Read Ebook {PDF EPUB} Early Hiking in the Olympics 1922-1942 by Paul B. Crews Early Hiking in the Olympics 1922-1942 by Paul B. Crews. p. 1: The author was introduced to the Olympic Mountains in June 1922 at age 5, on a family car camping trip from Bremerton to Mora and back. The prologue describes other trips by the author as a young boy. Chapter 1 - Outdoor Organizations. p. 21: There is a brief summary of the O'Neil and Press expeditions across the Olympics, as well as the Dodwell-Rixon surveys. p. 22: The author summarizes efforts to protect the Olympics, culminating with the creation of Olympic National Park in 1938. p. 24: Describes outdoor organizations active in the Olympics: the Mazamas, Mountaineers, Klahhane Club, and Grays Harbor Olympians. Chapter 2 - Backpacking. p. 31: Describes the origin of trails in the Olympics. p. 32: Good description of early backpacking gear. Chapter 3 - Early Scouting. p. 39: Describes the role of Boy Scouts in the Olympics. p. 40: A summary of early Boy Scout camps: Camp Parsons, Camp Cleland and Camp Baldy. Chapter 4 - A Week to Remember. p. 47: The author describes his first annual Boy Scout hike in 1931. Chapter 5 - Valley of 1000 Waterfalls. p. 57: A 1935 hike, following high school graduation, to the Enchanted Valley. Chapter 6 - West Anderson. p. 65: Bob "Pete" Pedersen describes a 1938 climb of the West Peak of Mt Anderson. Chapter 7 - A Royal Mishap. p. 71: During a 1936 hike into Royal Basin, a Boy Scout broke his arm. Chapter 8 - The Needles. p. 79: Elvin R. "Swede" Johnson describes pioneering climbs of the highest peaks in The Needles with George Martin in 1940. Chapter 9 - Bob's Tales. p. 85: Bob Pritchard describes various summer trips in the 1930s, including an ascent of Mt Constance. Chapter 10 - Flapjack Lakes. p. 92: A map on this page shows the location of "Mt Lincoln Ski Bowl". p. 93: Descriptions and impressions of the area. p. 97: The author describes a climb of Mt Lincoln with Karl Stingl in 1935. Stingl was an immigrant from Czechoslovakia and a Class A ski jumper. Chapter 11 - The Cabin. p. 99: The Bremerton Ski Cruisers organized in the winter of 1935-36 and soon began searching for a local ski area. C.J. Ritchie, one of the club's founders, chartered a plane and returned with photos of open terrain that looked ideal. This page has a photo of the first party to try locate the area on foot on 1-2 January 1937. p. 100: Searches on foot began on New Years Day 1937. The third search party, on April 17-18, found the ski bowl on the NE side of Mt Gladys, approaching from Flapjack Lakes. p. 102a: Photo of second exploration party, 13-14 March 1937. p. 102b: During the summer and fall of 1938 the Ski Cruisers, joined by the Shelton Ridge Runners, built a cabin at Flapjack Lakes. p. 103: Following construction of the cabin, some members of the Ski Cruisers pushed to have the road extended to Flapjack Lakes. The summer hiking and climbing group resisted this idea and the Forest Service declined to help, due to pending changes in the boundaries of the new National Park. In 1939, the park boundary was extended to include the site of the cabin. p. 104: Photo of the Flapjack Lakes cabin in summer. p. 105: In 1941, a special use permit for the cabin was issued by the National Park Service to the Bremerton Ski Cruisers and Shelton Ridge Runners. By this time, many club members preferred skiing at Mt Rainier and the cabin was little used in winter. The cabin was used more in summer by hikers and was maintained by Art and Viola Landry, including major repairs when the ridge pole was broken by a falling tree. p. 108a: After 1948, the National Park Service reclaimed the cabin and removed it. p. 108b: From 1947 through 1948 or 1949, the Bremerton Ski Cruisers built a lodge at Stevens Pass. At the time of this book's publication, the club was still active there. Chapter 12 - Mt Cruiser. p. 109: During autumn 1937, the Bremerton Ski Cruisers scouted the location of their proposed ski area near Mt Gladys. During the trip, Ray Layton and the author made the first ascent of Mt Cruiser, naming it after the club. p. 110: