Triumph: The Untold Story of Jesse Owens and Hitler's Olympics

by Jeremy Schaap

  8. JEW KILLS NAZI

  105 “Too many S.S. troops”: William L. Shirer, Berlin Diary: The Journal of a Foreign Correspondent, 1934–1941 (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2002), p. 46.

  106 “So far as his appearance”: Westbrook Pegler, “Fair Enough: Hitler at Garmisch,” Washington Post, Feb. 21, 1936, p. 9.

  107 “Nazi Germany, from the bier”: Associated Press, “Nazi Leaders Move to Block Threat of Riots; Jewish Groups Forbidden to Meet After Gustloff Assassination,” Washington Post, Feb. 6, 1936, p. 9.

  “the Gustloff murder”: Associated Press, “Student Slays Nazi Chieftain in Switzerland,” Washington Post, Feb. 5, 1936, p. 1.

  “a nervous, hollow-eyed young Jew”: “Jew Kills Nazi,” Time, Feb. 17, 1936.

  108 “Still thinking”: Ibid. Later in 1936, Hitler named a cruise ship after Gustloff. On January 30, 1945, it was plying the nearly frozen Baltic Sea with 10,000 passengers, the vast majority of them Germans fleeing the advancing Red Army, when it was sunk by a Soviet submarine. Fewer than 1250 people are thought to have survived. The sinking and the drowned are memorialized in Günter Grass’s Crabwalk, the Nobel laureate’s 2003 novel focusing on German victimization, which also tells the stories of Gustloff and Frankfurter. Frankfurter was released from jail in 1945, just after the war in Europe ended, and moved to Israel, where he eventually served in the defense ministry. He died there in 1982.

  “our Jewish enemy”: Sigrid Schultz, “Hitler Pledges Unceasing War Against Jews,” Chicago Daily Tribune, Feb. 13, 1936, p. 1.

  “It seemed a fine acknowledgement”: Westbrook Pegler, “Fair Enough: Olympics’ Usefulness,” Washington Post, Feb. 27, 1936, p. 9.

  109 “There was a temptation”: Westbrook Pegler, “Fair Enough: Entering Germany,” Washington Post, Feb. 15, 1936, p. 7.

  “Your correspondent caught”: Paul Gallico, “Send Over Joe Louis,” Washington Post, Feb. 13, 1936, p. X16.

  110 Together, he and Albritton: William J. Baker, Jesse Owens: An American Life (New York: Free Press, 1988), p. 67.

  111 “Jesse Owens has served notice”: Associated Press, “Layoff Fails to End Reign of Owens,” Washington Post, Mar. 23, 1936, p. 18.

  9. A FRIEND AND A FOE FELLED

  116 “A look of pain”: Arthur J. Daley, “Manhattan, Texas and Ohio State Relay Teams Win Titles at Penn Carnival,” New York Times, Apr. 25, 1936, p. 10.

  118 “When Owens was smashing”: Francis J. Powers, “Owens Seeks Four Wins,” Los Angeles Times, May 20, 1936, p. A11.

  119 “should give Owens”: Ibid.

  10. OLYMPIC TRIALS

  122 “If you go”: Robert A. Caro, The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the Fall of New York (New York: Vintage, 1975), p. 441.

  123 “Fully half of the men”: “Cheering Crowds Greet Roosevelt,” New York Times, July 12, 1936, p. 22.

  “Many of you”: “Texts of Addresses by Roosevelt, Lehman and Others at Bridge Ceremony,” New York Times, July 12, 1936, p. 23.

  124 “This may be the best”: John Kieran, “Sports of the Times: From the Bridge to the Boat,” New York Times, July 11, 1936, p. 8.

  “Athletes and sport”: Westbrook Pegler, “Fair Enough: Ballyhoo at Olympics,” Washington Post, July 11, 1936, p. X7.

  125 “Germany was awarded”: Ibid.

  127 “Everybody up”: Marty Glickman and Stan Isaacs, The Fastest Kid on the Block: The Marty Glickman Story (Syracuse, N.Y.: Syracuse University Press, 1996), p. 9.

  128 “as if they were”: Ibid., p. 10.

