Jesse Owens decided that he loved running at an early age. The gym teacher saw him in gym and instantly put him on the track team. He could not practice after school because of his work. So he practiced in the mornings. As a Senior Jesse tied the world record in the 100-yard dash with a time of 9.4 seconds. Jesse chose Ohio State University over many other colleges. Jesse was forced to live off campus with the other African American Athletes. At the Big Ten meet in Anne Arbor on May 25, 1935 Owens set three records and tied a fourth. At the end of his sophomore year he entered the 1936 Olympics. The 1936 Olympics took place in village close to Garmisch and Partenkireben in the Bavarian Alps in Germany and had Alpine skiing for the first time ever. Adolf Hitler was the Dominant race. Jesse Owens “ The fastest human being,” became the hero of the Olympics and captured four gold medals. He even set some records. This made him the first American in history to win four gold medals in one Olympics. Nobody believed that an African American could do this. In his Senior year he left college, so that he could run professionally. He was trying to help his family more by doing this, because this could make him some money. In 1976, Jesse was awarded the highest honor a civilian of the United States can get. The president awarded Owens with the Medal of Freedom. Jesse proved to the world that African Americans belonged in the world of Athletics. When Jesse was 66 years old he died from cancer.
Sam Bulter was an American Jewish basketball player that did get to participate in the 1936 Olympics. Although Sam and Marty were Jewish in the Olympics and didn’t get to race. Marty Glickman famous track star couldn’t be in the Olympics, because he was a Jew. The same thing happened to Sam Stroller. They were both really good. This disappointed a lot of the fans. Marty Glickman and Sam Stroller were both kicked off the Olympics team the day before the relay race. That same day they were supposed to run a trial race. They were told on this day because if they were told any sooner they could have maybe found out a way to change it and then they could of got to race. They were the first people that had been pulled out because of it, but not from an injury. They think that they were pulled out because of the Anti-Semitism and because Cromwell and Avery Brundage, president of the United States Olympics Committee, didn’t want to offend the Nazi German host. Since Sam and Marty were pulled out of the race their spots were token over by Jesse Owens and Metcalfe. But Owens tried to refuse to this race because it was their race he still was ordered to race it and had to do what he was told. This is why Sam left and went straight home and said that he would never compete again.
Non-Aryans-Jewish or part Jewish and Gypsy athletes were excluded from German sports facilities and associations. They were allowed to few training facilities, and their opportunities to compete were limited. Adolf Hitler took over Jews were excluded from the Germany sports and recreational facilities. Examples: Eric Seelg Jewish was expelled from the German Boxing Association. Daniel Prenn, Germany’s top ranked tennis player, was removed from Germany’s Davis Cup team. Gypsies, including the Sinti boxer Johann “Rukelie Trollmann, were also purged from German sports. Trollmann the German middleweight boxing champion, was banned from boxing for “racial reasons.”
Avery Brundage, president of the American Olympic Committee, stated: “The very foundation of the modern Olympic revival will be undermined if individual countries are allowed to restrict participation by reason of class, crewed, or race.” Brunadage like many other in the Olympics movement, initially considered moving the Games from Germany. After a brief managed inspecting of German sports facilities in 1934, Brundage stated publicly that Jewish athletes were being treated fairly and that the games should go on, as planned. The president of Amateur Athletic Union, pointed out that Germanyhad broken Olympiic rules for not letting people be in the Olympics because of their race .
The Nazis wanted to “clean up” Berlin before the Olympics started. The chief of the Berlin Police to arrest all Gypsies prior to the games. Then on July 16, 1936, 800 Gypsies were arrested and put into a Gypsy camp in the Berlin suburb of Marzahn under police guard. Nazi officials ordered that visitors that are foreign shouldn’t be subjected to the criminal strictures of the Nazi anti homosexual laws.
Hitler refused to shake any of the African Americans hands because of their races. The prime Minster of Propaganda said that the victories by Blacks “is a disgrace”. They denied a Jewish athlete Gretel Bergmann. She would have had a chance for the gold for Germany. But they allowed half Jewish fencer Helence Mayer to represent Germany in Berlin. No other Jewish athlete could compete for Germany. Even after the Olympics propaganda efforts continued. Two days after the Olympics, Captain Wolgang Furstner , head of the Olympic village, killed himself after he was dismissed from the active military service ceczus of his Jewish ancestry. Fifteen months after the games, Germany initiated its plan to get bigger and the Nazi regrimintesified its persecution of Jews and others it deemed “enemies of the state”. Ge4rmany annexed Austria in March 1938 and by November of the same year Jews in Germany and Austria were subjected to the terror mass destruction and all over attacks of a state sponsored antiserhitic program know as Kristallnacht. In 1937 German Jewish track star Gretel Bergmann went over to the United States to escape the bad things of Germany.
There were still no Jewish removed and after the Olympics to show off his army, the Nazis.

Cody Broughton 7^th Social Studies Rossville Jr. High Holocaust Project Spring 2003

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