Photo of Mt Cruiser in winter with a traversing ski track in the foreground. Chapter 13 - Mt Pershing. p. 113: Don Dooley describes the first ascent of this peak. p. 116: Photo of the Mt Lincoln Ski Bowl in spring. Chapter 14 - The Club. p. 117: Provides background on the author's mountaineering friends. Chapter 15 - To Ski. p. 122: In the fall of 1935, the author and friends saw the B&W short film, The Ski Chase . Inspired, they ordered 7-foot Northland skis from a Sears Roebuck catalog. The author provides a good description of ski equipment of the time. He read Arnold Lunn's Alpine Skiing at All Heights and Seasons , which described snow conditions, and the December 1930 Mountaineer Bulletin , which described ski techniques with illustrations. [I believe the author may be refering to the 1929 Mountaineer Annual, which was a special ski number. I've been unable to find a bulletin that fits this description.] p. 123: Photo of "skiers" on their first outing to Upper Lake Lena. The text describes this trip. p. 126: The author writes that he and Pete Pedersen are members of the Ancient Skiers club. Chapter 16 - Valley of Lost Men. p. 127: Describes a 1939 attempted winter ascent of The Brothers, using skis on the approach. The author describes winter camping on this trip. p. 128: Photo of one of the party members on the trail, on skis with an overnight pack. Chapter 17 - Mt Stone. p. 131: On Memorial Day weekend, 1937, the author and Chuck Thompson brought short "summer" skis (3 feet long) for the approach to Mt Stone. p. 132: Photo of three shirtless hikers in snow, one of them packing summer skis. p. 137: Describes the author's efforts to utilize the short skis and lessons learned on the trip about sunburn and spring avalanche conditions. Chapter 18 - The Brothers. p. 139: Over Labor Day, 1936, the author and friends climbed The Brothers, making a bivouac near the south peak and completing the first traverse to the north peak and back. Chapter 19 - Olympus Traverse. p. 145: Describes a July 1937 traverse from Soleduc Hot Springs to the Hoh River, up Mt Olympus and over to the Elwah River, finally reaching the Dosewallips River via Hayden Pass. Chapter 20 - Mt Olympus, Tom and Athena. p. 157: Pete Pedersen describes this 1938 trip, approaching from the Hoh River. This chapter also includes the story of Henry H. Botten, a fire protection engineer who made the first traverse of the three summits of Mt Olympus in 1908. Chapter 21 - Constance Pass. p. 169: Describes the author's last trip in the Olympics, in June 1942, just before entering service in the U.S. army. Chapter 22 - George. p. 175: This chapter provides a profile of George W. Martin, a school teacher and adminstrator, who accompanied the author on many Olympic outings. Martin was a skilled and prolific photographer. Following WWII, Martin became registrar at the new Olympic College. At the college, he initiated courses in Basic Mountaineering and Wilderness Survival. p. 179: Photo of George W. Martin. Return to the Alpenglow Ski Mountaineering History Project home page. Copyright © 2002 Lowell Skoog. All Rights Reserved. Last Updated: Sat, Oct 19, 2019 10:54:40 AM. Early Hiking in the Olympics 1922-1942 by Paul B. Crews. p. 1: The author was introduced to the Olympic Mountains in June 1922 at age 5, on a family car camping trip from Bremerton to Mora and back. The prologue describes other trips by the author as a young boy. Chapter 1 - Outdoor Organizations. p. 21: There is a brief summary of the O'Neil and Press expeditions across the Olympics, as well as the Dodwell-Rixon surveys. p. 22: The author summarizes efforts to protect the Olympics, culminating with the creation of Olympic National Park in 1938. p. 24: Describes outdoor organizations active in the Olympics: the Mazamas, Mountaineers, Klahhane Club, and Grays Harbor Olympians. Chapter 2 - Backpacking. p. 31: Describes the origin of trails in the Olympics. p. 32: Good description of early backpacking gear. Chapter 3 - Early Scouting. p. 39: Describes the role of Boy Scouts in the Olympics. p. 40: A summary of early Boy Scout camps: Camp Parsons, Camp