UBB.threads Forums General Interest Period History Forum Did Hitler shake Jesse owens hand

Hi Everyone this is an interesting story,nats
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/new...ero-Jesse-Owens.html

You would think this photo would exist in GERMAN ARCHIVES

Paul

Bullcrap.
No Proof whatsoever of this story. Pure revisionist history. AH would never have touched a black man. Adolf was a pure racist.

While many Germans were anti-semitic, the vast majority had no opinion (unless they had overseas, African colonies experience) on blacks one way or the other..

In fact, they were viewed more with curiosity than malice , with plenty of examples of this at the Games themselves, and in latter confrontations with allied troops during the war.

One only has to look at the many fotos extant that show the curiosity level of German soldiers in colonial French and British soldiers.

I am reading the book "Hitler's Olympics" at the moment by Christopher Hilton.

On the dust jacket there is the following quotation:

'Hitler didn't shake my hand but then FDR didn't either when I came back [to America].'
JESSE OWENS

There is another interesting quotation:
'Do you really think that I will allow myself to be photographed shaking hands with a Negro?'
Hitler to Baldur von Schirach

Does anyone know factually whether Jesse Owens was ever within arms reach of either Roosevelt or Hitler? It might have been difficult for either of them to attempt or reject shaking his hand if they weren't.

More information...

Hitler did shun a black American athlete at the 1936 Games, but it wasn't Jesse Owens. On the first day of the Olympics, just before Cornelius Johnson, an African American althlete who won the first gold medal for the U.S. that day, was to receive his award, Hitler left the stadium early. (The Nazis later claimed it was a previously scheduled departure.) Prior to his departure, Hitler had received a number of winners, but Olympic officials informed the German leader that in the future he must receive all of the winners or none at all. After the first day, he opted to acknowledge none. Jesse Owens had his victories on the second day, when Hitler was no longer in attendance. Would Hitler have snubbed Owens if he had been in the stadium on day two? Perhaps. But since he wasn't there, he didn't.

Ironically, the real snub of Owens came from his own president. Even after ticker-tape parades for Owens in New York City and Cleveland, President Franklin D. Roosevelt never publicly acknowledged Owens' achievements (gold in the 100 meter, 200 meter, 400 meter relay, and long jump). Owens was never invited to the White House and never even received a letter of congratulations from the president. Almost two decades passed before another American president, Dwight D. Eisenhower, honored Owens by naming him “Ambassador of Sports” — in 1955.

Jesse Owens: “Hitler didn't snub me—it was [FDR] who snubbed me. The president didn't even send me a telegram.” - quoted in Triumph, a book about the 1936 Olympics by Jeremy Schaap

More here:
http://german.about.com/library/blgermyth10.htm

more again...

Jesse Owens: “When I passed the Chancellor he arose, waved his hand at me, and I waved back at him. I think the writers showed bad taste in criticizing the man of the hour in Germany. ”