#Olympiade 1936

[hoerbahnblog]

"Along the color line': Eine Reise durch Deutschland 1936" – von W. E. B. Du Bois – Oliver Lubrich (Hrsg.) spricht mit Uwe Kullnick über das Buch und vieles mehr - Hörbahn on Stage

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Hörbahn on Stage Wer war Helmut Gröttrup? Oliver Lubrich Einführung(Hördauer ca.15 min) https://literaturradiohoerbahn.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/Hoerbahn-on-Stage-Lubrich-Einfuehrung-upload-.mp3 Gespräch zwischen Oliver Lubrich und Uwe Kullnick (Hördauer ca. 65…

[illustratus]

XI. Olympische Spiele Berlin 1936 | XI Olympic Games Berlin 1936

Ich rufe die Jugend der Welt! I Call the Youth of the World!

[thefrankshow]

Leni Riefenstahl Marlboro Man

[stone-cold-groove]

Handy Guide-Map Through Berlin. Issued for the Games of the XI Olympiad - 1936 Summer Olympics.

[queen-mabs-revenge]

our branch meeting tonight is on sportswashing and the world cup, and i've been reading all about the international workers olympiads from 1921-1937 and the people's olympiad which was supposed to take place in barcelona in 1936 (cancelled bc of the fascist coup and ensuing civil war), bc i know it's gonna be a litany of the absolute horror that is FIFA's corruption and the specifics of qatar's violence against migrant workers. so, i'm hoping to inject a bit of 'we could have it so much better' into the mix, yanno?

like did you know that the 1931 workers' summer olympiad had 100K athlete participants and 250K spectators -- far oustripping the parallel bourgeois olympics the following year in LA? (1,332 athletes and 100K spectators)? the workers' olympiads were "opposed all kinds of chauvinism, sexism, racism and social exclusiveness. The Olympic Games were based in rivalry between the nations, but the Workers' Olympiads stressed internationalism, friendship, solidarity and peace". a new world record in the women’s 100 metres relay was broken during the 1925 worker's summer olympiad.

did you know that the 1936 people's olympiad was set up as a direct challenge to the 1936 olympics being held in nazi berlin (despite massive protest demanding it be moved). its manifesto was explicitly anti-fascist, anti-war, anti-racism, and anti-sexism:

Fascism changes the true spirit of sport, turning a progressive movement for peace and brotherhood between peoples into a cog in the machinery of war. The People’s Olympiad of Barcelona revives the original spirit of the Games and accomplishes this great task under the banner of the brother-hood of men and races. [...] That sport, and above all sport of a general, popular character, is one of the best and most important means of achieving women’s freedom, cannot be open to doubt. The People's Olympiad in Barcelona, which in its manifesto stands for the freedom of mankind, the freedom of all oppressed peoples and races, cannot pass unheeded the position of woman.

we truly can have it so much better than the atrocities of the ioc and fifa if we do it ourselves.

[mimi-0007]

James Cleveland "Jesse" Owens was an American track and field athlete who won four gold medals at the 1936 Berlin Olympics. He was the first American to achieve this feat in a single Olympiad, specializing in the long jump and sprints. Owens' athletic career began in high school, where he set records and won events at national championships. In 1933, he tied the world record in the 100-yard dash and set a new record in the 220-yard dash.

[workingclasshistory]

On this day, 21 July 1936 one of the most iconic photos of the Spanish civil war was taken on the rooftop terrace of what is now the Iberostar/Apple store buildings in Barcelona. Taken by German photographer Hans Gutmann, the photo depicts 17-year-old socialist, Marina Ginestà. Although she is captured holding a rifle, it is doubtful that Ginestà actually fought on the front lines during the war. Instead, as she was partially brought up in France and spoke fluent French, Catalan and Spanish she worked as a journalist during the war and more notably as a translator and interpreter for the Soviet correspondent form the Pravda newspaper, Mijaíl Koltsov. Gutmann had come to Barcelona to cover the anti-fascist Popular Olympiad games and at the onset of the war decided to stay to cover the conflict. He then castilized his name to Juan Guzmán. A communist himself, he had easy access to what was formerly the Hotel Colón, a building taken over by the PSUC (the Catalan Socialist Unification Party) where he took many of his renowned photos. When the photo was taken of young Ginestà she never had held a rifle in her hands - Guzmán offered it to her to pose with and the same rifle appears in another photo in the same hotel of the writer Ludwig Renn. Ginestà survived the war and fled to France as a refugee. She later escaped the Second World War by fleeing to the Dominican Republic. With the rise of the dictatorship under Trujillo Ginestà moved to Venezuela where she settled for many years working as a journalist and a novelist. In 2014 she passed away in Paris, France aged 94. Learn more about the Spanish civil war in our podcasts episode 39-40: https://workingclasshistory.com/podcast/e39-the-spanish-civil-war-an-introduction/ https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=665675658938986&set=a.602588028581083&type=3

[brookstonalmanac]

Events 7.29 (after 1920)

1920 – Construction of the Link River Dam begins as part of the Klamath Reclamation Project. 1921 – Adolf Hitler becomes leader of the National Socialist German Workers' Party. 1932 – Great Depression: In Washington, D.C., troops disperse the last of the "Bonus Army" of World War I veterans. 1937 – Tongzhou mutiny: In Tongzhou, China, the East Hebei Army attacks Japanese troops and civilians. 1945 – The BBC Light Programme radio station is launched for mainstream light entertainment and music. 1948 – Olympic Games: The Games of the XIV Olympiad: After a hiatus of 12 years caused by World War II, the first Summer Olympics to be held since the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin, open in London. 1950 – Korean War: After four days, the No Gun Ri Massacre ends when the US Army 7th Cavalry Regiment is withdrawn. 1957 – The International Atomic Energy Agency is established. 1957 – Tonight Starring Jack Paar premieres on NBC with Jack Paar beginning the modern day talk show. 1958 – U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower signs into law the National Aeronautics and Space Act, which creates the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). 1959 – First United States Congress elections in Hawaii as a state of the Union. 1965 – Vietnam War: The first 4,000 101st Airborne Division paratroopers arrive in Vietnam, landing at Cam Ranh Bay. 1967 – Vietnam War: Off the coast of North Vietnam the USS Forrestal catches on fire in the worst U.S. naval disaster since World War II, killing 134. 1967 – During the fourth day of celebrating its 400th anniversary, the city of Caracas, Venezuela is shaken by an earthquake, leaving approximately 500 dead. 1973 – Greeks vote to abolish the monarchy, beginning the first period of the Metapolitefsi. 1973 – Driver Roger Williamson is killed during the Dutch Grand Prix, after a suspected tire failure causes his car to pitch into the barriers at high speed. 1976 – In New York City, David Berkowitz (a.k.a. the "Son of Sam") kills one person and seriously wounds another in the first of a series of attacks. 1980 – Iran adopts a new "holy" flag after the Islamic Revolution. 1981 – A worldwide television audience of around 750 million people watch the wedding of Charles, Prince of Wales, and Lady Diana Spencer at St Paul's Cathedral in London. 1981 – After impeachment on June 21, Abolhassan Banisadr flees with Massoud Rajavi to Paris, in an Iranian Air Force Boeing 707, piloted by Colonel Behzad Moezzi, to form the National Council of Resistance of Iran. 1987 – British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and President of France François Mitterrand sign the agreement to build a tunnel under the English Channel (Eurotunnel). 1987 – Prime Minister of India Rajiv Gandhi and President of Sri Lanka J. R. Jayewardene sign the Indo-Sri Lanka Accord on ethnic issues. 1993 – The Supreme Court of Israel acquits alleged Nazi death camp guard John Demjanjuk of all charges and he is set free. 1996 – The child protection portion of the Communications Decency Act is struck down by a U.S. federal court as too broad. 2005 – Astronomers announce their discovery of the dwarf planet Eris. 2010 – An overloaded passenger ferry capsizes on the Kasai River in Bandundu Province, Democratic Republic of the Congo, resulting in at least 80 deaths. 2013 – Two passenger trains collide in the Swiss municipality of Granges-pr��s-Marnand near Lausanne injuring 25 people. 2015 – The first piece of suspected debris from Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 is discovered on Réunion Island. 2019 – The 2019 Altamira prison riot between rival Brazilian drug gangs leaves 62 dead. 2021 – The International Space Station temporarily spins out of control, moving the ISS 45 degrees out of attitude, following an engine malfunction of Russian module Nauka.