Cleland and Camp Baldy. Chapter 4 - A Week to Remember. p. 47: The author describes his first annual Boy Scout hike in 1931. Chapter 5 - Valley of 1000 Waterfalls. p. 57: A 1935 hike, following high school graduation, to the Enchanted Valley. Chapter 6 - West Anderson. p. 65: Bob "Pete" Pedersen describes a 1938 climb of the West Peak of Mt Anderson. Chapter 7 - A Royal Mishap. p. 71: During a 1936 hike into Royal Basin, a Boy Scout broke his arm. Chapter 8 - The Needles. p. 79: Elvin R. "Swede" Johnson describes pioneering climbs of the highest peaks in The Needles with George Martin in 1940. Chapter 9 - Bob's Tales. p. 85: Bob Pritchard describes various summer trips in the 1930s, including an ascent of Mt Constance. Chapter 10 - Flapjack Lakes. p. 92: A map on this page shows the location of "Mt Lincoln Ski Bowl". p. 93: Descriptions and impressions of the area. p. 97: The author describes a climb of Mt Lincoln with Karl Stingl in 1935. Stingl was an immigrant from Czechoslovakia and a Class A ski jumper. Chapter 11 - The Cabin. p. 99: The Bremerton Ski Cruisers organized in the winter of 1935-36 and soon began searching for a local ski area. C.J. Ritchie, one of the club's founders, chartered a plane and returned with photos of open terrain that looked ideal. This page has a photo of the first party to try locate the area on foot on 1-2 January 1937. p. 100: Searches on foot began on New Years Day 1937. The third search party, on April 17-18, found the ski bowl on the NE side of Mt Gladys, approaching from Flapjack Lakes. p. 102a: Photo of second exploration party, 13-14 March 1937. p. 102b: During the summer and fall of 1938 the Ski Cruisers, joined by the Shelton Ridge Runners, built a cabin at Flapjack Lakes. p. 103: Following construction of the cabin, some members of the Ski Cruisers pushed to have the road extended to Flapjack Lakes. The summer hiking and climbing group resisted this idea and the Forest Service declined to help, due to pending changes in the boundaries of the new National Park. In 1939, the park boundary was extended to include the site of the cabin. p. 104: Photo of the Flapjack Lakes cabin in summer. p. 105: In 1941, a special use permit for the cabin was issued by the National Park Service to the Bremerton Ski Cruisers and Shelton Ridge Runners. By this time, many club members preferred skiing at Mt Rainier and the cabin was little used in winter. The cabin was used more in summer by hikers and was maintained by Art and Viola Landry, including major repairs when the ridge pole was broken by a falling tree. p. 108a: After 1948, the National Park Service reclaimed the cabin and removed it. p. 108b: From 1947 through 1948 or 1949, the Bremerton Ski Cruisers built a lodge at Stevens Pass. At the time of this book's publication, the club was still active there. Chapter 12 - Mt Cruiser. p. 109: During autumn 1937, the Bremerton Ski Cruisers scouted the location of their proposed ski area near Mt Gladys. During the trip, Ray Layton and the author made the first ascent of Mt Cruiser, naming it after the club. p. 110: Photo of Mt Cruiser in winter with a traversing ski track in the foreground. Chapter 13 - Mt Pershing. p. 113: Don Dooley describes the first ascent of this peak. p. 116: Photo of the Mt Lincoln Ski Bowl in spring. Chapter 14 - The Club. p. 117: Provides background on the author's mountaineering friends. Chapter 15 - To Ski. p. 122: In the fall of 1935, the author and friends saw the B&W short film, The Ski Chase . Inspired, they ordered 7-foot Northland skis from a Sears Roebuck catalog. The author provides a good description of ski equipment of the time. He read Arnold Lunn's Alpine Skiing at All Heights and Seasons , which described snow conditions, and the December 1930 Mountaineer Bulletin , which described ski techniques with illustrations. [I believe the author may be refering to the 1929 Mountaineer Annual, which was a special ski number. I've been unable to find a bulletin that fits this description.] p. 123: Photo of "skiers" on their first outing to Upper Lake Lena. The text describes this trip. p. 126: The author