11 paper items and memorabilia from the 1936 Berlin Olympics held in Nazi Germany.
1-4. Four negatives: three of them show the stadium crowded with spectators during the 1936 Berlin Olympics competitions. The fourth is a football match of a team carrying a Magen David flag (may have been photographed as part of the games the Jews held separately from the stadium grounds).
5-8. Four real photo postcards - views of the Munich stadium, swimming pool, and pavilions. Official postcards stamped as part of the Olympics. On the back are the Olympics emblem, Nazi party swastika stamps and Reich stamps. Two of them were mailed.
9. A German envelope mailed in July 1936. On the front a sticker with the official Olympics symbol, on the back Reich stamps and a swastika stamp from the Olympics.
10. Olympics souvenir postcard - Nazi stamp with swastikas and picture of the stadium stand.
11. Pin with the symbol of the Olympics - 1936 Winter Games.
The 11th Olympics held in Berlin, capital of Nazi Germany, under the dictatorship regime at its peak, is one of the most historically memorable Olympics of the 20th century. The Nazi propaganda machine headed by Joseph Goebbels, Germany's Minister of Propaganda, used it to boost German morale. Indeed, the Olympics is still considered an example of the success of Nazi propaganda. Goebbels and director Leni Riefenstahl (under the orchestration of photographer Hans Ertl) produced the film "Olympia" which was released in two parts (about two years after Riefenstahl's film "Triumph of the Will" was released), depicting the Olympics in Nazi propaganda light, using fascist and Nazi aesthetics and the Nazi visual imagery presented by Riefenstahl, as well as promoting the values of "race" and "Volk". This was done through various visual motifs aimed at presenting the perfect physiology of the Aryan race through artistic photography of Greek athletes. In order to present a false image of the regime's outward tolerance, the Nazis refrained from harming people of the "inferior" race (Jews, blacks and the like) during the Olympics, and all anti-Jewish signs were removed. However, after the Olympics there were complaints that players were disadvantaged because of their origin. The Jews, including the Yishuv in Eretz Israel, boycotted the Olympics and organized alternative Olympic games, in which non-Jewish athletes also participated.
Overall very good condition.
