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Elected Rebelled |
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| Olympic Triumph for Black American Owens |
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When Jesse Owens, a black American athlete and son an Alabama sharecropper, won four gold medals at the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin, Adolf Hitler went away the loser. His claim of the superiority of the Aryan (German) race was shattered. Earlier, he had been so sure that the Games would showcase the supremacy of the German athletes that he had enlisted the filmmaker Leni Riefenstahl to make a documentary about them. The track star won the 100 meters (10.3 sec), 200 metres (20.7 sec) and the running broad jump (26' 5.5"), and was part of the American 400m relay team, that set a world-record of 39.8 seconds. The previous year, he had already set the long-jump record (26' 8.25") in Ann Arbor, Michigan, which stood until 1960. Hitler left the stadium in a fury while Owens received his laurel wreath and medals. The (German) Nazi propagandists immediately wrote hate remarks in the newspaper, Der Angriff (The Offensive), "Without these members of the black race, a German would have won the broad jump." In all, ten African-Americans had won 13 medals, including eight golds. |
| Rome-Berlin Axis |
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In October of 1936, Italy's Mussolini made an alliance Germany's Hitler. Ethiopian trade concessions were extended to Germany (Ethiopia had been conquered by Italy in May). They also declared common policies towards Spain, the Danubian countries, the Soviet Union and the League of Nations. Mussolini called the new alliance the "Rome-Berlin Axis". On November 25, Germany made the Anti-Comintern Pact with Japan, pledging mutual support against the Soviets, Mussolini joined in November 1937, extending the Axis from Rome to Tokyo. They would be the Axis Powers that battled against the Allies in World War II. |