[1234567ttttttttttt]

Olympic Sports In Berlin Aka 11th Olympiad (1936)

[ukdamo]

KZ Sachsenhausen ; there and then, here and now

One of mine

In the summer of 1936 the posters on the underground in Berlin declaimed to every traveller, “Escape the big smoke. Come and enjoy the forests and lakes of Oranienburg". A forty-five minute train journey from S-Bahn Friedrichstrasse (1), in the heart of the city, brought sun seekers into the pleasant countryside to the north.

And why not? The dappled forest paths and clear lakes offered welcome relief from the thronged streets of the capital, streets filled with thousands of visitors who had come for the Olympiad being held in the new stadium, built to the west of the city.

People from all over the world had flown in to Flughafen Tempelhof, the airport whose buildings were a stone testament to the vitality of the l000 Year Reich. From there, visitors jostled along Swastika-hung streets to view the city sights: the Brandenburg Gate, the treasures of the Pergamon Museum, Schloss Charlottenburg; to climb to the top of the Siegessäule (2) not yet moved, on Hitler's order, from its home in front of the Reichstag; to stroll down the Unter den Linden - although the crowds were no longer shaded by its eponymous trees since they had been felled so as not to obscure the vista of Nazi (3) parades. Few visitors, admiring the State Opera house, recalled the newsreels of 1933 which showed this building lit by the flickering light of a great bonfire - a bonfire of burning books heaped on the adjacent square. Impressionable tourists lunched in the Café Schottenham, by the Anhalter Bahnhof (4), and then walked admiringly past the Bauhaus designed Europahaus en route to the splendid new Air Ministry building. Only a few years earlier the sightseers might have taken their coffee and cake in the Hotel Prinz Albrecht but this was now the HQ of Reichsfűhrer SS (5), Heinrich Himmler.

With every pavement, café and square teeming with tourists it was no wonder Berliners escaped to the relative calm of Oranienburg, to take a boat out on the lake, or to walk through the woods.

There were some city-dwellers, however, who travelled there under duress and for a more sinister purpose. To prevent the possibility of any embarrassing incidents in Berlin during the period of the Games, to disguise its anti-Semitism, and to forestall any negative publicity, some of the measures taken against the Jews by the regime were suspended. Behind this façade (quietly, unobtrusively, diligently), the Gestapo (6) intensified its labours rounding up the enemies of the Reich - Communists, Social Democrats, trade unionists, liberals, Christians, Jews, Sinti and Romany peoples, pacifists, Jehovah' s Witnesses, homosexuals, those designated 'anti­-socials' or criminals - and took them to the purpose built camp on the outskirts of Oranienburg. It was known as KZ Sachsenhausen. (7)

On a wintry day in February l996, I followed in their footsteps.

I was part way through my week in the city when I made my ‘pilgrimage’. After breakfasting, showering, and dressing in my most colourful clothes and dangliest earring, I picked up the remembrance (8), quitted my Berlin lodgings and set out for Oranienburg. The journey that had brought me to this time and place had begun years before in quite another location. As a younger man, studying Modern History at the University of Liverpool, I had focussed my enthusiasm on nineteenth and twentieth century European history: Berlin was a pivotal place in the scheme of things. My perspective, particularly on twentieth century German history, was informed by the lived experience of being a gay man. There and then reached a spectral hand into the here and now.

The cold February sky was downcast; grey, lowering. pedestrians turned up their coat collars to insulate themselves and hastened to their destinations. Sometimes I drew startled looks - my appearance being somewhat conspicuous - opposing the bleakness of the morning as it did. It was the fluttering ribbons which attracted most interest though. (Like the compelling image of the red coat in the film "Schindler's List"?) The train journey to Oranienburg was a journey in time as much as through a landscape. The train trundled across the city, heading northwards. Tenements gave way to light-industrial enterprises, these, in their turn, to detached houses with steeply-raked roofs. The houses thinned out and were separated by fields, wooded areas, little ponds and watercourses. As we clanked onwards, the landscape became more open. I could see now that the ground was waterlogged; crusty, muddy and frosted with snow. Even the larger lakes were frozen. Denuded trees pointed bony fingers to the sky. Somehow I had drifted into the winter of l944/45. The train reached its terminus and we few passengers reluctantly turned out of the warm carriages to brave the wind-scoured platform. Almost immediately, a gentle dusting of snow began to fall. (I am surprised to find that 1 feel glad it is snowing. It seems appropriate). I am possessed by the unshakeable conviction that no-one should visit at a pretty time of year. It would be sacrilegious. There is a mixture of buildings in the town, old and new, the streets are cobbled not asphalted. It requires no effort of imagination to see columns marching along this road. Straggly columns, sore-footed, threadbare. Oranienburg is a smallish town, similar to my own home town in NE Lancashire. There is some road traffic thudding over the cobbles; Trabbies and Wartburgs as well as VWs and Opels. Some kids look at me with unrestrained interest, older people with more reserve. Some of them even have a reproachful aspect.This is no longer Berlin, where people of unusual aspect arouse little notice and less comment. This is not even Manchester, where gays can be visible with a modicum of safety. This is the familiar, narrow, inhospitable ‘small-town’ Bronski Beat sang about with such eloquence. I recognise it from my own lived experience.

I become conscious of many thoughts; "This building would have been there then" "What must it be like to live here now, with such a legacy?" "What do these little kids make of it?"

Practical considerations imposed themselves and I looked for a signpost. There was one. How sobering, how chilling, to see it written. No longer a name from the past but a place here and now: Gedenkstätte Sachsenhausen (9).

Following the directions indicated, I walked towards the camp. As I neared it, the monument became visible above the rooftops. It stands uncompromisingly - a concrete grey monolith with pinkish triangles on the upper section. You could easily imagine that it was physically holding up the clouded sky, like Atlas.

At the corner of the Strasse der Nationen (10), which leads to the entrance, there is a small display board that remembers those who were killed on the 'Death March'. In the spring of l945, when it became obvious that all was lost, the authorities decided to march the camp inmates to the Baltic, intending to put them on ships and sink them. Six thousand died before the column was liberated - they were shot, beaten to death, or killed by cold and exhaustion. It was a sombre marker for what lay ahead.

Before going into the camp proper visitors walk through an entrance gate and along a wooded way that leads past the information centre. Through the trees to the left (sparse, wintry and naked) glimpses of the perimeter wall can be had. I went in to the office and collected an English guide map. The room was dominated by a big, green-tiled stove that radiated masses of heat. It made the cold outside seem that much more intense. "What must it be like to work in such a place?" I wondered, "Do you grow used to the horror of it all? Can you afford to forget?" I quitted the building and felt very alone. There was just me, the remembrance, and the reality of Sachsenhausen. There and then, here and now. I feel strongly that Sachsenhausen is not history: history has no life in it. Sachsenhausen can never be mere history as long as there is someone who knows, who remembers, who lives in the light of that remembrance.

The first place that presents itself to the visitor is a modern exhibition centre (1961) which houses photographs, archive material, and an allegorical stained glass memorial window. The building dates from the original opening of the camp as a centre for national remembrance, in what was then the GDR (11). It focuses on the wartime history of Sachsenhausen. It stands in what was the SS barrack area, just in front of the gatehouse. Inside, I noted the brief descriptions of the photos in English. Many needed no explanation: the horrors were all-to-evident. Among the most harrowing were the pictures of those murdered on the march to the Baltic. Corpses were scattered along the route - in fields, in ditches, in the woods, by the roadside - killed by a single pistol shot to the head. From under makeshift coverings (which those who found the bodies had used to try and afford them the dignity denied them by their tormentors) poked emaciated limbs, bruised and disfigured faces, unshod feet. Other photographs detailed those who were left behind, the three thousand in the 'hospital', found when the Russians entered the camp on April 22nd 1945.

