Athletes Performing Nazi Salute, 1936, National World War II Museum
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In 1936, just two years after Hitler’s rise to power as German Führer, Berlin was to serve as the host city for the summer olympics. Civil rights groups led a movement to boycott the olympics in response to Nazi human rights abuses, but they failed narrowly. At the olympics, the Nazis attempted to hide their discriminatory policies but prevented their own Jewish athletes from competing. Despite the fact that the movement to boycott the olympics failed, it set an important precedent. In 1980, the United States boycotted the Moscow olympics in order to protest Soviet Union human rights abuses.
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