writes that he and Pete Pedersen are members of the Ancient Skiers club. Chapter 16 - Valley of Lost Men. p. 127: Describes a 1939 attempted winter ascent of The Brothers, using skis on the approach. The author describes winter camping on this trip. p. 128: Photo of one of the party members on the trail, on skis with an overnight pack. Chapter 17 - Mt Stone. p. 131: On Memorial Day weekend, 1937, the author and Chuck Thompson brought short "summer" skis (3 feet long) for the approach to Mt Stone. p. 132: Photo of three shirtless hikers in snow, one of them packing summer skis. p. 137: Describes the author's efforts to utilize the short skis and lessons learned on the trip about sunburn and spring avalanche conditions. Chapter 18 - The Brothers. p. 139: Over Labor Day, 1936, the author and friends climbed The Brothers, making a bivouac near the south peak and completing the first traverse to the north peak and back. Chapter 19 - Olympus Traverse. p. 145: Describes a July 1937 traverse from Soleduc Hot Springs to the Hoh River, up Mt Olympus and over to the Elwah River, finally reaching the Dosewallips River via Hayden Pass. Chapter 20 - Mt Olympus, Tom and Athena. p. 157: Pete Pedersen describes this 1938 trip, approaching from the Hoh River. This chapter also includes the story of Henry H. Botten, a fire protection engineer who made the first traverse of the three summits of Mt Olympus in 1908. Chapter 21 - Constance Pass. p. 169: Describes the author's last trip in the Olympics, in June 1942, just before entering service in the U.S. army. Chapter 22 - George. p. 175: This chapter provides a profile of George W. Martin, a school teacher and adminstrator, who accompanied the author on many Olympic outings. Martin was a skilled and prolific photographer. Following WWII, Martin became registrar at the new Olympic College. At the college, he initiated courses in Basic Mountaineering and Wilderness Survival. p. 179: Photo of George W. Martin. Return to the Alpenglow Ski Mountaineering History Project home page. Copyright © 2002 Lowell Skoog. All Rights Reserved. Last Updated: Sat, Oct 19, 2019 10:54:40 AM. Olympic Games 1916. In 1912, the 1916 Olympic Games were awarded to Berlin. In consultation with the International Olympic Committee, the German organizers started their work. However, the outbreak of World War I led to the discontinuation of the preparations. In January 1916, the failure of the Olympic Games became a certainty. Table of Contents. Introduction ↑ With the foundation of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) on 23 June 1894 in Paris, it was decided to establish the modern Olympic Games as a quadrennial international sporting festival. Following the premiere in Athens in 1896, the Olympic Games were to be rotated among cities around the world. After the beginning of the 20 th century, the Olympic movement became more popular in Germany. In 1904, with the Deutscher Reichsausschuss für Olympische Spiele (DRAfOS), a permanent German National Olympics Committee was established and the German IOC members began to promote Berlin as a future host city. This effort appeared to be succeeding, but the death of head of the campaign in 1909, Count Egbert Hoyer von der Asseburg (1847-1909), led to a withdrawal of Berlin’s bid for the 1912 Olympic Games. Instead, Stockholm was selected as the host. Preparing for the 1916 Olympic Games in Berlin ↑ In 1911, the Germans began a new initiative. At the 1912 IOC meeting, the 1916 Olympic Games were awarded to Berlin, and the DRAfOS was instructed to take over the organization of the event. [1] Henceforth, the Berlin Olympic Games were the primary concern of the DRAfOS. Its first course of action was to enlist a talented chief organizer. The most suitable person for this role was the young sports official, Carl Diem (1882- 1962). Diem started work in March 1913 as the general secretary of the Organizing Committee for the 1916 Berlin Olympic Games. [2] A principal issue in the upcoming Games was the role of top level sports. Only five gold medals had been awarded in Stockholm. It was clear to both Diem and the