I hope the outcome will be different but I'm not counting on it. If anything,
the Olympics will likely end up coming out as another Potemkin event. Eric
The Beijing Olympics looks a lot like Nazi Germany’s
Rafael Medoff<https://forward.com/author/rafael-medoff/>February 4, 2022By
Elsa/Getty Images<https://forward.com/artist/elsa-getty-images/>
The parade of Olympic athletes in their national colors, the international
diplomatic corps looking on approvingly, the blaring of triumphal music, the
children singing and dancing, the iconic torch-lighting ceremony — and the
genocidal dictator presiding over it all: was it 2022 in Beijing, or 1936 in
Berlin? Sometimes, it was hard to tell.
The Beijing Olympics looks a lot like Nazi Germany’s
Rafael Medoff<https://forward.com/author/rafael-medoff/>February 4, 2022By
Elsa/Getty Image<https://forward.com/artist/elsa-getty-images/>The parade of
Olympic athletes in their national colors, the international diplomatic corps
looking on approvingly, the blaring of triumphal music, the children singing
and dancing, the iconic torch-lighting ceremony — and the genocidal dictator
presiding over it all: was it 2022 in Beijing, or 1936 in Berlin? Sometimes, it
was hard to tell.
Countries that host the Olympic Games derive an array of financial benefits,
from tourism dollars to corporate sponsorships. Regimes that are perpetrating
human rights violations enjoy an even more important benefit: an opportunity to
gain international legitimacy and whitewash their abuses.
For Adolf Hitler in 1936, The Games were a chance to make the Nazi regime seem
reasonable and distract from his oppression of German Jews. For Chinese leader
Xi Jinping, the Olympics represent an opportunity to turn the world’s attention
away from what the United States government and human rights groups have said
is his genocidal persecution of China’s largely-Muslim Uyghur minority.
Then and now, the international community has largely gone along with the
deadly charade.
No American officials were present at the opening ceremony, in accordance with
the Biden administration’s diplomatic
boycott<https://forward.com/opinion/479222/2022-olympians-have-a-chance-to-protest-the-chinese-uyghur-genocide/>
of what critics have dubbed “the genocide games.” Only 10 other countries
joined the U.S. in that very limited protest, keeping their diplomats home but
letting their athletes participate. No Muslim-majority countries joined the
diplomatic boycott, despite the genocide of their fellow-Muslims. Nor, sadly,
did Israel.
[Uyghur Muslims by the
Forward]<https://forward.com/opinion/479222/2022-olympians-have-a-chance-to-protest-the-chinese-uyghur-genocide/>
2022 Olympians have a chance to protest the Chinese Uyghur genocide — just like
brave athletes did during the Nazi games in
1936<https://forward.com/opinion/479222/2022-olympians-have-a-chance-to-protest-the-chinese-uyghur-genocide/>
Rafael Medoff<https://forward.com/author/rafael-medoff/>December 7, 2021
Hidden Genocide
The representatives of the 84 fully-participating countries will be carefully
shielded from any evidence of Chinese human rights violations. In advance of
The Games, according to the Washington
Post<https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/olympics/2022/01/27/china-olympics-economy-military-change/>,
the Beijing government has even closed some of the notorious “re-education
centers” where an estimated one million Ugyhurs have been interned.
Hitler employed a similar Potemkin strategy in the weeks preceding the 1936
Berlin Olympics. The antisemitic newspaper “Der Sturmer” was briefly removed
from newsstands and “Jews Not Wanted” signs that had been posted along major
thoroughfares were taken away.
Once The Games were over, the signs and the newspapers returned. The Chinese
reeducation centers will no doubt reopen, too.
The similarities don’t end there: China invited skier Dinigeer Yilamujiang, an
ethnic Uyghur who will be competing in The Games, to take part in the
torch-lighting ceremony. NBC announcer Savannah Guthrie, who co-narrated the
opening, called the choice of Yilamujiang “stunning.”
[Javelin medalists surround German Chancellor Adolf Hitler during the Berlin
Olympic Games on August 02, 1936. by the Forward]
By AFP via Getty Images
Javelin medalists surround German Chancellor Adolf Hitler during the Berlin
Olympic Games on August 02, 1936.