  “Now here’s Marty Glickman”: Ibid.

  129 “machine-like”: Alan Gould, “Owens, Metcalfe and Wykoff—Down the Blazing Stretch of 100 Meters to a Boat Ride and the Olympic Games!” Los Angeles Times, July 12, 1936, p. A9.

  “a scarlet comet”: Arthur J. Daley, “Metcalfe 2d in Sprint,” New York Times, July 12, 1936, p. S1.

  “the great colored athlete”: “Owens Captures Two Events in Olympic Finals,” Chicago Daily Tribune, July 12, 1936, p. A1.

  130 Everyone assumed: In the five Olympic 4 × 100-meter relays through 1932, only twice, in 1920 and 1928, did any of the top three American 100-meter runners take part in the relay. The American procedure was clearly established. Owens and Metcalfe would not take the baton in Berlin, and Frank Wykoff, Foy Draper, Marty Glickman, and Sam Stoller would.

  131 “The great track and field meet”: John Kieran, “Sports of the Times: Bound for Berlin, via Randalls Island,” New York Times, July 13, 1936, p. 21.

  “The Negro race’s triumphs”: Shirley Povich, “This Morning . . . ,” Washington Post, July 13, 1936, p. 15.

  “Jesse, my name’s Jimmy Cannon”: Jimmy Cannon, “Cannon Finds Owens Just a Country Boy,” New York Journal, July 15, 1936, p. 19.

  132 Mark O’Hara of the Daily Worker: Mark O’Hara, “The Fastest Human,” Sunday Worker, Aug. 2, 1936, p. 2.

  133 “The Nazis face”: Westbrook Pegler, “Fair Enough,” New York World-Telegram, July 16, 1936, p. 17.

  11. OLYMPIA

  137 In typically dramatic fashion: Leni Riefenstahl, Leni Riefenstahl: A Memoir (New York: St. Martin’s, 1992), pp. 168–69.

  138 “Riefenstahl is an actress”: Mordaunt Hall, “A Drama of the Alps,” New York Times, Nov. 29, 1927, p. 31.

  Despite the success: Riefenstahl, Leni Riefenstahl, p. 146.

  139 “The point is that Hitler”: Ibid., p. 149.

  Her first conversation: Ibid., pp. 178–80.

  141 “These arrangements”: “Nazis Will Guide Olympic Guests,” New York Times, Apr. 26, 1936, p. 27.

  12. THE BELLE OF THE BALL

  142 “You gonna win”: William J. Baker, Jesse Owens: An American Life (New York: Free Press, 1988), pp. 71–72.

  143 He felt especially nauseated: Jesse Owens, diary, July 18 and 19, 1936, Ohio State University Archives.

  144 “She won her place”: Paul Gallico, A Farewell to Sport (New York: Knopf, 1938), p. 254.

  145 “The campaign of vindictiveness”: Ibid., p. 255.

  “The Greeks had the right idea”: Grantland Rice, “Eleanor Breaks Rules, Records Equally Well,” Los Angeles Times, July 25, 1936, p. 13.

  146 “has been one of the few”: Ibid.

  “He is very sensitive”: Westbrook Pegler, “Fair Enough,” New York World-Telegram, Aug. 1, 1936, p. 18.

  147 “The smug gentlemen”: Fred Farrell, “Fanning with Farrell,” Daily Worker, Aug. 2, 1936, p. 14.

  “Hitler asked me himself”: William O. Johnson, All That Glitters Is Not Gold: The Olympic Games (New York: Putnam, 1972), p. 185.

  “I had a mold”: Ibid., p. 188.

  148 “I am willing”: “Snyder Wins Argument; to Coach Jesse Owens,” Los Angeles Times, July 24, 1936, p. A9.

  149 “You can tell”: Ibid.

  13. THE BATTLE TENT OF SOME GREAT EMPEROR

  150 “the idol of the nation”: William L. Shirer, The Nightmare Years, 1930–1940 (Edinburgh: Birlinn, 2001), p. 236.

  151 “Lindbergh proceeded to tell us”: Ibid., p. 237.

