Celia Gurevitch Jewish Community Library

Now that the Olympics are over in Beijing I feel more comfortable recommending two Olympics related items. In general Jews did rather well on Olympics both before and after the state of Israel was established. Unfortunately the items we have do not celebrate these accomplishments, but commemorate two stark Olympics. First we have a picture book on the Nazi Olympics, Berlin 1936, by Susan D. Bachrach. It was published by the US Holocaust Memorial Museum. We learn from 130 pages and through hundreds of pictures not just how the event looked, but also what went on in the words of politics. It is a serious history book, which details the various constituencies who organized and made the event possible, despite numerous calls for boycott. It also shows how the Nazis used the games fro their own political purpose.

We also have a VHS tape documenting the “1972 Olympics Slaughter at Munich.” It is a recording from 1992 and not the 2005 film by Steven Spielberg. It covers how the Black September group killed 11 Israeli athletes during the games in Munich and then what happened to the terrorists themselves. While we are in the process of getting a DVD copy of the feature film I recommend to check the story’s documentary description.