Perhaps the most famous of all modern Olympics was the �Nazi Olympics� held in Berlin in 1936. Hitler tried to use the Olympic Games to demonstrate the superiority of �pure Aryans� over nations that allowed Jews, blacks and other �mongrel� races to represent them. Jesse Owens and other African-American track stars embarrassed the Fuhrer by winning most of the gold medals in the sprints and relays, defeating their German rivals easily.

What is less remembered about the Nazi Olympics is the saga of two American Jewish sprinters, Marty Glickman and Sam Stoller. The 18 year old Glickman had been a track and football star at Syracuse University, while Stoller competed for the University of Michigan. The two young men made the U. S. Olympic squad as members of the 400 yard relay team, traveled to Germany and prepared diligently for the relay race. Yet the day before the race, with little explanation, the U.S. track team coaches replaced Glickman and Stoller with two other runners, Jesse Owens and Ralph Metcalfe.

By Glickman�s own account, the last-minute switch was a straightforward case of anti-Semitism. Avery Brundage, chairman of the United States Olympic Committee, was an enthusiastic supporter of Hitler�s regime and denied that the Nazis followed anti-Semitic policies. Brundage and assistant U. S. Olympic track coach Dean Cromwell were members of America First, a isolationist political movement that attracted many pro-Nazi sympathizers. Additionally, Cromwell was the coach at the University of Southern California of two of the other Olympic sprinters, Foy Draper and Frank Wyckoff, and openly favored those two over Glickman and Stoller.

Glickman�s suspicions about the fairness of the relay team selection process began at the American Olympic team trials in New York, when he placed fifth of the seven runners competing in the sprint finals. In 1936, finish-line photography was not yet in use, but films of the race seem to indicate that Glickman actually finished third behind Owens and Metcalfe. The judges ﷓apparently under pressure from Cromwell﷓ placed him fifth behind Draper and Wyckoff. As a result, Glickman was not one of the three sprinters entered in the 100 yard dash, a premiere Olympic event. Instead, Glickman and Stoller traveled to Berlin as part of the 400 yard relay team, each scheduled to run a 100-yard leg of the race.

As an 18 year old, Glickman was grateful to be going to the Olympics, even if he felt that he�d been robbed of his chance at a medal in the 100 yard dash. There was an effort made by some American Jewish organizations to convince the U. S. Olympic committee to boycott the Nazi Olympics, but Brundage was able to prevail. Glickman, like most American Jews, thought that the anti-Semitism he might encounter in Berlin would be no worse than what he faced growing up in Brooklyn. Like most Americans, Glickman had no inkling of the horrific fate awaiting German Jewry.