On that April day, some few miles to the south, Hitler was in the bunker beneath the Reich Chancellery. He had celebrated his last birthday two days previously. The sounds of the strife above ground were muffled and did not disturb the delusions of ultimate victory he cherished. In the cold reality of day, Flughafen Tempelhof was about to fall to the advancing Russians.

Within a week Hitler would be dead.

Some of the prisoners in Sachsenhausen made slow recoveries and joined the sea of 'Displaced Persons' trying to get home in post-war Europe. For others, death's grip was too tight for liberation to make a difference.

Leaving the photograph collection, I turned toward the entrance to the camp proper and walked through. Arbeit Macht Frei (l2) said the mocking inscription on the gate. By the end of 1944, over 204,000 people had read that sentence as they passed under the lintel and in to the Appellplatz (13). Once inside, more than 100,000 of them were systematically put to death. Others met death in camps they were transferred to. It would be invidious to try to describe the sufferings endured by camp inmates in a purely statistical way; in any case, the destruction of records means that an accurate total can never be known. The information in Sachsenhausen suggests that some 30,000 gay men were sent to the camps under the Nazis. Estimates vary. A figure of 60,000 or more may not be unduly high. Perhaps as many as 2/3rds of these men did not survive.

Standing there, 1 felt as if I had ought to remove my boots and go barefoot. A stupid idea but an almost overpowering feeling. I gazed across the open courtyard, at the monument towering beyond, and was filled with unutterable sadness.

The camp is laid out like a gigantic triangle, with the gatehouse in the centre of the baseline. Emotionally, I felt this to be an obscene joke. Apparently, it was simply the result of Nazi thoroughness and the exigencies of security - a shorter perimeter, fewer watchtowers, fewer unobserved corners, better sightlines. All so easily calculated.

The courtyard presented a large semicircle - the placement of the first row of huts being indicated by a latticed wall. Behind me, to my left and right was the neutral zone (actually a killing field); a wire boundary marker, a few yards of bare earth, then an electric fence. Finally, and almost superfluously, there was the perimeter wall with its barbed wire crown. To step over the marker invited being shot without warning. Photographic evidence shows that some prisoners chose this. Still others crossed the death strip and embraced the electrified wire.

I looked down at the map in my hand. It was difficult to use it nimbly because of the cutting wind and my chilled muscles. My eyes were watering, too, but I could not blame the wind for that. The ribbons on the remembrance fluttered; the only colour in the landscape.

Immediately in front of me was a great concrete roller that weighed three metric tonnes. The Häftlinge (14) were forced to run pulling this and were beaten if they moved too slowly. A semicircle just in front of the first row of huts was identified as the Schuhprűfstrecke (15), Here, in a broad arc, were nine sections - each of a different surface - gravel, flint, broken stone, sand etc… Prisoners had to walk over these for ten hours each day (about 25 miles, carrying 35lb in weight) to test the durability of shoe/boot soles. I looked down. The frost-frozen ground cracked beneath my own booted feet and I sank into the mush. Scattered snowflakes flitted by. A few rooks called, screechingly.

A party of British teenagers came in through the gatehouse. They were chatty, boisterous, as kids are. But their voices grated on my ears even more than the shrill rooks. Some places in the world must only ever be silent places. Not because noise is a bad thing. No, Act Up is right when it says that Silence = Death. But in Sachsenhausen the silence is needful. It is what makes it permissible to be noisy elsewhere. If the potent and clamorous silence of that place is ever trodden underfoot, then the laughter, songs, protests, whistles and dancing that enliven and affirm us wherever we are will be themselves in danger of being silenced forever.

There are those who wish it so.

In September of 1992, a number of individuals broke into the camp and burned down two of the huts (known as the Jewish Barracks). It is thought that this act was a deliberate desecration of the memorial and was an indication of the resurgence of xenophobia and anti-Semitism in the recently re-unified Germany. In Berlin itself, on Oranienburger Strasse, stands the recently restored Neue Synagoge (16). It is guarded by three armed policemen and is protected by stringent security measures. Inside is an exhibition that focuses on the history of the Jewish people in Berlin, even so, it acknowledges that racism and prejudice have deep roots are widely prevalent.

Closer to home, there is a latent racism abroad on the streets of my own town. The National Front has contested, and continues to be active, in local elections. Dispersed asylum seekers meet with thinly veiled hostility. In 1994 an NF candidate was successfully elected in local council elections on the Isle of Dogs, London. Jewish cemeteries are regularly vandalized. Violence directed at lesbians and gay men, is, sadly, an unremarkable occurrence.

My train of thought had been interrupted by the noise of the school kids, so I allowed them to go their own way and then turned my attention back to the map. Over to the right was a temporary exhibition that told the story of the Jewish Barracks and their inmates. The future of these two barrack blocks (38 and 39), destroyed in the arson attack, remains to be decided.

Further on was the special detention camp set up for prominent political, and other, prisoners. A number of the cells are still there. Prisoners were often held in solitary confinement for long periods, tortured, denied food and drink, kept in darkened cells for months or even longer. Martin Niemőller (17) was a prisoner here. To walk along and look into the tiny cells (some with memorials inside) was a humbling experience. It was not hard to imagine the clang of steel doors, the turn of keys, the sounds of brutal interrogation echoing down the narrow corridor.

What was the date again?

At the far end, the building opened on to an exercise yard, separated from the rest of the camp by a high wall. I stepped out again into the bleak, dismal light. To the left was the Erdbunker (18), a burial cell or pit where prisoners were virtually entombed, exposed to bitter cold and oozing wet walls with only a small, steel barred hatch above. What would you see from inside? A cross hatched patch of blue? A slate grey torrent?

On the February day I was there, the ground was waterlogged. I could hear the drip of icy melt water as it fell into that dark maw. A great puddle surrounded the hatch, frozen on top, squelchy underneath.

Just beyond the bunker, on the wall, was the memorial plaque that I had come to see; journey’s end for the beribboned remembrance, journey’s beginning for my living remembrance. The plaque is a stark in its simplicity: a black rectangle with the letters punched out by stencil, exposing the wall behind. On the ground below, a few tiles, and, scattered on them, a few carnations. Had they once been pink? The wording of the memorial was as stark in its simplicity as the plaque itself. How else could it be? How can you dress it up in fine language?

TOTGESHLAGEN TOTGESCHWIEGEN DEN HOMOSEXUELLEN OPFERN DES NATIONALSOZIALISMUS

Taking hold of the remembrance, I drove the pole in to the ground as far as it would go and then banked up the mushed, sandy, ice-filled soil around it to hold it steady. Not caring whether I was observed or not, I knelt down in the waterlogged yard, sank back onto my haunches and waited quietly for about the length of time it takes a man to walk a mile slowly. Everything was hushed. The ribbons flapped and the poem waved about as the wind caught it. For a moment or two, there was a dancing rainbow

When the time was right, I stood up to continue my journey. (I returned to the remembrance before I finally left the camp, the hard frost meant that the banked earth at the base of the pole was already beginning to freeze. Almost as if to ward off the chill, the freedom ribbons fluttered gaily. This optimism made the leave-taking that much easier).