  152 “George observed that”: Thomas Wolfe, You Can’t Go Home Again (New York: Harper Perennial, 1998), p. 589.

  153 “Hitler has got away”: William L. Shirer, Berlin Diary (New York: Knopf, 1941), p. 55.

  “From one end of the city”: Wolfe, You Can’t Go Home Again, p. 590. Wolfe could not have known: International sports events have long been excuses for jailing undesirables and exercising authority. In 1968, before the games of the Nineteenth Olympiad in Mexico City, the Mexican government brutally suppressed a student protest movement; in 1974, on the eve of the Muhammad Ali–George Foreman world heavyweight championship fight in Kinshasa, Zaire, Mobutu Sese Seko arrested hundreds of suspected thieves and political enemies; and even now there are reports that in Beijing, the site of the 2008 summer games, the government is destroying neighborhoods that have been bastions of dissent while claiming that it is merely making necessary improvements for the Olympics.

  “All anti-S
emitic posters”: “Nazis Put Up Fake Front for Olympics,” Daily Worker, Aug. 12, 1936.

  “Just as we breed”: Jeremy Laurance, “A Short Step from Different to Undesirable,” Independent (London), Aug. 30, 1997, p. 11.

  154 “No action against”: Shirer, The Nightmare Years, p. 232.

  “no comments should be made”: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, “The Facade of Hospitality,” www.ushmm.org/museum/exhibit/online/olympics/zcd059.htm.

  155 “I have an idea”: Fred Farrell, “Fanning with Farrell,” Daily Worker, Aug. 2, 1936, p. 14.

  “This is the most loathsome”: Victor Klemperer, I Will Bear Witness (New York: Modern Library, 1999), p. 183.

  156 “Your wandering correspondent”: Paul Gallico, “Germans Play at War Near Olympic Village,” Los Angeles Times, July 18, 1936, p. 16.

  157 “Jesse Owens and his brown-skinned”: R. Walter Merguson, “Race Athletes Not Involved in Olympic Scandal Charges,” Pittsburgh Courier, Aug. 1, 1936, p. 1.

  158 “steaks, and plenty of it”: Donald McRae, Heroes Without a Country: America’s Betrayal of Joe Louis and Jesse Owens (New Yor k: Ecco, 2002), p. 143.

  14. THE YOUTH OF THE WORLD

  159 When it was made clear: Leni Riefenstahl, Leni Riefenstahl: A Memoir (New York: St. Martin’s, 1992), pp. 187–88.

  160 “a smart gray flannel”: Sylvia Weaver, “Times’ Fashion Editor Sees Great Spectacle,” Los Angeles Times, Aug. 2, 1936, p. A11.

  “From noon till night”: Thomas Wolfe, You Can’t Go Home Again (New York: Harper Perennial, 1998), p. 591.

  161 “Just twenty-two years ago”: Grantland Rice, “Crowd Accords Nations Giving Nazi Salute Thundering Welcome,” Los Angeles Times, Aug. 2, 1936, p. A11.

  “from far away”: Frederick T. Birchall, “100,000 Hail Hitler; U.S. Athletes Avoid Nazi Salute to Him,” New York Times, Aug. 2, 1936, p. 1.

  “To Strauss the composer”: Norman Stone, “Why the Agony and the Ecstasy?” Times (London), June 26, 1988.

  162 The music faded: Paul Gallico, “Olympic Fire Re-Lit; Games Begin Today,” New York Daily News, Aug. 2, 1936, pp. 80, 85.

  Meanwhile, Leni Riefenstahl’s army: Riefenstahl, Leni Riefenstahl, pp. 191–92.

  164 The French “had marched”: Albert Speer, Inside the Third Reich (New York: Touchstone, 1997), p. 73.

  166 “This flag dips”: The quotation is often erroneously attributed to Martin Sheridan, an enormous Irish-American discus thrower.

  167 “It was quite evident”: Rice, “Crowd Accords Nations Giving Nazi Salute Thundering Welcome.”

  “There was a moment”: Paul Gallico, “Olympic Fire Borne into Berlin Stadium in Dramatic Rites,” Washington Post, Aug. 2, 1936, p X1.

