Didn't Greece have a somewhat fascistic government at the time under King George II?
I think the French tried to weasel out of it later by saying it was really the Olympic salute, not the Nazi one.
And then, of course, the Brits had their own moment of shame two years later:
On May 14, 1938, [during the football World Cup] in Berlin's Olympic Stadium, the English football team were blackguarded by the Foreign Office and the Football Association into giving the "Heil Hitler" Nazi salute before a friendly game with Germany. It was a piece of contemptible cringing rendered even more pathetic and futile because Hitler, who hated sport, didn't bother to turn up.
But that picture of impressionable footballers obeying orders from mutton-headed apparatchiks went round the world and became a lasting source of shame to this country. This was, after all, just weeks after Hitler had annexed Austria and came at a time when plans for the Final Solution were well advanced.
Maybe the Greek and French athletes agreed with him.
Say what you will about Leni Riefensthal, she was a great filmmaker. I dare you to watch the whole of Olympia and not tear up toward the end of the marathon race segment.
As part of educating myself about cinema, we rented Triumph of the Will (1935). I tried but couldn't see what all the fuss was about.
Genius? A bunch of groundsmen marching with shovels on their shoulders? Plumbers? Adolescent boys washing up at a campground? Who the hell can't take pictures of a parade?
Hey, who says I don't get in touch with my inner Philistine every now and then?
And don't get me started on The Birth of a Nation (1915).
There were a lot of pro-Narzi politicos in them thar days.
Laval came close to being voted in around '36 (imagine if the Krauts could have had France handed to them) and Lydia's right about Greece. In Norway, Quisling might have had the same sort of success before the war, if he'd watched Dolf a little more closely.
It was the official Olympic Salute, which was so close to the Nazi salute that it fell out of favor. Needless to say, the Berlin crowd figured they had already converted the athletes to Nazism.
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Chancellor, my people will have much more flexibility after your invasion.
Didn't Greece have a somewhat fascistic government at the time under King George II?
I think the French tried to weasel out of it later by saying it was really the Olympic salute, not the Nazi one.
And then, of course, the Brits had their own moment of shame two years later:
On May 14, 1938, [during the football World Cup] in Berlin's Olympic Stadium, the English football team were blackguarded by the Foreign Office and the Football Association into giving the "Heil Hitler" Nazi salute before a friendly game with Germany. It was a piece of contemptible cringing rendered even more pathetic and futile because Hitler, who hated sport, didn't bother to turn up.
But that picture of impressionable footballers obeying orders from mutton-headed apparatchiks went round the world and became a lasting source of shame to this country. This was, after all, just weeks after Hitler had annexed Austria and came at a time when plans for the Final Solution were well advanced.
Yep, 1936 was just like yesterday. Oh wait, it was almost 80 years ago.
Maybe the Greek and French athletes agreed with him.
Say what you will about Leni Riefensthal, she was a great filmmaker. I dare you to watch the whole of Olympia and not tear up toward the end of the marathon race segment.
As part of educating myself about cinema, we rented Triumph of the Will (1935). I tried but couldn't see what all the fuss was about.
Genius? A bunch of groundsmen marching with shovels on their shoulders? Plumbers? Adolescent boys washing up at a campground? Who the hell can't take pictures of a parade?
Hey, who says I don't get in touch with my inner Philistine every now and then?
And don't get me started on The Birth of a Nation (1915).
There were a lot of pro-Narzi politicos in them thar days.
Laval came close to being voted in around '36 (imagine if the Krauts could have had France handed to them) and Lydia's right about Greece. In Norway, Quisling might have had the same sort of success before the war, if he'd watched Dolf a little more closely.
It was the official Olympic Salute, which was so close to the Nazi salute that it fell out of favor. Needless to say, the Berlin crowd figured they had already converted the athletes to Nazism.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olympic_symbols#Olympic_salute
Even back then you can see the political correctness manifest itself.
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