I moved on item the exercise yard to the exhibition mounted in the former prisoners’ kitchen. The route took me past the sites of the gallows where prisoners deemed to have committed offences were hung,. Other grisly punishments were also meted out here during roll call "pour encourager les autres". Away to the right, by the perimeter wall stood a monument to those who died in the camp during the period 1945-50. For Sachsenhausen's infamy did not end with the war's end. The Soviets operated the site, under the name of ‘Special Camp No. 7’, and imprisoned former members of the Nazi Party, members of the SS, and the Wehrmacht (20), as well as prisoners of war released by the Western Allies, and others. Later on, inmates included people who were victims of denunciations, people who were arbitrarily arrested, growing numbers of Social Democrats, Christian Democrats and Liberals, opponents of the Soviet occupying power, and of the emerging East German Communist regime. It is estimated that 20,000 people died as a result of the conditions in the camp..

The sights that met the eye once inside the former cook-house were stinging. Further calculated horrors, to which the prisoners were subject, were held up for unwelcome yet necessary inspection.. There were artefacts from the wartime history of the camp – Zyklon B canisters (21). Human hair, gathered for use as war materiel. Fillings from teeth. Striped uniforms, with their triangles of various colours (22). Plates and cutlery, stamped with prisoners’ numbers. The ‘height measurer’ from Station Z (23). This building was a place I wanted to run through quickly and escape from. Instead, I walked slowly and deliberately through it all, step by step, case by case, from one information board to the next. It was like the Stations of the Cross. Is it realistic to hope for a Resurrection? ‘Can there be lyric poetry after the Holocaust?’ someone asked.

Can there be?

I do not feel able to answer that question. But I can witness to this: the even in Sachsenhausen it proved impossible to crush the creativity and aspirations of the human spirit. Prisoners crafted necessarily small but beautiful things from the most basic materials and contraband. They made chess sets, inlaid cigarette cases, even a crude radio receiver. Furthermore, there is at least one recorded instance of resistance, carried out by the ‘Jewish 18’. In the autumn of 1942, in protest at their inhuman treatment, eighteen Jews staged a protest in the Appellplatz. Their act of resistance, though brutally suppressed, did result in some amelioration of camp conditions for the Jewish inmates. It did not save the 18 from Auschwitz-Birkenau.

When I had reached the end of the exhibition I paused for a long time by the visitors’ book because had to frame carefully what I wanted to write there. What response can on make to such horrors?

"Whereof one cannot speak, thereof must one remain silent", noted Wittgenstein in his philosophical investigation of language. He must have been thinking of the situations that test the boundaries of human experience when he formulated that precept. And here was I in such an extremity. Just how do you write down a howl of anguish in the soul? When I left the block I saw the great monument towering before me. I went up close and looked at its huge bronze figures and its concrete vastness. The scale was so big as to be scarcely human. In a way, this is perversely fitting since the dreadful events to which it testifies are equally vast in scope and inhuman in character. The sculpted group of figures at the base of the tower is entitled "Liberation". (A secular version of Resurrection?)

Feeling tiny, I turned and walked the short distance to the site of Station Z.

If Dante's Inferno is taken as a metaphor for Sachsenhausen, then Station Z may be thought of as the deepest and most damned region of that place. Perhaps it is fitting that this was the last place I visited and the place where I most nearly lost what measure of self-control was left to me.

The area is shielded from the elements by a canopy. The suffering and the loss are recalled in an affecting monument; bronze figures two adults with a dead child. More affecting still are the remains of the building that stood on this spot. It was built in l942 and was staffed by the SS. Here thousands upon thousands were gassed, or shot. Their bodies were profaned (treated as the source of raw materials for the war effort) then burned. Any remains were crammed into a subterranean bunker close by.

Given what preceded death, this can be no real surprise. Often, camp inmates were used as a slave work force for various SS-run enterprises. Prisoners from Sachsenhausen were compelled to build the canteen and recreational facilities, used by the Gestapo and SS, on the Prinz Albrecht Terrain (24). In the 'hospital' prisoners were used in experiments to test drugs, chemical weapons, and 'treatments'.

The foundations only remain. No access is allowed: visitors look through a wire fence on to the features that rising up from the earth. Clearly discernible are the rooms that comprised the gas-chamber (disguised as a shower room) the ante-room where prisoners stripped before going in to the 'shower', and the ramp where the dead, having been thrown on to carts, were pulled the few yards to the crematorium. Also evident were rooms used for interrogations and a killing room made to appear like a clinic. Prisoners were stood against a height measurer attached to a wall. (A wooden finger that ran between two slats, marked off in centimetres). Unknown to the inmate, there was a hidden room behind the wall. Once the wooden finger was upon his or her head, someone in that room would shoot them in the back of the neck. Bodies were dragged across the floor and through a door that opened on to the crematorium. All so convenient, so duplicitous, shielded from the eyes of the other inmates. But there could be no secrecy; the smoke, the smell, the miasma, the point of no return. It must have been evident for miles.

The wind whipped up again. Steam rising from the boiler house in the old laundry block caught my eye and was transformed into the smoke from this charnel house. It was suddenly 1944 again. The camp was filled beyond capacity with the enemies of the Reich, 90% of them non-German. There were representative groups from virtually all of Nazi occupied Europe.

Russian prisoners were being systematically exterminated. Food was scarce, warm clothes scarcer still. Prisoners were beaten, worked to death, tortured, subject to crazed experiments.

The rooks sent up a cacophony of cries that brought me to myself again. Here I was, in 1996, looking& back at what had been. Statistics in Sachsenhausen indicate that there were more than 2000 concentration camps, sub-camps and detention centres in Germany alone.

I blinked back tears as I looked through the fence and reconstructed these terrors in my mind's eye. Walking round the site, moving clockwise past the sculpture in the near left hand corner, I caught site of a feature that I did not immediately recognise and so moved closer. Suddenly, even through eyes misted over, it became all-to-evident. The few courses of bricks, the metal doors and the flues, resolved themselves into ovens. There were four in a row. I was absolutely stricken. My legs buckled and I let out an involuntary cry as I stumbled and reached out for the wire to support myself. From then on, I was in a daze. I tottered across the frozen earth and picked my way gingerly down the trench that led down to the bunker where the bones had been dumped. Signs on the sides of the wooden ramparts indicated where prisoners of war had been shot. Others who met their death at this entrance to Hades included those sent to Sachsenhausen by Reichssicherheitshauptampt of the SS and the Gestapo (25). Most sickening was the mechanised gibbet, worked by a winch and pulley, which allowed four people to be hung at one time, with the minimum expenditure of effort or manpower. It was what 1 had come to expect of the Nazis during the course of my visit. That I was no longer shocked by such atrocity was a shock in itself. I stared out of the pit at the vast grey sky, punctured only by the concrete finger of the monument. The sky was heavy under the weight of its own sorrow.

The closing scene from the film Judgment at Nuremberg came to mind. An American (small town) judge visits his leading Nazi counterpart whom he has just sentenced for war crimes. The German judge offers, as mitigating explanation, that he thought the Nazis could be controlled and used, that he never imagined it would come to this. His counterpart dismisses this very cogently and simply: "It came to this the first time you sentenced a person to death whom you knew to be innocent."

If Sachsenhausen indelibly imprinted one idea in me, it is this: that every step down the road which begins with disrespect for another person ends at KZ Sachsenhausen. All the sentences which begin, "I'm not …………… (insert your own favourite prejudice)…… but ……" conclude, ultimately, with the sharp report of a pistol shot, or the creak of rope, or the bolts sliding home on the door to the 'shower'.

Many of the entries in the visitors' book say, "This must not be allowed to happen again". My feeling is that it has never stopped happening. I believe that it may prove truly fatal to think of there and then and exclude here and now. I am convinced that the celebration of life and difference, the promotion of human flourishing, is dependent upon us being ever vigilant, and ever respectful of the dignity of others.

My visit to Berlin showed ample evidence that a significant number of people share this perspective. In the wake of the arson attack on the 'Jewish Barracks' at Sachsenhausen, there was a spontaneous gathering at the memorial to express concern and regret. Subsequently, a demonstration was held which focussed on the theme 'reflecting in Germany - together against xenophobia and anti-Semitism'. 7000 people attended.

When the Berlin city authorities were considering what uses the Prinz Albrecht Terrain might be put to, concerned citizens and organisations took an active interest and even direct action, including a symbolic 'dig' on May 5th., 1985. The discovery of the foundations of the buildings associated with the site, particularly the cells used by the Gestapo, and those parts built by the slave workers from Sachsenhausen, together with the insistent pressure brought to bear by those who saw the necessity of an explicit recognition of the role that the site played during the period of the Third Reich, resulted in the opening of an exhibition pavilion and associated memorials which currently comprise the site. The motto of the groups coordinating the May 5th dig seems very appropriate: "LET NO GRASS GROW OVER IT!"

The city is notable for the number of memorials and plaques that detail the location of many buildings, and chronicle many events, which some would rather forget. Berlin's insistence on facing up to the past and continuing to confront it in the present struck me very forcefully. Less formal but no less striking is the graffiti that can be seen in the city. Particularly in the workers residential areas, like Prenzlauer Berg, graffiti appears to be regarded as necessary.

Graffiti ist kein Verbrechen!

Lesben Pauer

Nazis vertreiben, Auslanderinnen bleiben

This is a Nazi house

Much graffiti was focussed on current concerns – Kurdish refugees, the confrontation between Neo~Nazis and their Anarchist and Anti-Fascist opponents. Some was witty and creative but most was political in its inspiration. Amongst my favourites was the pointed reminder: "Wer bunker baut, wirft bomben" (27).

Comparing this situation to that nearer to home gives cause for unease. I do not feel that we recognise the dangers of forgetfulness, or apathy. Remember Pastor Niemöller's lament? Muted public concern permits our government to play fast and loose with human rights - witness the attempt to expel the Saudi dissident, Mohammed al Mas'ari, to protect lucrative arms deals with the Saudi government. Consider how the Criminal Justice Act is used against travelling people and against those who wish to undertake direct and legitimate protests. Examine closely those churches who claim to esteem the unique dignity of the human person in absolute terms yet couch their teaching and pastoral documents in such a way that the human dignity of some is completely abrogated. This may be noted particularly when the churches address themselves to women’s issues, lesbian and gay issues, or issues of race and ethnic origin. There is no comfort to be had in looking at the wider situation - the former Yugoslavia, Iraq, Chechnya, or Rwanda.

I wish I were able to claim for lesbians and gay men some innate virtue that renders us impervious to the propaganda of racism and sexism, but I can't. Though we may identify more strongly than some with the women, children and men who were butchered there and then in places like Sachsenhausen, and though we might feel their suffering acutely and recoil in genuine horror, still that does not confer an automatic immunity to the hateful thinking patterns that produced the concentration camps.

If it is true that lesbians and gay men (among others) have a 'privileged' access to the experience of the Häftlinge, then we have a particular responsibility to be vigilant. The danger we face because of that propaganda and its attendant terrors may be more subtle and understated in Britain than it is overseas but it is no less invidious. We must be vigilant not simply to prevent the virulent return of those values that consigned us to the camps (the fear of being inmates in the here and now) but also to prevent us from being seduced by the simplistic slogans and false promises that would make us accomplices in their institution. Without such vigilance we face the awful an almost unimaginable possibility of being deceived into acting as the new guards.

The lesson that Pastor Niemöller learned (too late?) was that if it could be you, it could be me, and if it were me, then it could be any of us. For that reason the same thing is demanded of each of us:

Vigilance and respect; there and then, here and now.

2001 © PD Entwistle

Notes

(1) S-Bahn Friedrichstrasse:

Berlin is served by a variety of train and tram routes. S-Bahn refers to the Schnellbahn - the overland train network, Friedrichstrasse to the station in the centre of the city.

(2) Siegessäule:

Victory Column, built to commemorate the military victory over the French which led to the founding of the Second Reich in 1871.

(3) Nazi:

NSDAP Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei. The National Socialist German Worker's Party. Elected to power in 1933, the party began to usurp the power of the state, supplanting the rule of law and government by the fiat of the party and the instruments of terror it wielded. Within a few months Hitler had stifled all opposition and abandoned any pretence of democratic rule.

(4) Anhalter Bahnhof:

This was one the chief railway termini for Berlin. Severely damaged in wartime bombing, there now remains only a portion of the facade.

(5) Reichsfűhrer SS:

Himmler’s official title, ‘Reich leader of the SS’. The SS (Schűtzstaffel) was the Protection Squad of the Nazi Party.

(6) Gestapo:

Geheime Staatspolizei, the secret state police.

(7) KZ Sachsenhausen:

Konzentrationslager, concentration camp. In the earlier years of Nazi Germany the camps were sometimes referred to as Schutzhäftlager, protective custody camps.

(8) Remembrance:

This had its origin in two distinct items which seemed to belong together as a 'token' that could be taken to Sachsenhausen and left at the memorial there. The remembrance consisted of 6 freedom ribbons, in the rainbow colours, attached to a pole. These ribbons had been part of a larger banner that had been carried on the Lesbian and Gay Pride March (London) in the summer of 1994. Together with the ribbons was a poem (see below).

The Colour of Forget-Me-Nots

rose pink

carnation pink

perky pink

panther

champagne pink

in the pink

lily the pink

lipstick

blushing pink

candy floss pink

baby pink

bootees

marshmallow pink

bubblegum pink

fuchsia pink

Triangle

(9) Gedenkstätte Sachsenhausen:

Many of the former camps have been designated as places of national remembrance and reflection. Sachsenhausen is the one closest to Berlin.

(10) Strasse der Nationen:

Street of the nations

(11) GDP:

German Democratic Republic more commonly referred to as East Germany .

Now, of course, no longer in existence since the reunification of Germany.

(12) Arbeit Macht Frei:

The motto which was found at the entrance to the concentration camps. Work shall set you free.

(13) Appellplatz:

The place where inmates were assembled for roll-calls, punishments etc…

(14) Häftlinge:

Prisoners of the camp.

(15) Schuhprűfstrecke:

The shoe-testing ground.

(16) Neue Synagoge:

The 'New Synagogue’, completed in 1866. One of two dozen synagogues vandalised and set alight on Kristallnacht (the night of broken glass), November 9th., 1938. Following this pogrom 12,000 Berlin Jews were brought to Sachsenhausen.

(17) Martin Niemöller:

Pastor Niemöller, U-Boat commander in WWI and a one-time supporter of the

Nazis, came to reject Fascism and was incarcerated in Sachsenhausen.

He is, perhaps, best remembered for the following verse –

First they came for the Jews

And I did not speak out – because I was not a Jew.

Then they cane for the Communists

And I did not speak out because I was not a Communist.

Then they came for the trade unionists

And I did not speak out - because I was not a trade unionist.

Then they came for me

And there was no-one left to speak out for me.

(18) Erdbunker:

Literally, ‘earth bunker’.

(19) Totgeshlagen…:

A literal translation is difficult. The inscription may be read as –

BEATEN TO DEATH

SILENCED TO DEATH

THE

HOMOSEXUAL

VICTIMS

OF

NAZISM

(20) Wehrmacht:

The German Army.

(21) Zyklon B:

The cyanide gas pellets used in the gas chambers.

(22) Triangles:

Prisoners in the camps were made to wear triangles of different colours. The

respective colours indicated the reason for their incarceration, eg. green = criminal,

red = political offender, black = anti-social, pink = homosexual.

(23) Station Z:

The mass extermination facility, built by the SS in 1942, and run by the

Totenkopfstandarte SS (Death’s Head battalions of the SS). Here, thousands

upon thousands were systematically butchered.

(24) Prinz Albrecht Terrain:

An area of central Berlin that housed the offices and HQ of the Nazi state terror

apparatus eg. the Gestapo, the SS. Bounded by (what is now) the Wilhelmstrasse,

Niederkirchnerstrasse, Stresemannstrasse, and Anhalterstrasse.

(25) Reishsicherheitshauptamt:

An approximate translation would be Head Office of Reich Security.