  “the debate over”: Gayle Talbot, “Was It the ‘Razz’ That American Squad Got?” Washington Post, Aug. 2, 1936, p. X1.

  168 “I still can’t realize”: Rice, “Crowd Accords Nations Giving Nazi Salute Thundering Welcome.”

  170 “demonstration of Nazi organizing”: Al Laney, “Nazis’ Fervor Finds Climax in Olympic Rites,” New York Herald Tribune, Aug. 2, 1936, p. 1.

  “If he had to have”: Larry Snyder, “My Boy Jesse,” Saturday Evening Post, Nov. 7, 1936, p. 15.

  15. DAY ONE

  172 “I said, I always”: Henry McLemore, “Will Break 3 Records, Says Owens,” Daily Worker, Aug. 2, 1936, p. 14.

  177 “No European crowd”: Grantland Rice, “Whirlwind Owens Had Fans Gasping,” Cleveland Plain Dealer, Aug. 3, 1936.

  “I’ve got to chuck”: Cooper C. Graham, Leni Riefenstahl and Olympia (Lanham, Md.: Scarecrow, 2001), p. 82.

  “have been proclaimed”: Grantland Rice, “Berlin at High Pitch,” Los Angeles Times, Aug. 3, 1936, p. A11.

  178 “That doesn’t win”: Royal Brougham, “Owens Foresees New Mark in Final Today,” New York American, Aug. 3, 1936.

  179 “a funny-looking kid”: Dick Schaap, An Illustrated History of the Olympics (New York: Knopf, 1975), p. 213.

  180 “It isn’t for your correspondent”: J. P. Abramson, “Owens Beats World Mark in 100-Meter at Olympics,” New York Herald Tribune, Aug. 3, 1936, p. 1.

  “Five minutes before”: Arthur J. Daley, “110,000 See Owens Set World Record at Olympic Games,” New York Times, Aug. 3, 1936, p. 1.

  180 “They just missed”: Paul Gallico, “Owens’ World-Record Sprint Is Sensation of Olympic Day,” Washington Post, Aug. 3, 1936, p. X14.

  “Since Hitler had”: Al Laney, “Hitler Fails to Greet U.S. Negro Winners, but Slur Is Denied,” New York Herald Tribune, Aug. 3, 1936, p. 16.

  181 “Several scientific”: Bill Corum, “They Got Rhythm; We Win with ’Em,” New York Journal, Aug. 3, 1936.

  16. DAY TWO

  183 “Big, black, awkward yearling”: Henry “Stopwatch” McLemore, “Olympic Clocker Tabs Jesse Owens Best Bet,” Los Angeles Times, Aug. 2, 1936, p. A11.

  185 “The American Olympic Committee”: Grantland Rice, “Dark Shadow Falls over Herr Hitler as Negro Athletes Dominate Olympics,” Los Angeles Times, Aug. 4, 1936, p. A13.

  186 “As events have turned out”: Westbrook Pegler, “Fair Enough,” New York World-Telegram, Aug. 6, 1936, p. 17.

  188 “If I get pressed”: Eleanor Holm Jarrett, “Ohio State Lad Pleases Hitler with His Antics,” New York Journal, Aug. 3, 1936, p. 6.

  189 “It wasn’t long”: Leni Riefenstahl, Leni Riefenstahl: A Memoir (New York: St. Martin’s, 1992), p. 194.

  190 “The stadium was deathly still”: Ibid., p. 195.

  191 “Metcalfe ran a great race”: Edward Beattie, “Happiest Day of His Life for Jesse Owens,” Los Angeles Times, Aug. 4, 1936, p. A11.

  “I’m very glad”: Jesse Owens Returns to Berlin, directed by Bud Greenspan, 1966 TV documentary

  192 “I can’t help wondering”: Bill Corum, “They Got Rhythm; We Win with ’Em,” New York Journal, Aug. 3, 1936.

  “Candor compels me”: Paul Gallico, “Hitler Waives Jim Crow Law to Extent of Saluting Owens,” Washington Post, Aug. 4, 1936, p. X15.