DRAfOS that the traditionalists in the German gymnastic movement had to be drawn into the effort. In view of its role in physical education in Germany, the national gymnastic organization, the Deutsche Turnerschaft (DT), could not be left out of the preparations. However, the DT’s hardliners regarded the international Olympic movement, whose motto was “ citius, altius, fortius, ” as a French version of Anglo-American record-seeking high performance sports. This starkly contrasted with the vision of the German gymnasts, who stood for tradition, patriotism, and the ideal of versatile physical education for the masses. Therefore, they had resisted participating in the Olympic Games and did not send a team to Stockholm in 1912, [3] despite the fact that gymnastics had been part of the Olympic competition since 1896. [4] A step towards cooperation between Olympic sports and German gymnastics was the inauguration of the “ Deutsches Stadion ” in Berlin on 8 June 1913, in which some 10,000 gymnasts participated. [5] In addition, top level German sportspeople began to prepare. Alvin Kraenzlein (1876-1928), a German-American and former Olympic champion, took up his job as head coach of the German team on 1 October 1913. Plans were laid for a “National Olympics” in 1915, as a sort of Olympic trial. On 27 and 28 June 1914, the best German athletes competed in the so- called “Pre-Olympic Games”. Even the DT participated with a large group of gymnasts. However, on the second day of competition, the assassination of Franz Ferdinand, Archduke of Austria-Este (1863-1914) in Sarajevo signalled the beginning of the end for the 1916 Olympic Games. End of the 1916 Olympic Games ↑ The outbreak of World War I on 28 July 1914 brought an end to preparations for the upcoming Olympic Games. The initial hope of the Organizing Committee, that a speedy conclusion of peace would allow the Berlin Olympic Games to take place, was dashed. By the time of the death of the DRAfOS chairman, Viktor von Podbielski (1844-1916), in January 1916, the failure of the Olympic Games had become a certainty, even though they were never officially cancelled. In 1915, the French baron Pierre de Coubertin (1863-1937), the IOC founder and chairman, had decided to move the IOC headquarters from France to Lausanne in neutral Switzerland. The IOC did not meet again until 1919, when Antwerp was selected as host city for the 1920 Olympic Games. The first post-war Games took place without German participation. As a consequence of World War I, Germany was excluded from the Olympic Games until 1928. Ansgar Molzberger, Deutsche Sporthochschule Köln. Notes. ↑ Minutes of the IOC session 1912, pp. 12-13. IOC Archive, file "Sessions 1894-1985". See also Kluge, Volker: Olympische Sommerspiele – Die Chronik. Athen 1896 – Berlin 1936, volume 1, Berlin 1997, p. 383. ↑ Minutes of the DRAfOS "Bestellung eines Generalsekretärs für die Olympiade 1916", 10 November 1912. Carl and Liselott Diem-Archive, "Carl Diem-Nachlass – 1.4: Sachakten", file 1: "Deutscher Reichsausschuß für Olympische Spiele 1895, 1906, 1908, 1909, 1912-1914". ↑ See Langenfeld, Hans: Die ersten beiden Jahrzehnte, in: Lämmer, Manfred (Ed. on behalf of the National Olympic Committee for Germany): Deutschland in der Olympischen Bewegung – Eine Zwischenbilanz, Frankfurt 1999, pp. 41-83, here p. 69. See also Molzberger, Ansgar: Die Olympischen Spiele 1912 in Stockholm – Zwischen Patriotismus und Internationalität, Studien zur Sportgeschichte, volume 9, St. Augustin 2012, pp. 139-153. ↑ For details on the 1916 Olympic competition program see Molzberger, Ansgar: Von Stockholm 1912 bis Berlin 1916 – Die "schwedisch-germanische Periode" der Olympischen Bewegung, in: Stadion 31/38-39 (2014), pp. 43-56. ↑ See Reinberg, F.: Das Deutsche Stadion in Berlin und seine Einweihung, in: Jahrbuch für Volks- und Jugendspiele 23 (1914), Leipzig and Berlin 1914, pp. 110-126, here p. 118. Selected Bibliography. Citation. Molzberger, Ansgar: Olympic Games 1916 , in: 1914-1918-online. International Encyclopedia of the First World War, ed. by Ute Daniel, Peter Gatrell, Oliver Janz, Heather