(26) Graffiti:

Colloquial translations might be –

Graffiti is no crime!

Lesbian Power!

Deport the Nazis, let the immigrant women stay

(27) Wer Bunker…:

Whoever builds bunkers, drops bombs

[tigermike]

Jesse Owens of USA winning gold for the long jump in the summer Olympics in Germany, 1936.⁣⁣ ⁣⁣ The man saluting behind Owens is Lutz Long, a German who shared training tips with Owens and was the first to openly congratulate him after his final jump in full view of Hitler.

After the Olympics, the two kept in touch via mail. Below is Long's last letter to Owens while he was stationed with the German Army in North Africa during World War 2. Long was later killed in action during the allied invasion of Sicily in 1943.⁣⁣ ⁣⁣

"I am here, Jesse, where it seems there is only the dry sand and the wet blood. I do not fear so much for myself, my friend Jesse, I fear for my woman who is home, and my young son Karl, who has never really known his father.⁣⁣

My heart tells me, if I be honest with you, that this is the last letter I shall ever write. If it is so, I ask you something. It is a something so very important to me.

It is you go to Germany when this war done, someday find my Karl, and tell him about his father. Tell him, Jesse, what times were like when we not separated by war. I am saying—tell him how things can be between men on this earth.⁣⁣ ⁣⁣

If you do this something for me, this thing that I need the most to know will be done, I do something for you, now. I tell you something I know you want to hear. And it is true.⁣⁣ ⁣⁣

That hour in Berlin when I first spoke to you, when you had your knee upon the ground, I knew that you were in prayer.⁣⁣ ⁣⁣ Then I not know how I know. Now I do. I know it is never by chance that we come together. I come to you that hour in 1936 for purpose more than der Berliner Olympiade.⁣⁣ ⁣⁣

And you, I believe, will read this letter, while it should not be possible to reach you ever, for purpose more even than our friendship.⁣⁣ ⁣⁣ I believe this shall come about because I think now that God will make it come about. This is what I have to tell you, Jesse.⁣⁣ ⁣⁣

I think I might believe in God.⁣⁣ And I pray to him that, even while it should not be possible for this to reach you ever, these words I write will still be read by you.⁣⁣ ⁣⁣

Your brother,⁣⁣ Luz"⁣⁣

[lignes2frappe]

40 ANECDOTES SUR LA DREAM TEAM, LA MEILLEURE ÉQUIPE DE BASKET DE TOUS LES TEMPS

1. Avant les Jeux olympiques de 1992 à Barcelone, la Fédération internationale de basket-ball (la FIBA) interdisait aux joueurs évoluant en NBA de participer à la compétition.

La règle a été changée en 1989 suite à vote interne (56 voix pour, 13 voix contre)… et ce malgré l’opposition des représentants des États-Unis !

2. La raison principale qui a motivé cette évolution fut l’humiliation subie par la précédente sélection américaine lors des Jeux Olympiques de Séoul en 1988.

Défaite en demi-finale par l’URSS (82-76) en pleine Guerre froide, elle avait alors dû se contenter d’une piètre médaille de bronze, laissant échapper pour la seconde fois seulement depuis 1936 la médaille d’or.

3. Il a fallu deux ans pour sélectionner les 12 membres de la Dream Team.

Sous la houlette de C.M. Newtonn, directeur athlétique de l’université du Kentuchy et ancien assistant de coach de la sélection olympique de 1984, un comité a été formé constitué de cadres de la NBA (Rod Thorn et Jack McCloskey), d’entraîneurs universitaires (Mike Krzyzewski et P.J. Carlesimo), et d’un représentant des joueurs (Charles Grantham).

Le comité a ainsi passé en revue les saisons 1990-91 et 1991-92 avant de rendre ses recommandations.

4. Les noms des joueurs sélectionnés ont été dévoilés en direct lors d’une émission de télévision spéciale diffusée sur la chaîne NBC.

Sur les 12 places disponibles, seules 10 ont toutefois été annoncées.

5. Clin d’œil aux olympiades passées, choix a été fait de réserver la douzième place à un joueur universitaire.

Si avec le recul, le fait que Christian Laettner ait été préféré à Shaquille O’Neal paraît aberrant, à l’époque, sa sélection ne souffrait d’aucune contestation. 4 Finals Four, 2 titres de champions NCAA, record du plus grand nombre de points marqués, de lancers-francs et de matchs joués lors de la March Madness, il était (et est toujours) un sérieux prétendant au titre de meilleur basketteur universitaire de l’histoire.

Ce fut la toute dernière fois qu’un joueur NCAA participa aux JO.

6. Christian Laettner traîne depuis la réputation d’être le joueur le plus mal-aimé de la NBA.

Blanc, beau gosse, cadet de la bourgeoise, compétiteur pas toujours correct… sa personne cristallisait un peu malgré lui rancœur et jalousie – voir à ce sujet le documentaire : I Hate Christian Laettner produit par ESPN en 2012.

7. C’est peu dire que la lutte pour la dernière place a été disputée.

Face à Dominique Wilkins, Kevin Johnson, Tim Hardaway et l’étoile filante Michael Adams (26,5 points de moyenne et 10,5 passes décisives par match en 91/92), c’est Clyde Drexler qui remporté la mise suite à saison monstrueuse avec Portland (25 points assortis de 6.6 rebonds et 6,7 passes, il ne tient qu’à Jordan de l’avoir privé du titre de MVP et d’une bague de champion),

8. Michael Jordan a dans un premier temps refusé de rejoindre la sélection américaine.

Pas franchement emballé à l’idée de faire une croix sur ses vacances d’été, il était en sus épuisé par sa dernière saison.

De son propre aveu, il a essayé du mieux qu’il pouvait de « trouver une manière gracieuse de décliner l’invitation ».

9. Une fois embarqué, Jordan n’a cependant pas pris à la légère le tournoi olympique : contrairement à tous ses coéquipiers, il tenait à étudier chacun de ses adversaires en vidéo avant les matchs.

10. Autre gros nom réticent à prendre part à l’aventure : Larry Bird.

Sérieusement handicapé par une blessure au dos, il souhaitait initialement partir à la retraite à l’issue de la saison 91/92.

Il a alors fallu toute l’obstination de son pote Magic pour le faire changer d’avis. Non content de l’avoir appelé des dizaines de fois, il a fini par le menacer de ne pas venir s’il ne venait pas.

11. Âgé de 35 ans, Larry Bird était non seulement le joueur le plus âgé de l’équipe, mais il reste encore à ce jour le joueur le plus âgé ayant évolué au sein d’une sélection nationale américaine de basketball.

12. John Stockton est passé à deux doigts d’être remplacé par Joe Dumars.

Blessé au tibia, le meneur des Utah Jazz était incertain jusqu’au dernier moment. S’il a réussi à se remettre d’aplomb à la surprise générale, il n’a cependant joué que quatre matchs de tout le tournoi.

13. Grand absent de la sélection, Isiah Thomas n’a pas été retenu raison extra-sportives.

Seul joueur de l’histoire à pouvoir se targuer d’avoir battu Magic Johnson, Larry Bird et Michael Jordan au sommet de leur art, il avait beau être l’un des meilleurs meneurs de la ligue, pas mal de membres de la Dream Team ont catégoriquement refusé qu’il intègre la sélection (Jordan, Pippen et Barkley en tête).

Leader des fameux Bad Boys, la cuvée des Detroit Pistons tristement célèbre pour son jeu défensif ultra-agressif, il était cordialement détesté sur les parquets et en dehors.

14. Contre toute attente, Chuck Daly, l’entraîneur des Bad Boys, et Michael Jordan se sont entendus à merveille.

Partageant une passion commune pour le golf, les deux hommes se sont retrouvés autant de fois qu’ils ont pu sur les parcours de la région.

15. Les membres de la Dream Team cumulent 15 titres de MVP de la saison régulière.

Jordan en a glané six, Bird et Magic trois chacun, Malone deux, Robinson et Barkley un chacun.

À l’exception d’Hakeem Olajuwon en 1994, ils se sont adjugés le trophée de 1983 à 1999.

16. Les membres de la Dream Team cumulent 23 bagues de champion NBA.

Jordan et Pippen en ont six chacun avec les Bulls, Magic cinq avec les Lakers, Bird trois avec les Celtics, Robinson deux avec les Spurs, et Drexler un avec Houston.

17. Les 12 membres de la Dream Team combinent au total 117 apparitions au All-Star Game !

Michael Jordan et Karl Malone sont ceux qui cumulent le plus grand nombre d’apparitions au match des étoiles (14 sélections chacun).

18. Lorsqu’en 1997, la NBA a dévoilé sa liste des 50 meilleurs joueurs de tous les temps (la seule, la vraie), dix des douze Dream Teamers y figuraient.

Seuls Chris Mullin et Christian Laettner ont été omis.

19. Quand il a été demandé à Charles Barkley ce qu’il savait de l’Angola, le premier adversaire de la Dream Team à Barcelone, le futur Sun a répondu : « Rien, si ce n’est que l’Angola est dans de beaux draps » (« I don’t know anything about Angola, but Angola’s in trouble »).

Visionnaire, les Américains leur ont infligé 68 points de différence (116-48), le plus gros écart de points du tournoi.

20. La Dream Team a remporté les huit rencontres du tournoi olympique avec 43,8 points d’écart en moyenne.

21. Avec 117,3 points par match, la Dream Team détient encore à ce jour la moyenne de points marqués la plus haute de l’histoire des Jeux olympiques.

Si l’on considère les six autres matchs internationaux disputés par la Dream Team, cette moyenne se porte même à 118, 9 points par match !

Pas une seule fois, la Dream Team n’a marqué moins de 100 points dans un match.

22. Tandis que la Dream Team a rentré 57,8% de ses paniers lors des JO, face à elle ses adversaires se sont contentés d’un maigre 36,5% de réussite.

23. De tout le tournoi, la Dream Team n’a été menée qu’une seule fois, lorsqu’à l’entame de son match contre l’Espagne, ils ont encaissé un 4-0. Les Américains sont cependant vite revenus et ont défait les Espagnols 122-81.

24. Chuck Daly n’a pas demandé un seul temps mort du tournoi.

25. Charles Barkley a terminé meilleur marqueur du groupe avec une moyenne de 18 points par match à 71,1 % de réussite.

C’est face au Brésil qu’il a réalisé sa plus grosse performance en marquant 30 points (12 sur 14 aux shoots).

26. À la fin de chacun de leurs matchs, les joueurs des équipes adverses leur demandaient systématiquement de leur signer des autographes et de prendre des photos avec eux.

27. L’équipe qui a donné le plus de fil à retordre à la Dream Team fut la Croatie. En finale, elle ne s’est incliné « que » de 33 points d’écart (103-70).

28. Lors de la finale, Michael Jordan et Scottie Pippen se sont acharnés du mieux qu’ils pouvaient sur Tony Kukoc.

L’histoire commence en 1990 quand le Croate est drafté par les Chicago Bulls. S’il n’a rejoint l’équipe qu’en 1994, durant ce laps de temps, Jerry Krause, le General Manager des Bulls, lui tresse des lauriers publiquement à chèque fois que l’occasion se présente.

En bisbilles avec Krause sur les plans personnel et professionnel, Jordan et Pippen décident de se venger indirectement en s’attaquant au pauvre Kukoc, 22 ans.

« Je voulais l’éteindre complètement. L’embarrasser. » expliquera Pippen qui, avec MJ, passent le match à défendre au plus près du Croate.

Complètement asphyxié, ce dernier termine la rencontre avec quatre petits points et un très pauvre 2 sur 11 aux tirs.

29. Michael Jordan a bien failli ne pas monter sur le podium lors de la cérémonie de remise des médailles.

Par fidélité envers Nike, il refusait en effet de se montrer en survêtement Reebok, le sponsor officiel de la Dream Team.

Présent dans l’assistance, Phil Knight, le PDG de la marque au swoosh, est intervenu pour suggérer un compromis : que Michael porte le drapeau des États-Unis sur ses épaules pour cacher le logo de l’équipementier britannique.

30. Karl Malone a inscrit le tout premier panier de la Dream Team, ainsi que le tout dernier.

Contre l’Angola, après 11 secondes de jeu. Contre la Croatie, en finale, à 4,1 secondes de la fin.

31. Contrairement à tous les autres athlètes, les basketteurs de la Dream Team ne logeaient pas au village olympique, mais dans un hôtel quatre étoiles à Barcelone.

Un choix motivé par des raisons de sécurité.

« Personne n’était plus protégé qu’eux lors des Jeux » se souvient Horace Balmer, le chef de la sécurité. « Aucun véhicule n’était autorisé à stationner à deux rues à la ronde. Des hélicoptères surveillaient les lieux. »

32. Tout ce luxe n’a pas empêché Charles Barkley de pester auprès du personnel que les World Series de baseball n’étaient diffusées sur aucune chaîne.

33. De tous les membres de la Dream Team, John Stockton était le seul à pouvoir déambuler incognito dans les rues espagnoles – voir cette vidéo hilarante où il tombe sur une touriste US vêtue d’un t-shirt aux couleurs de la sélection américaine et qui ne le reconnait même pas.

34. La quinzaine olympique a donné lieu à des parties de poker endiablées entre les membres de la Dream Team.

Si l’on en croit Magic Johnson, le soir venu, lui, Jordan, Pippen et Barkley passaient des nuits à jouer aux cartes.

Compétiteur obsessionnel, Jordan refusait d’aller se coucher tant qu’il ne gagnait pas, quitte à ne pas dormir de la nuit quand bien même il y avait match le lendemain. Magic raconte même qu’il a une fois enchaîné deux nuits blanches d’affilée, avant d’aller jouer au golf au petit matin, puis d’aller jouer l’après-midi la demi-finale contre la Lituanie.

35. Durant les entraînements, Michael Jordan chambrait tellement Clyde Drexler que ses coéquipiers lui ont demandé de lever le pied.

Quelques semaines plus tôt, MJ avait en effet trouvé Drexler sur sa route en finale NBA. Passablement agacé de la comparaison qui était faite entre lui et l’arrière des Portland Trailblazers, il avait tenu à mettre les choses au clair dès le Game 1 en plantant six paniers à trois points lors de la première mi-temps, un record.

Visiblement toujours pas calmé une fois arrivé à Barcelone, Jordan a passé son temps à remuer le couteau dans la plaie en lui remémorant dès qu’il le pouvait son petit exploit (« Tu te souviens comme je t’ai botté le cul Clyde ?… Tu as cru que tu pouvais m’arrêter Clyde ?… Tu feras gaffe à ces trois points cette fois Clyde ?… »).

36. Ce pauvre Clyde Drexler a en plus dû subir les railleries de ses petits camarades toute la quinzaine pour ses supposés « deux pieds gauches ».

Au cours d’un des premiers entraînements de la Dream Team à Monte Carlo, Drexler avait dû s’habiller en urgence et avait enfilé par mégarde deux chaussures destinées au pied gauche.

Pas de chance pour lui, Charles Barkley s’est empressé de le faire remarquer au reste de l’équipe. L’incident a alors très vite fait office de running gag.

37. La Dream Team a affronté la Dream Team.

Lors de la préparation à Monte Carlo, la rivalité entre Michael Jordan et Magic Johnson était telle qu’au cours d’un entrainement, un match a été improvisé pour crever l’abcès.

Jordan s’est ainsi allié à Malone, Pippen, Ewing et Bird. Magic à Barkley, Robinson, Mullin et Laettner.

