Should Vancouver really focus on Nazis at the Olympics?

Recreation Sports
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1

Is this appropriate?

  • No.
  • Yes.
  • Neither Yes or No and I shall explain.

0 voters

I just saw this and it really irks me.

cbc.ca/canada/british-columb … hibit.html

[quote]A controversial exhibit has opened in Vancouver, depicting the Canadian team at one of the most controversial Olympics ever — the 1936 Summer Games in Berlin, staged by the German Nazi regime of Adolf Hitler.

The exhibit of photographs, documents and artifacts, which opened Thursday at the Vancouver Holocaust Education Centre, shows how Hitler’s Third Reich turned the Games into a showcase for Nazi propaganda, and how Canadians became part of the spectacle.

“These games represent the first point of contact between Canada and Nazi Germany,” exhibit curator Frieda Miller told CBC News Thursday.
[/quote]

And here is something you don’t se every day:

[quote]Photos show swastikas and Nazi banners flying alongside the five iconic Olympic rings.

A display case features the sash worn by Canadian athletes during the opening and closing ceremonies, adorned with a black swastika.

“[The sash] does seem striking, especially since it was carried with the Canadian flag,” said Miller.

A photograph at the Vancouver exhibit shows Canadian athletes holding up autograph books to a smiling Adolf Hitler. (CBC)
Two other photographs stirred up controversy at the time, and still could today. One features Canadian athletes clamouring for Hitler’s autograph; another shows members of Canada’s team apparently giving a straight-armed Nazi salute.

[/quote]

A photograph at the Vancouver exhibit shows Canadian athletes holding up autograph books to a smiling Adolf Hitler.

Okay, erm, isn’t the point of an Olympics to show goodwill to foriegn countries? It’s not 1945 anymore.

And to the “Canada won WWII crowd”, which Canada has far too many of, please point out one major combat operation that the Canadians fought before 1945. We don’t deserve that much credit, okay?

I just don’t think this kind of fingerpointing is appropriate for an Olympics. Do you?

They’re turning it into a propaganda spectacle!

2

But isn’t there two ways you can visit this exhibition?

For example CKS memorial Hall here in Taipei. Half the Taiwanese who visit there go to pay respects to who they think was a great man. The other half go and see it as a monument of what must never happen again.

3

Off the top of my head the Canadians suffered terrible casualties during the Dieppe Raid and later on Juno Beach. They also contributed to the Battle of Britain. I’m not sure about their involvement in North Africa.

4

We have always been at war with Eurasia.

5

As for the OP’s main question, it seems it’s debatable whether the Canadian and French teams actually did a Nazi salute. It’s since been claimed that they were doing the Olympic salute, which looks similar. (Sorry, just noticed that’s already in the link!)

I think it’s vital to remember events from the past, but I too find all the self-flagellation a bit ridiculous after a while.

6

I heard people are getting in trouble for putting up anti-Olympics signs. Seriously people need to relax.

7

[quote=“tomthorne”]As for the OP’s main question, it seems it’s debatable whether the Canadian and French teams actually did a Nazi salute. It’s since been claimed that they were doing the Olympic salute, which looks similar. (Sorry, just noticed that’s already in the link!)

I think it’s vital to remember events from the past, but I too find all the self-flagellation a bit ridiculous after a while.[/quote]

I don’t mind the self-flagellation a bit. I’ts the “rah rah we’re just protesting anything we can find” aspect to it that bothers me. Give it a rest already. Can we just have an Olympics that is devioid of divisive political statements?

8

Yes, so much that it pains me. :cry: