media release Local museum rewinds the Olympic clock to 1936. Prejudice against Blacks was as strong in Canada, as it was in the US, during the 1930s. But runner Phil Edwards became famous as Canada s Man of Bronze, winning five bronze medals in the 1928, 1932 and 1936 Olympic Games. He defied racism on and off the track to make a distinguished mark in Canadian history. For the son of struggling Jewish immigrants, the possibility of competing for Canada in the 1936 Olympics was a dream come true, but Ontario lightweight champion, Sammy Luftspring passed on the chance. Instead, he heeded his parents and his community and boycotted the 1936 Games in protest against the Nazi persecution of Jews. For some Olympians not competing in the games was a great victory. The 1936 Olympics in Nazi Germany, and Canada s response to these Games, is the subject of the Vancouver Holocaust Education Centre s timely new exhibit, More Than Just Games: Canada & the 1936 Olympics. The exhibit brings to life the remarkable stories of Canadian athletes and others who struggled with their decision as to whether or not to compete in what was infamously known as the Nazi Olympics. Nazi Germany camouflaged its racism and militarism while hosting the 1936 Winter and Summer Olympics. The Nazis charm offensive succeeded in portraying Germany as a respectable member of the international community. A Canadian Olympic skater interviewed by Matthew Halton for the Toronto Daily Star in 1936 observed No people as courteous as these could persecute the Jews or militarize their whole country. More Than Just Games is on display at the Vancouver Holocaust Education Centre from October 2009 to June 2010. Also on view is a complementary exhibit, Framing Bodies: Sport and Spectacle in Nazi Germany, which explores the relationship between athletics, politics and visual culture during the 1936 Games. Celebrating its fifteenth year, the Vancouver Holocaust Education Centre is the leading provider of Holocaust Education in western Canada. It reaches 25,000 students each year and has developed acclaimed educational exhibits and teaching resources, many of which can be viewed at www.vhec.org.
Strange but true facts & stats first torch relay inaugurated at the 1936 games The torch relay, a creation of the German Olympic Committee, was designed to draw a symbolic link between ancient Greece and the Third Reich. The 1936 Games also presented a stunning series of other firsts: the first live radio and television broadcasts and the first time that an Olympic cultural program took centre stage along with athletic events. A Jew was the star of the German hockey team Rudi Ball was Germany s star hockey player. Teammate Gustav Jaenecke, declared that he would not compete unless his friend Rudi Ball was permitted to play. That presented a problem for the Nazis as Rudi Ball was Jewish. In the end, Rudi Ball did play for Germany, one of only two Jewish athletes on the German Olympic team in 1936. Basketball a First Time Medal Sport in 1936 Competing in the Olympics is an athlete s dream. Basketball was still a young sport in 1936, and Irving Toots Meretsky was a star player on Canada s most successful amateur basketball team. Nothing was going to keep him from the Olympics including the fact that he was the only Jewish member of a team bound for Hitler s Germany. Canada was a basketball powerhouse at the time, and the game, created by Canadian, James Naismith, was a medal sport for the first time in 1936. Canadian Journalist Covered More Than Sports In the 1930s, Matthew Halton, a correspondent for the Toronto Daily Star and one of Canada s most respected international affairs reporters, reported back to Canadians about the growing threat of Nazism and the 1936 Games. Halton was a keen observer of more than sports and his observations about the fate of Jews proved chillingly prescient. Rukelie s Peculiar Revenge German Sinti (Gypsy) boxer, Johann Trollmann, called Rukelie by his friends, was unjustly stripped of his light-heavyweight title by Nazi officials in June 1933. In a mockery of the German Boxing Federation ruling, he appeared at his next match with his hair bleached and his body powdered white. He stood at centre ring for five rounds, taking blows from his opponent until he collapsed. He died in Neuengamme concentration camp in 1943 or 1944.
MORE THAN JUST GAMES: Canada & the 1936 Olympics & Framing Bodies: sport & spectacle of nazi germany October 2009 Fall 2010 hours Monday - Thursday 9 am - 5 pm Friday 9 am - 4 pm location Vancouver Holocaust Education Centre 50-950 West 41st Avenue, Vancouver Located in the Jewish Community Centre east of Oak Street, a ten minute walk from the Oakridge SkyTrain station on the Canada Line. For more information or to arrange an interview or exhibit tour, please contact: Anita Webster Anita Webster Communications w. 604 732 7035 e. anita@anitawebstercommunications.com Frieda Miller Executive Director Vancouver Holocaust Education Centre w. 604 264 0499 e. fmiller@vhec.org More Than Just Games: Canada & the 1936 Olympics Produced by the Vancouver Holocaust Education Centre 2009 Generously supported by: Diamond Family Endowment Fund of the Jewish Community Foundation, Faigen Charitable Foundation, Jewish Community Foundation, Lohn Foundation, Lutsky Family Foundation, Edward & Emily McWhinney Foundation, Oasis Foundation, Pekarsky Family Foundation, Al Roadburg Foundation, Vancouver Foundation, Wertman Development Corporation, Zacks Family Foundation, Chaim Zbar Foundation Community Partners Green Visiting Professorships Program at UBC Media Partners Celebrating 15 Years VANCOUVER HOLOCAUST EDUCATION CENTRE image credits: Page 1: A Berlin street during the 1936 Summer Olympics. Carl and Liselott Diem Archive Page 2: The torch relay, an iconic ritual of the modern Olympics, was inaugurated at the 1936 Olympics. A lone runner arrived bearing a torch carried by relay from the site of the ancient Games in Olympia, Greece. Deutsches Bundesarchiv (German Federal Archive), Bild 146-1976-116-08A/ Rudi Ball scores the first goal for Berliner SC in the Spengler Cup tournament against Cambridge University, Davos (Switzerland), December 31, 1931. Berliner SC won the game 4 points to 1, but lost the Spengler Cup Final against Oxford University. Swedish Ice Hockey Historical and Statistical Society/ Irving Toots Meretsky, one of the leading scorers of the 1936 Canadian Olympic team, circa 1936. Collection of Warren Meretsky/ Matthew Halton, 1930s. Collection of David Halton/ Johann Trollmann, circa 1932. Dokumentations- und Kulturzentrum Deutscher Sinti und Roma
Above: Sammy Luftspring. Canada s Sports Hall of Fame Bottom: Helene Mayer. USHMM, courtesy of Dr. George Eisen
Above: Phil Edwards. Canada s Sports Hall of Fame Bottom: Gretel Bergmann. USHMM, courtesy of Margaret (Gretel Bergman) Lambert
Above: Johann Trollmann. Dokumentations- und Kulturzentrum Deutscher Sinti und Roma Bottom: Eva Dawes. Canada s Sports Hall of Fame
Above: Irving Toots Meretsky. Collection of Warren Meretsky Bottom: Rudi Ball. Swedish Ice Hockey Historical and Statistical Society