Tuesday, March 31, 2015

Nazi Influence in the Olympics
























To get ready for the Olympics, Germany "cleaned up its streets" to make it seem like they had things under control to the rest of the world. "To improve the scenery, not only the Gypsies but more than fourteen hundred homeless people had been collected and removed from the streets" (298). Germany also tried to please journalists from other countries by being given, "special accommodations, the finest equipment, the best vantage points for viewing the games, (and) free secretarial services" (298). All of these changed caused outsiders to believe that things were okay, and that Germany had flourished because of how nice the buildings and people were.
Germany also manipulated the race by implementing a "new rule" about lane assignments. "Everyone was painfully aware that the best lanes were the protected lanes close to shore: lanes one, two, and three; the least desirable were lanes five and six, out in the widest part of the Langer See. Ulbrickson was horrified and furious when he saw the lane assignments-lane one: German; lane two: Italy ...lane six: the United States of America. It was almost the perfect inverse of the order he had expected based on the qualifying times. It handicapped the most talented and fasted boats, and gave every advantage to the slower boats. It gave the protected lanes to the host country and her closest ally, and the worst lanes to her prospective enemies" (334). Politics were deeply involved in this and even though the USA was in the worst position, they still pulled through which was a shocking defeat for the Germans.

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