Si la team Magic a rapidement pris l’avantage (16-7), le meneur des Lakers a ensuite eu le malheur de chambrer le Bull un peu trop fort (« Hey, the Jordanaires are down »). Conséquence, le match s’est fini sur un 40-36 en faveur desdits « Jordanaires ».

MJ a un jour qualifié ce match de « meilleur match de sa vie ».

« Le gymnase était fermé, nous n’étions là que pour le basket. »

38. Oui, la Dream Team a connu la défaite.

Pire, ce fut contre une équipe composée d’universitaires qui pour la plupart n’ont ensuite jamais brillé en NBA, Grant Hill et Chris Webber exceptés.

Désireux de faire comprendre à ses joueurs qu’ils ne sont pas aussi invincibles qu’ils le croyaient, et qu’ils devaient faire l’effort de travailler leur cohésion, Chuck Daly avait mis sur pied ce match sans les prévenir.

Pris de court, les futurs Hall of Famers se sont inclinés 88-80.

Une revanche a alors été organisée le lendemain. Piqués au vif, ces messieurs les pros ont cette fois collé une raclée aux écoliers.

« Je crois qu’on leur a mis 100 points » racontera plus tard Charles Barkley. « On les a battus comme s’ils avaient volé quelque chose ».

39. Bien que la Dream Team soit largement considérée comme la meilleure équipe de basket de tous les temps, Shaquille O’Neal a affirmé à plusieurs reprises que la Drema Team 2 aurait pu venir à bout de la bande à Jordan, Magic & Co.

Idem pour Kobe Bryant et LeBron James qui ont prétendu que la Team USA de 2012 aurait pu l’emporter.

40. L’épopée Dream Team marque le début de la mondialisation des effectifs NBA.

Tandis qu’en 1992 seuls 23 joueurs évoluant dans la ligue n’étaient pas américains, ce sont désormais plus d’une centaine d’internationaux qui sont décomptés chaque année.

Ce sont ainsi pas moins de 39 nationalités qui se côtoient sur les parquets.

Publié sur Booska-p.com le 5 août 2022.

[stone-cold-groove]

The Hindenburg soaring over the Olympic Arena during the opening ceremonies of the 1936 Summer Olympics - Berlin, Germany.

[grigorianlive]

On the photo: The beginning of Olympian in Berlin, 1936

🏅 WHAT DOES THE 2014 SOCHI OLYMPIAD AND THE 1936 BERLIN OLYMPIAD HAVE IN COMMON?

➡️ Before comparing, I’ll tell you about the 1936 Olympics. Berlin was chosen as the venue for the Olympiad, despite the fact that a huge number of Jewish communities around the world put pressure on the Olympus Committee to change the location of the Olympiad. There was even a certain group of enthusiasts from Spain who announced the holding of alternative Olympic Games in Barcelona. Thousands of participants from all over the world showed a desire to take part, but those games never took place, as a civil war began in Spain between the Republicans, who in turn were supported by the Germans, and the communists, who had the support of the USSR.

➡️ What is most interesting, at that time, Hitler's popularity was at its highest level. And although a huge number of reports leaked about anti-Semitic speeches, repressions against Jews, communists and gypsies, during the 1936 Olympics, huge crowds were waiting to shake hands with Hitler.

➡️ An interesting fact is that Hitler brought the Olympic Games to a new level - if before him it was just a competition of enthusiasts, then in 1936 it took on a completely new look, and in all aspects - the Olympics began with a solemn carrying of the torch to the holy city of Athens [name city ​​needs clarification. In technical terms, this was also a breakthrough - this Olympics was the first in history, the opening of which could be watched on TV. And what is most interesting - for all several so-called. During the “Olympic” weeks, all anti-Semitic inscriptions, newspapers, signs and other attributes of German Nazi politics were removed from all over Berlin. In other matters, the opening of the competitions themselves took place as it would not look absurd with the participation of the Luftwaffe (Air Force), the Reichsarmy, and of course - Hitler himself standing proudly in the car.

➡️ Propaganda did everything so that no one noticed the Nazi concentration camp Sachsenhausen, located 20 kilometers from the Olympics venue - just think about it! The Nazis made a "factory" there so as not to attract attention!

➡️ And that's what happens - an absolute coincidence! Literally in a short period of time, Hitler annexed the Sudetenland, and later all of Czechoslovakia and Austria, a year later there will be an "evening of broken glasses" (the Nazis broke glass in shops and private enterprises of Jews in one evening and sent them on foot to Theresienstadt (Czechoslovakia). That evening, about 1000 Jews died in the process of breaking glasses alone. And what is most terrible - the world did not care about all this! It became absurd that the head of that same Olympic Committee called the Second World War an operation of the Jews, and then in 1942 opposed the entry of the United States into war.

➡️ As we all know, Russia annexed Crimea in 2014 and occupied Donetsk and Luhansk. And then she started a genocide against our nation. And again no one notices!

➡️ This is a story about how the West "shows concern" and behind our backs still manages to establish some kind of financial and cultural relations with Russia.

😞 It's a shame that only now the West has seen the true face of the Russian Federation and its "hospitable president"

#story

GRIGORIAN LIVE

[rich4you]

Check out this listing I just added to my Poshmark closet: Vintage 1936 Berlin Olympics Coin Medal, Germany.

[borealopelta]

the magic of this letter - and indeed the whole point of six minutes - can be found, surprisingly enough, in the bits of the book that are not directly about the boys. in case someone isn't aware, the book delves into the technological advances in global radio broadcasting during the early 20th century, culminating in the 1936 olympic games, which were on many levels the greatest technological marvel of the world until that point. the global broadcasting system built in berlin and the surrounding towns that gave place to olympic events is impressive even to someone who knows barely anything about radio broadcasting (me).

the fact that gaston moch, along with the majority of the american public, was able to listen to live broadcasts of olympic events and not just short summaries at the end of each day with scores and standings, was a huge, huge deal. the 1936 olympics were a global spectacle, with live broadcasts to europe, the americas (argentina's broadcasting presence in particular was very significant), and even japan. this had never happened before. there were of course issues with scheduling among other things, but in the end gaston moch was able to sit down to his radio with his family, and listen to his son make history live on air.

interviewing athletes was also a very new thing, so it's entirely understandable that everyone around gaston moch was excited along with him. the last bit highlighted in that quote - where gaston pays special attention to mention the quality of the broadcast - illustrates perfectly how new this whole thing was. everyone was amazed with the sound quality the germans managed in transatlantic broadcasts - long distance shortwave relay had, until then, had huge problems with quality and reliability. hearing a live radio broadcast with such consistently good quality was a first for the whole world.

in the end, the point isn't that bob moch's dad specifically got to listen to his son win a gold medal and then talk about it. the point is that so many other parents, siblings, friends, peers, and strangers who wanted to be a part of the biggest sporting event in the world, got to experience real olympic excitement for the first time ever. never before had there been live broadcasts where you could hear the crowd cheer, where the commentators in their booths had no idea about the outcome and got excited as they called the races in real time, leading to memorable broadcasts everywhere - like the japanese commentary for the 200m breast stroke race, where hideko maehata became the first female athlete to win an olympic gold for japan, the recording of which sold enough copies to qualify as a bestseller. of course gaston moch's support for his son is beautiful and it did get me a bit misty eyed if i'm honest, but the real beauty of it is in the entire phenomenon of the 11th olympiad, the birth of global radio broadcasting - and especially sportscasting - as we know it, and the first olympic games that got close to feeling like the global celebration of athletics that the event is today.

On the other side of the planet, Gaston Moch heard the interview while attending a Montesano Chamber of Commerce meeting. Just before the broadcast, he wrote, the room hushed. "At 1 o'clock the Olympic Review came direct from Germany. Hume spoke and then another thrill when you got on, it was so quite [sic] in the room you could have heard a pin drop and your voice sounded great, it came in fine, and everyone enjoyed it."

— an excerpt from Six minutes in Berlin: broadcast spectacle and rowing Gold at the Nazi Olympics by Michael J., Socolow