"Hitler's Olympics"

I bid on a set of stamps on Hipstamp.com. I won the set! Besides the 1932 US stamps I have, these are the oldest Olympic stamps I own now. They were issued by Germany for the 1936 Olympics. These games were held in Berlin, Germany and are often referred to as being "Hitler's Olympics".

They're called that because Hitler used the 1936 Olympic Games as an enormous propaganda tool! He made these Olympics about him and about his Aryan supremacy ideology. Below you can see him walking in with the president of the IOC during the opening ceremonies.

And here you can see him watching the track and field events. Many Jewish athletes were prohibited from participating, and several Jewish people who were in the planning operations of the Olympics were removed from their positions. His racist philosophies and practices overshadowed the entire games.

The irony of these games came in Jesse Owens' performances! He won four gold medals in the track and field events that were supposed to show and under gird Hitler's Aryan philosophy. Instead an African American dominated the games. Some reports of the time indicated Hitler was furious!

Owens's success at the games represented a counter to Adolph Hitler, who was using the games to show the world a resurgent Nazi Germany; He and other government officials had high hopes that German athletes would dominate the games with victories. Meanwhile, Nazi propaganda promoted concepts of "racial superiority" and depicted others, including those of African descent, as inferior. Owens countered this by winning four gold medals!