Jones, Jennifer Keene, Alan Kramer, and Bill Nasson, issued by Freie Universität Berlin, Berlin 2016-08-30. DOI : 10.15463/ie1418.10953. The Nazi Olympics Berlin 1936. The 1936 Berlin Olympic Games were more than just a worldwide sporting event, they were a show of Nazi propaganda, stirring significant conflict. Despite the exclusionary principles of the 1936 Games, countries around the world still agreed to participate. Key Facts. Nazi Germany used the 1936 Olympic Games for propaganda purposes. The Nazis promoted an image of a new, strong, and united Germany while masking the regime’s targeting of Jews and Roma (Gypsies) as well as Germany’s growing militarism. For the first time in the history of the modern Olympic Games, people in the United States and Europe called for a boycott of the Olympics because of what would later become known as human rights abuses. Although the movement ultimately failed, it set an important precedent for future Olympic boycott campaigns (such as those in 2008 and 2014). Once the boycott movement narrowly failed, Germany had its propaganda coup: the 49 nations who sent teams to the Games legitimized the Hitler regime both in the eyes of the world and of German domestic audiences. Twitter Facebook Cite Print. This content is available in the following languages. Introduction. For two weeks in August 1936, Adolf Hitler's Nazi dictatorship camouflaged its racist, militaristic character while hosting the Summer Olympics. Softpedaling its antisemitic agenda and plans for territorial expansion, the regime exploited the Games to bedazzle many foreign spectators and journalists with an image of a peaceful, tolerant Germany. Having rejected a proposed boycott of the 1936 Olympics, the sponsoring athletic and Olympic organizations of the United States and other western democracies missed the opportunity to take a stand that—some observers at the time claimed—might have given Hitler pause and bolstered international resistance to Nazi tyranny. With the conclusion of the Games, Germany's expansionist policies and the persecution of Jews and other "enemies of the state" accelerated, culminating in World War II and the Holocaust. The 1936 Summer Olympic Games. In 1931, the International Olympic Committee awarded the 1936 Summer Olympics to Berlin. The choice signaled Germany's return to the world community after its isolation in the aftermath of defeat in World War I. Two years later, Nazi party leader Adolf Hitler became chancellor of Germany and quickly turned the nation's fragile democracy into a one-party dictatorship that persecuted Jews, Roma (Gypsies), all political opponents, and others. The Nazi claim to control all aspects of German life also extended to sports. German sports imagery of the 1930s served to promote the myth of “Aryan” racial superiority and physical prowess. In sculpture and in other forms, German artists idealized athletes' well-developed muscle tone and heroic strength and accentuated ostensibly Aryan facial features. Such imagery also reflected the importance the Nazi regime placed on physical fitness, a prerequisite for military service. Exclusion from German Sports. In April 1933, an "Aryans only" policy was instituted in all German athletic organizations. "Non-Aryans"—Jews or individuals with Jewish parents and Roma (Gypsies)—were systematically excluded from German sports facilities and associations. The German Boxing Association expelled professional light heavyweightchampion Erich Seelig in April 1933 because he was Jewish. (Seelig later resumed his boxing career in the United States.) Another Jewish athlete, Daniel Prenn—Germany's top-ranked tennis player—was removed from Germany's Davis Cup Team. Gretel Bergmann, a world-class high jumper, was expelled from her German club in 1933 and from the German Olympic team in 1936. Jewish athletes barred from German sports clubs flocked to separate Jewish associations, including the Maccabee and Shield groups, and to improvised segregated facilities. But these Jewish sports facilities were not comparable to well-funded German groups. Roma (Gypsies), including the Sinti