berlin. The British said: ‘The London & North Eastern Railway Company made excellent arrangements for the transport of the team. The food on the journey proved expensive, especially as many meals were taken in Holland, and the rate of exchange to Dutch florins was very unfavourable.’ This despite the fact that ‘every competitor and team official received a return ticket from London to Berlin and vouchers for meals on the journey. Sleeping berths were reserved on the boats.’
49
For some reason the British women went by train to Dover, taking the Ostend ferry and resuming their journey by train again. Dorothy Odam recalls how she clutched ‘a lion which was our mascot. At sixteen I was very excited. I had very old spikes with my toe hanging out because I couldn’t afford new ones, a pair of shorts and a top that I had to make myself. They gave me some red and blue bands to put round my top and some red, white and blue stripes to put down my shorts. We were given a cravat, dress, jacket and beret, but the rest we had to provide ourselves.’
50
As the torch emerged from the Austrian town of Stockerau at 11 p.m., 2,350 runners had borne the flame. Out in the Austrian countryside, that was three days to the Opening Ceremony and 717 runners to go.
The flame moved north from Vienna towards the Czechoslovak frontier which it reached at 9.45 a.m. Two policemen kept a path open through the crowds at the frontier while the flame was transferred to the first of the Czech runners.
In the Friesenhaus the American women complained about the monotony of the food – presumably they were not receiving any of the feast shipped over for the men – and found it not particularly well cooked. Initially they’d been given green apples and typical German heavy black bread for breakfast, which they had never eaten before. The Americans hollered and got cereals, bacon and egg.
Velma Dunn remembered that the ‘women’s quarters were in a brand new building. It wasn’t decorated, let us say, with pictures and things of that sort because as soon as the Olympics were over the Army moved in – it had been built as Army barracks – so it was very spartan but otherwise very adequate. We were two to a room and I shared with Iris Cummings [200 metres breaststroke], a Californian girl. I couldn’t complain about the accommodation at all. The food was adequate although not what I might have got at home. We just weren’t used to so much boiled potatoes, boiled vegetables.
‘We walked to the diving every day for practice or competition. It was not very far, I don’t think even half a mile.’
51
There had also been complaints because the rooms were damp and cold, the plaster not yet properly dry. Stephens also described the conditions as ‘spartan’ with a bed although not a real mattress, communal baths and showers, and a well-furnished lounge to welcome guests.
52
Ruth told Stephens that among the 150 German youngsters acting as gofers some might have been spying on the athletes, so she hid her diary and made sure her luggage was always locked.
53
The French team left from Platform 1 at the Gare du Nord, Paris, on a special train. Those of Monaco and Portugal arrived at the Village and the British contingent reached Berlin at 4.30 p.m. that afternoon.
The flame arrived in Prague at 11 p.m. that night for a ceremony in Wenceslas Square attended by the country’s president.
The French team’s train experienced mechanical problems and only pulled into Berlin shortly before midnight.
That Thursday 2,628 runners had borne the flame, 439 to go. At midnight, two days remained before the Opening Ceremony – the Friday and the Saturday itself.
At 1 a.m. on the Friday the flame resumed its journey from Prague towards the German border.
It kept on coming.
Notes
1
.
Albert Speer,
Inside the Third Reich
(London, Sphere, 1979), p. 119.
2
.
Sharon Kinney Hanson,
The Fulton Flash
(Carbondale, IL, Southern Illinois University Press, 2004).
3
.
The XIth Olympic Games, Berlin, 1936 Official Report.
4
.
Richard D. Mandell,
The Nazi Olympics
(London, Souvenir Press, 1971), p. 246.
5
.
Hanson,
The Fulton Flash
.
6
.
Lewis H. Carlson and John J. Fogarty,
Tales of Gold
(Chicago, IL, Contemporary Books, 1987), p. 138.
7
.
en.olympic.cn/games/summer/2004-03-27/121663.html (visited 22 September 2005).
8
.
New York Times
, Thursday 23 July.
9
.
Official US Olympic report.
10
.
Velma Dunn; interview with author.
11
.
Marty Glickman with Stan Isaacs,
The Fastest Kid on the Block
(Syracuse, NY, Syracuse University Press, 1996).
12
.
Official US Olympic report.
13
.
William J. Baker,
Jesse Owens, An American Life
(New York, The Free Press, 1986), p. 82.
14
.
Jesse Owens with Paul Neimark,
Jesse: The Man Who Outran Hitler
(New York, Fawcett Gold Medal, 1978), p. 71.
15
.
Hanson,
The Fulton Flash
.
16
.
www.usc.edu/dept/pubrel/trojan_family/summer03/F_Zamperini.html
(visited 26 September 2005).
17
.
Carlson and Fogarty,
Tales of Gold
, pp. 162–3.
18
.
www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Holocaust/olympics.html
19
.
Stephanie Daniels and Anita Tedder,
‘A Proper Spectacle’ – Women Olympians 1900–1936
(Houghton Conquest, Beds., ZeNaNa Press, 2000), p. 103.
20
.
Fritz Wandt; interview with Birgit Kubisch.
21
.
A record player with trumpet.
22
.
Carlson and Fogarty,
Tales of Gold
, p. 161.
23
.
New York Times
, 25 July 1936.
24
.
Hanson,
The Fulton Flash
.
25
.
Esther Myers; interview by Matthew Walker of
I, Witness to History
, Wichita, Kansas for this book.
26
.
The XIth Olympic Games, Berlin, 1936 Official Report.
27
.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luigi_Beccali (visited 11 August 2005).
28
.
New York Times
, 26 July 1936.
29
.
Owens with Neimark,
The Man Who Outran Hitler
.
30
.
The XIth Olympic Games, Berlin, 1936 Official Report.
31
.
Ibid
.
32
.
Hanson,
The Fulton Flash
.
33
.
New York Times
, 26 July 1936.
34
.
Canadian Olympic Committee,
Canada at the XI Olympiad 1936 Germany
.
35
.
Fritz Wandt; interview with Birgit Kubisch.
36
.
The XIth Olympic Games, Berlin, 1936 Official Report.
37
.
Horst Wessel was a 23-year-old Nazi Party member murdered in 1930, supposedly by communists, and made into a martyr. His song was adopted by the Nazis as their anthem.
38
.
New York Times
, 29 July 1936.
39
.
Daniels and Tedder, ‘
A Proper Spectacle’
, p. 107.
40
.
Hanson,
The Fulton Flash
.
41
.
Baker,
Jesse Owens
, pp. 83–4.
42
.
Ibid
, p. 84.
43
.
Hanson,
The Fulton Flash
.
44
.
The XIth Olympic Games, Berlin, 1936 Official Report.
45
.
Duff Hart-Davis,
Hitler’s Games
(London, Century Hutchinson, 1986), p. 135.
46
.
The XIth Olympic Games, Berlin, 1936 Official Report.
47
.
Ibid
.
48
.
Fritz Wandt; interview with Birgit Kubisch.