The Olympic Torch is a Nazi symbol

[tocqueville]

In the past 24 hours, two major news agencies decided to add a historic touch toward the bottom of their torch-relay articles, the kind that is easy to ignore in happier Olympic times. Here’s The Associated Press version:

The Olympic flame wasn’t part of the ancient games, and the torch relay didn’t become a fixture in the modern Olympics until the 1936 Berlin Games, when it was part of the Nazi pageantry that promoted Hitler’s beliefs of Aryan supremacy in the world of sports.

And from Reuters: The Olympics first held a torch relay in 1936, the year dictator Adolf Hitler made the Berlin games a showcase of Nazi propaganda. That torch run is captured in one of the most famous — and infamous — Olympic movies ever made, Leni Riefenstahl’s “Olympia.”

Upsetting? Maybe. New? No way. Secret? It’s right there on the Beijing Olympics official web site.

http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/04/09/the-beleaguered-torch-now-with-nazi-origins/

more here

http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/general/others/aryan-ideals-not-ancient-gr.html-were-the-inspiration-behind-flame-tradition-805746.html

see my comment here too :

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x3134459

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RqZffy5DaI4&feature=related

[Mojambo]

1. A sports columnist in Seattle made this point today. n/t

[aikoaiko]

2. So is the Volkswagen Bug, so what?

:shrug:

[seriousstan]

3. I hear Hitler drank milk also. MILK IS DEAD TO ME!!!!

[Richard Steele]

15. And I have it on good authority that he had a lifelong craving for OXYGEN. nm

[seriousstan]

16. SAY IT ISN'T SO11111111!!!!!

[tocqueville]

4. hardly comparable with milk and bugs...

"The concept could hardly fail to appeal to the Nazis, who loved pagan mythology, and saw ancient Greece as an Aryan forerunner of the Third Reich. The ancient Greeks believed that fire was of divine origin, and kept perpetual flames burning in their temples.

In Olympia, where the ancient games were held, the flame burnt permanently on the altar of the goddess Hestia. In Athens, athletes used to run relay races carrying burning torches, in honour of certain gods.

But the ancient Games were proclaimed by messengers wearing olive crowns, a symbol of the sacred truce which guaranteed that athletes could travel to and from Olympus safely. There were no torch relays associated with the ancient Olympics until Hitler.

The route from Olympus to Berlin conveniently passed through Bulgaria, Yugoslavia, Hungary, Austria, and Czechoslovakia - countries where the Nazis wanted to extend their influence. Before long, all would be under German military occupation. In Hungary, the flame was serenaded by gypsy musicians who would later be rounded up and sent to death camps."

http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/general/others/aryan-ideals-not-ancient-gr.html-were-the-inspiration-behind-flame-tradition-805746.html

the nazis distorted the original mythology on purpose. The torch should be replaced with olive branches and "peace trees" planted.

[cynatnite]

5. According to your logic, the autobahn is also a Nazi symbol n/t

[tocqueville]

6. see answer above

it's question of a propaganda symbol, not a practical achievement

[cynatnite]

7. Even practical achievement can be great propaganda...

I don't believe for one second that the OIC is promoting Nazism. I'm surprised anyone would.

[tocqueville]

9. I never said that

even if Samaranch was a personal friend of Franco. Besides the current Olympic CEO Jacques Rogge (Belgian) has been branded as a "collabo" by the French left, which is the supreme insult here.

Personally I think that the use of the torch is only a result of people's short memory and lack of knowledge of history. But the recent dispute shows that old demons are showing up. That's why the torch should be replaced by a peace symbol.

[riverdeep]

20. You could replace it with a big fluffy bunny.

That still wouldn't stop the politicking that goes on among nations. The Olympics aren't about rising above differences, they actually make the differences crystal clear. A way for respective countries to get good PR through athletics.

[backscatter712]

8. Considering that both the U.S. and Chinese governments seem to want to emulate Nazi Germany,

and considering that both governments are using the Olympics to blow smoke up our asses and perpetuate a destructive, repressive system, I think the comparison is perfectly valid.

[tocqueville]

10. Communist China is the neocons wet dream

1) unabashed capitalistic freedom and total exploitation of the masses
2) military dictatorship and repressed fundamental freedoms.

The experiment was already tried in Chile. But it didn't work out, due to the brownish color. So now they are going red. Remember that most of their ideologues were trotskyites in the beginning.

[Zynx]

18. Many here don't realize that China is the proving ground for a right-wing

authoritarian free-market dictatorship with no labor or environmental protections. Right-wing economists love China.

[seriousstan]

17. Gee, I haven't heard this tripe for ...well, 4 years.

Yet another event that most people will enjoy. But, you won't. LOL

[pokerfan]

11. Wiki fails me once again

Commemorating the theft of fire from the Greek god Zeus by Prometheus, its origins lie in ancient Greece, when a fire was kept burning throughout the celebration of the ancient Olympics.

The fire was reintroduced at the 1928 Summer Olympics in Amsterdam, and it has been part of the modern Olympic Games ever since.

[tocqueville]

12. might be so

but the first relay was invented by the Nazis who gave the torch a different meaning. If you the read the NYT links to the Beijing official site, they acknowledge that the inspiration comes from 1936, not 1928.

[Beregond2]

13. The fact

that it began in 36 hardly makes it a Nazi symbol.

[Zynx]

19. I think the point is that if it is a tradition, it is one with questionable beginnings.

[The Inquisitive]

14. oh noes

secret Nazi Olympics!

[riverdeep]

21. Hey, the Nazis also gave America our space program.

Or, at least they played an enormous role. And that's not a symbol. See 'operation paperclip' for info. We shipped them over here at the closing of WWII, including well-known butchers, and sent them to work for us. In fact, a couple years ago, one of them (Hubertus Strughold) was kicked off the Space Hall of Fame when someone noticed he was also involved in experiments on prisoners.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12869190/
(Former Nazi removed from Space Hall of Fame)

Germany was an incredibly advanced nation, if they would have gone a traditional non-military route, ironically, they might have taken over the world.