  Then, after the medalists: William J. Baker, Jesse Owens: An American Life (New York: Free Press, 1988), p. 94.

  “There was considerable”: Gallico, “Hitler Waives Jim Crow Law.”

  193 “Chancellor Hitler exchanged”: Alan Gould, “Owens Wins 100-Meters,” Los Angeles Times, Aug. 4, 1936, p. A11.

  “Hitler’s salute to him”: William L. Shirer, “Pushed to Limit by Metcalfe, Says Owens,” New York American, Aug. 3, 1936.

  193 “‘Mr. Hitler had to’”: Louis Effrat, “Owens, Back, Gets Hearty Reception,” New York Times, Aug. 25, 1936, p. 25. Owens’s exact words were reported differently by different reporters. According to Paul Mickelson of the Associated Press, Owens said, “Hitler? Why he was fine. Remember, he was a very busy man. And it seemed he was scheduled to leave the grounds every time I raced. Once, he smiled and waved to me. I waved right back. Stories about him refusing to cheer for American athletes are not true at all.”

  And the New York Evening Journal reported the conversation between Owens and the press yet another way:

  “How about Hitler, Jesse?”

  “Well,” was the considered reply, “Mr. Hitler had certain definite times to leave the stadium and when I won the 100-meter dash he was just about leaving. He waved at me, though, and I waved at him . . . I think it would be bad taste to criticize Germany’s man of the hour.”

  “Hitler Waives”: Gallico, “Hitler Waives Jim Crow Law.”

  “Jesse swears”: Larry Snyder, “My Boy Jesse,” Saturday Evening Post, Nov. 7, 1936, p. 97.

  194 “Herr Hitler, Nazi dictator”: “Hitler Snubs Jesse,” Cleveland Call and Post, Aug. 6, 1936, p. 1.

  “It has been demonstrated”: “No Snub Was Intended,” Pittsburgh Courier, Aug. 8, 1936, p. 1.

  “has captured everyone”: “World’s Sports King,” Chicago Defender, Aug. 8, 1936, p. 1.

  “There has been a cloud”: “Hitler . . . and Jesse Owens,” New York Daily News, Aug
. 6, 1936, p. 27.

  195 “Each time Owens trotted up”: William L. Shirer, The Nightmare Years, 1930–1940 (Edinburgh: Birlinn, 2001), p. 234.

  “a handsome young man”: Ibid.

  “The Americans ought to be ashamed”: Ibid.

  17. DAY THREE

  197 “I think maybe”: “Jesse Stars Today in 200 Meters and Broad Jump,” New York Journal, Aug. 4, 1936.

  198 “most certain”: Arthur J. Daley, “U.S. Captures 4 Events,” New York Times, Aug. 5, 1936, p. 1.

  And Alan Gould: Alan Gould, “Owens Sets 2 Records,” Washington Post, Aug. 5, 1936, p. X1.

  199 “Long was one”: Jesse Owens, Jesse: The Man Who Outran Hitler (New York: Fawcett, 1985), p. 62.

  201 The American custom: Years later, for reasons unknown, Owens wrote that on his first attempt he simply took off beyond the board and fouled. But several thousand eyewitnesses saw him simply run through the pit in his sweat suit.

  202 “The situation”: Daley, “U.S. Captures 4 Events.”

  203 “What has taken your goat”: Owens, Jesse, p. 72.

  “You know, you should”: Dick Schaap, An Illustrated History of the Olympics (New York: Knopf, 1975), p. 211.

  204 “some telltale sign of emotion”: William J. Baker, Jesse Owens: An American Life (New York: Free Press, 1988), p. 97.

  “See”: Long’s gesture went unnoticed by the press corps. Summing up Owens’s qualifying troubles, Paul Gallico wrote, “Owens scared everyone, including himself, by running through his first trial as a warm-up, only to find it counted as one. The second time he stepped over the take-off and that left but one more trial. He took no chances on this one and took off a foot behind the white mark and did 25 feet” (“U.S. Wins 4 Olympic Titles,” New York Daily News, Aug. 5, 1936, p. 52). Gallico made no mention of Luz Long or his subsequently famous gesture. Neither did Daley or Gould.