boxer Johann Rukelie Trollmann, were also excluded from German sports. Jewish Athletes. As a token gesture to placate international opinion, German authorities allowed the star fencer Helene Mayer to represent Germany at the Olympic Games in Berlin. Mayer was viewed as a “non-Aryan” because her father was Jewish. She won a silver medal in women's individual fencing and, like all other medalists for Germany, gave the Nazi salute on the podium. No other Jewish athlete competed for Germany in the Summer Games. Still, nine athletes who were Jewish or of Jewish parentage won medals in the Nazi Olympics, including Mayer and five Hungarians. Seven Jewish male athletes from the United States went to Berlin. Like some of the European Jewish competitors at the Olympics, many of these young men were pressured by Jewish organizations to boycott the Games. These athletes chose to compete for a variety of reasons. Most did not fully grasp at the time the extent and purpose of Nazi persecution of Jews and other groups. In August 1936, the Nazi regime tried to camouflage its violent racist policies while it hosted the Summer Olympics. Most anti-Jewish signs were temporarily removed and newspapers toned down their harsh rhetoric, in line with directives from the Propaganda Ministry, headed by Joseph Goebbels. Thus, the regime exploited the Olympic Games to present foreign spectators and journalists with a false image of a peaceful, tolerant Germany. Boycott Movements. Movements to boycott the 1936 Berlin Olympics surfaced in the United States, Great Britain, France, Sweden, Czechoslovakia, and the Netherlands. Debate over participation in the 1936 Olympics was most intense in the United States, which traditionally sent one of the largest teams to the Games. Some boycott proponents supported counter-Olympics. One of the largest was the "People's Olympiad" planned for the summer of 1936 in Barcelona, Spain. It was canceled after the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War in July 1936, just as thousands of athletes had begun to arrive. Individual Jewish athletes from a number of countries also chose to boycott the Berlin Olympics or Olympic qualifying trials. In the United States, some Jewish athletes and Jewish organizations such as the American Jewish Congress and the Jewish Labor Committee supported a boycott, as did a number of liberal Catholic politicians and many college presidents. However, once the Amateur Athletic Union of the United States opted in a close vote to participate in December 1935, other countries fell in line and the boycott movement failed. Preparation for the Games. The Nazis made elaborate preparations for the August 1–16 Summer Games. A huge sports complex was constructed, including a new stadium and state-of-the art Olympic village for housing the athletes. Olympic flags and swastikas bedecked the monuments and houses of a festive, crowded Berlin. Most tourists were unaware that the Nazi regime had temporarily removed anti-Jewish signs, nor would they have known of a police roundup of Roma in Berlin, ordered by the German Ministry of the Interior. On July 16, 1936, some 800 Roma residing in Berlin and its environs were arrested and interned under police guard in a special camp in the Berlin suburb of Marzahn. Nazi officials also ordered that foreign visitors should not be subjected to the criminal penalties of German anti-homosexuality laws. Opening of the Games. On August 1, 1936, Hitler opened the XIth Olympiad. Musical fanfares directed by the famous composer Richard Strauss announced the dictator's arrival to the largely German crowd. Hundreds of athletes in opening day regalia marched into the stadium, team by team in alphabetical order. Inaugurating a new Olympic ritual, a lone runner arrived bearing a torch carried by relay from the site of the ancient Games in Olympia, Greece. Forty-nine athletic teams from around the world competed in the Berlin Olympics, more than in any previous Olympics. Germany fielded the largest team with 348 athletes. The US team was the second largest, with 312 members, including 18 African Americans. American Olympic Committee President Avery Brundage led the delegation. The Soviet Union did not participate in the Berlin Games (or any Olympics until the 1952 Helskinki Games when many politicians, journalists, and competitors regarded the Olympics as an important battle in the Cold War). Propaganda. Germany skillfully promoted the Olympics with colorful posters and magazine spreads. Athletic imagery drew a link between Nazi Germany and ancient Greece, symbolizing the Nazi racial myth that a superior German civilization was the rightful heir of an "Aryan" culture of classical antiquity. This vision of classical antiquity emphasized ideal "Aryan" racial types: heroic, blue-eyed blonds with finely chiseled features. Concerted propaganda efforts continued well after the Olympics with the international release in 1938 of Olympia , the controversial documentary directed by German filmmaker Leni Riefenstahl . Renowned for her earlier propaganda film, Triumph of the Will (1934) depicting Nazi Party rallies at Nuremberg, Riefenstahl was commissioned by the Nazi regime to produce this film about the 1936 Summer Games. German Victories. Germany emerged victorious from the XIth Olympiad. German athletes captured the most medals, and German hospitality and organization won the praises of visitors. Most newspaper accounts echoed the New York Times report that the Games put Germans "back in the fold of nations," and even made them "more human again." Some even found reason to hope that this peaceable interlude would endure. Only a few reporters, such as the American William Shirer, understood that the Berlin glitter was merely a facade hiding a racist and oppressively violent regime. After the Games. As post-Games reports were filed, Hitler pressed on with grandiose plans for German expansion. Persecution of Jews resumed. Two days after the Olympics, Captain Wolfgang Fuerstner, head of the Olympic village, killed himself when he was dismissed from military service because of his Jewish ancestry. Germany invaded Poland on September 1, 1939. Within just three years of the Olympiad, the "hospitable" and "peaceable" sponsor of the Games unleashed World War II, a conflict that resulted in untold destruction. With the conclusion of the Games, Germany's expansionist policies and the persecution of Jews and other "enemies of the state" accelerated, culminating in the Holocaust. Exclusive Clip: The U.S. Rowers Who Beat the Nazis in the 1936 Olympics. O lympic athletes are known for undergoing grueling endurance training to master their sports. But many have also endured personal hardships to get to the games in the first place. An uplifting story about the latter type of endurance is the subject of the upcoming PBS American Experience documentary The Boys of ’36 , which is about the nine working-class men on the University of Washington’s crew team who won a gold medal 80 years ago in competition at the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin. While getting to that level of athletic achievement at the height of the Great Depression, these sons of loggers and farmers — who worked on salmon boats and as janitors to pay for college — managed to best more privileged oarsmen, like collegiate rivals from the University of California and the Ivy League schools of the East Coast, as well as those from the U.K.’s Oxford and Cambridge. But, as this exclusive clip shows, their Olympic victory was the most astonishing of all: Nazi Germany’s swastika-wearing rowers quit their jobs to train for the Olympics and were, like many German athletes, seen as a point of national pride, given the opportunity to do anything necessary to achieve a win. After all, that year’s Olympic Games were meant to be a key propaganda tool for Adolf Hitler, who aimed to showcase the physical superiority of the German people—and to present a picture of a country at peace, even as he had already started down the road to World War II. The hour-long documentary — inspired by Daniel James Brown’s New York Times bestseller The Boys in the Boat and featuring interviews with children of the oarsmen — airs on August 2.