Sixteen Days of August

The closing ceremony of the XI Olympiad in Berlin, as portrayed in Leni Riefenstahl's 1936 celluloid chronology “Olympia,” was visually alluring: the Olympiastadion glowing, like a jewel at twilight; pillars of light emanating from encircling beacons; the deep resonance of the Olympic bell beckoning the youth of the world to return; the flags of the nations dipping in concert, each receiving a laurel; the translucent flag of five interlocking rings fluttering in harmony with trumpets and choir; the waning Olympic flame melting into the silhouette of a “Grecian” urn; and smoke peacefully ascending into a starburst convergence of unity and light.

When Germany’s Chancellor seized power in 1933, the honor of hosting the XI Olympiad had already been awarded to Berlin. But Hitler despised the “honor”! He despised the Olympic spirit of “peace and unity” in the context of individual accomplishment, racial equality, and national autonomy. His model was the Pax Romana (Roman Peace); peace born of an iron fist. The prophet Daniel describes the “peace” of this empire: “After this I saw in the night visions, and behold a fourth beast, dreadful and terrible, and strong exceedingly; and it had great iron teeth: it devoured and brake in pieces, and stamped the residue with the feet of it” (Daniel 7:7). And it was the victorious legions of Rome that determined the Roman Eagle to be the standard of the Third Reich; an anticipated millennium of peace historians identify as the Pax Germanica (German Peace).

The spirit of the Olympics was the antithesis of Hitler’s Gleichschaltung, a system eliminating individualism by regimenting virtually every aspect of German life, and enforcing that regimentation through the escalating invasiveness of a police state: abolition of freedom of speech and press, and all political parties but his own; opening the first concentration camp at Dachau; garnering support from industrialists like chemical giant IG Farben, the conglomerate who later supplied Dachau and other death camps Zyklon B; encouraging discriminatory measures afflicting Jews that eventually culminated in the 1935 Nuremberg Laws; and during the “Night of the Long Knives,” orchestrating the political assassination of Sturmabteilung (SA) leadership to solidify control over the military organization he once headed. Hitler despised the Olympic spirit. That is until Reich Minister of Propaganda Joseph Goebbels suggested that the prescheduled event be used to introduce the Third Reich to the world on German terms and turf. However, it quickly became more, an opportunity to propagate the Big Lie.

Hitler’s 1925 autobiography Mein Kampf describes a lie so "colossal [that no one] could have the impudence to distort the truth so infamously". Although this infamous publication atributes the “Big Lie” to Jews, the allegation appears to betray Hitler’s envy of Jewish success in whatever endeavor they involve themselves. Interestingly, during those sixteen days of August, Hitler appropriates the same propaganda technique to propagate the “Aryan” myth....