Olympic Gold 1936

Jesse Owens gold-medal winning feats at the 1936 Olympics in Berlin struck a mighty propaganda blow against Adolf Hitler. The Nazi leader had planned to use the German games as a showcase of supposed Aryan superiority. Instead, there was American black athlete Owens on the podium being photographed by Hitler s personal photographer, Heinrich Hoffmann. In addition, Owens would figure prominently in the groundbreaking film Olympia by Hitler s favorite director Leni Riefenstahl. Photo and film captured Owens stunning success and revealed how wrong Hitler was in his beliefs.