Hitler did something very similar. During the months preceding the Berlin
games, critics pointed out that Jewish athletes were being systematically
excluded from the German team. The Nazi leader sought to deflect the critics by
signing up a token fencer who had a Jewish father, Helene Mayer.
[The life-sized sculpture of the Jewish athlete Helene Mayer is pictured during
the exhibition opening 'Between Success And Persecution' at Washingtonplatz on
July 23, 2015 in Berlin, Germany. by the Forward]
By Boris Streubel / Getty Im...
The life-sized sculpture of the Jewish athlete Helene Mayer is pictured during
the exhibition opening ‘Between Success And Persecution’ at Washingtonplatz on
July 23, 2015 in Berlin, Germany.
Mayer later explained that she gave the Nazi salute from the Olympics podium
because her family members were still in Germany, some of them in concentration
camps. One can imagine that Yilamujiang may well be laboring similar pressures.
Guthrie and the three other pundits who joined for NBC’s coverage of the
opening ceremony made a few brief mentions of China’s human rights violations,
although their words sometimes left much to be desired.
Commentator Andy Browne, of the Bloomberg New Economy Forum, made it sound as
if the persecution of the Ugyhurs is a matter of dispute. He said — three times
in the space of a few seconds — that the foreign descriptions of Chinese
persecution are “allegations” which the Chinese government “strongly denies.”
Worse, he said that what they are alleging is that China is committing “a form
of cultural genocide.” But there’s nothing “cultural” about the
well-documented<https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2021/06/china-draconian-repression-of-muslims-in-xinjiang-amounts-to-crimes-against-humanity/>
crimes against humanity China is committing, including forced sterilization,
torture and internment of Uyghurs.
[The 1936 Olympics in Nazi Germany. Nazi and Olympic flags are seen flying on
the Brandenburg Gate. by the
Forward]<https://forward.com/opinion/479072/the-nazis-used-us-during-1936-olympics-we-cant-fall-for-chinese-propaganda/>
The Nazis used us during the 1936 Olympics. We cannot fall for the same
propaganda tactics in
China<https://forward.com/opinion/479072/the-nazis-used-us-during-1936-olympics-we-cant-fall-for-chinese-propaganda/>
Rafael Medoff<https://forward.com/author/rafael-medoff/>December 3, 2021
An Underwhelming Boycott
Prior to the opening of the Beijing Olympics, human rights activists urged
athletes to boycott The Games. While some boycotted the ceremony, none are
forgoing The Games completely.
Not many did in 1936, either, but at least there were a few whose conscience
did not allow them to take part in Games hosted by a regime that was engaged in
persecution.
Track and field stars Syd Koff, Herman Neugass, Norman Cahners and Milton
Green, as well as skater Jack Shea, swimming coach Charlotte Epstein and the
entire Long Island University Blackbirds basketball team (who were favored to
win the gold), boycotted The Games in 1936.
The sports world was shocked by the Blackbirds’ decision. A prominent sports
columnist, Frank Eck, chastised them for causing “ill feelings” by bringing the
German Jewish issue into the discussion.
Things have not changed much since then. Boston Celtics center Ends Kanter
Freedom has been a rare outspoken voice against Chinese oppression, but the NBA
itself has not been as brave.
When Houston Rockets general manager Daryl Morey offended Beijing by tweeting
sympathetically about Hong Kong’s “fight for freedom,” superstar Lebron James
called Morey “misinformed” and the NBA
pressured<https://www.nbcnews.com/think/opinion/what-did-lebron-james-say-about-china-nearly-everyone-else-ncna1069131>
Morey to apologize.
[A view of the shoes worn by Enes Kanter #13 of the Boston Celtics against the
Atlanta Hawks during the first half at State Farm Arena on November 17, 2021 in
Atlanta, Georgia. by the Forward]
By Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images...
A view of the shoes worn by Enes Kanter #13 of the Boston Celtics against the
Atlanta Hawks during the first half at State Farm Arena on November 17, 2021 in
Atlanta, Georgia.
