The 1936 Summer Olympics, held in Berlin, Germany, are most well-known for the controversy surrounding them. There was strong support in the United States and around the world for a boycott because of the Nazi regime’s racist ideology and discriminatory actions against Jews. The US team attended the games, but several Jewish athletes chose to boycott.
In the end, the prevailing story of the games was that of the African-American track and field champion Jesse Owens. He won four gold medals during the games in track and field —his performance was widely considered a blow to the Nazi belief in Aryan supremacy.
This image comes from a series of photographs taken by Germany during the Berlin Olympics that were seized following World War II.