Those looking for parallels between 1936 and 2022 don’t have far to look. At
the opening ceremony, troupes of choreographed Chinese children holding aloft
cardboard cut-out doves, reminiscent of the 3,000 doves released at the Berlin
opening as symbols of peace. Militaristic host regimes always want to be
thought of as peaceful, right up until the moment they launch their next war.
Then there was the stiff-legged, high-kicking manner in which a group of
Chinese soldiers marched during the ceremony. In 1936, it was not only the
soldiers of the host regime who did that, but also the athletes from Bulgaria,
who at the opening ceremony “drew down handsome applause by flattering German
sympathies” by goose-stepping as they passed the platform at which Hitler was
seated, the New York Times reported. Five years later, the Bulgarians flattered
him further by joining the Axis. More significant, however, is the question of
whether international responses to the Beijing Olympics will parallel those of
1936.
[The torch, which had been lit by the sun's rays on Mount Olympus and carried
1.800 miles by 3,000 runners through several countries, is placed by a young
man in the Lustgarten during the opening ceremonies of the XI Olympic Games on
August 1, 936 in Berlin, Germany. by the Forward]
By Getty Images
The torch, which had been lit by the sun’s rays on Mount Olympus and carried
1.800 miles by 3,000 runners through several countries, is placed by a young
man in the Lustgarten during the opening ceremonies of the XI Olympic Games on
August 1, 936 in Berlin, Germany.
The American news media’s generally positive coverage of the Berlin games
vindicated Hitler’s hope that he could use The Games to soften Nazi Germany’s
image abroad. The New York Times praised the German government for its
“flawless hospitality.”
A Los Angeles Times correspondent wrote that “Zeus, in his golden days, never
witnessed a show as grand as this.” An editorial in that newspaper even
predicted that the “spirit of the Olympiads” would “save the world from another
purge of blood.”
[Demonstrators from the Uyghur Community gesture as they take part in a protest
near the Belgium parliament in Brussels, the day Belgian MPs are due to vote a
resolution denouncing 'serious risk of genocide' against China's Uyghurs on
July 8, 2021. by the
Forward]<https://forward.com/opinion/480190/uyghur-genocide/>
China is committing genocide against the Uyghurs. American Jews must act
now<https://forward.com/opinion/480190/uyghur-genocide/>
Laura E. Adkins<https://forward.com/author/laura-e-adkins/>December 30, 2021
Even President Franklin D. Roosevelt was taken by the spectacle. He told Rabbi
Stephen S. Wise how impressed he was to learn from two tourists who attended
The Games “that the synagogues are crowded and apparently there is nothing very
wrong in the situation [of Germany’s Jews] at present.”
Will the international community once again enjoy the athletic spectacle and
turn away from the human rights crisis unfolding as The Games begin? Was the
co-owner of the NBA’s Golden State Warriors right when he recently said that
“nobody cares about the Uyghurs”?
The answers will soon become evident.
To contact the author, email
editorial@xxxxxxxxxxx<mailto:editorial@xxxxxxxxxxx>.
[Comparison of 1936 Berlin Olympics and 2022 Beijing Olympics by the
Forward]<https://forward.com/opinion/481964/we-cant-fail-the-uyghurs-as-the-world-failed-us/>
We can’t fail the Uyghurs as the world failed
us<https://forward.com/opinion/481964/we-cant-fail-the-uyghurs-as-the-world-failed-us/>
Naomi Kikoler<https://forward.com/author/naomi-kikoler/> and Rachel (Rae)
Goldfarb<https://forward.com/author/rachel-rae-goldfarb/>February 3, 2022
The views and opinions expressed in this article are the author’s own and do
not necessarily reflect those of the Forward.
Author
[Rafael Medoff]
Rafael Medoff<https://forward.com/author/rafael-medoff/>
Rafael Medoff, PhD, is founding director of The David S. Wyman Institute for
Holocaust Studies and the author of more than 20 books about Jewish history and
the Holocaust. His latest is “America and the Holocaust: A Documentary
History,” forthcoming from the Jewish Publication Society / University of
Nebraska Press.
