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The International Olympic Committee (IOC) is sparking controversy over a sold-out t-shirt on the official Olympics website depicting the 1936 Berlin Olympics hosted by the Nazis.
The limited edition shirt features the 1936 Games poster designed by German artist Franz Würbel and used as propaganda by Adolf Hitler to promote the Nazi idea of Aryan supremacy.
This idea was deflated by black American Jesse Owens, who won four track and field gold medals at the Games.
Liora Rez, founder of StopAntisemitism, called the decision a “disgrace” for the IOC.
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The International Olympic Committee (IOC) is sparking controversy over a sold-out t-shirt on the official Olympics website depicting the 1936 Berlin Olympics hosted by the Nazis. (Olympic Store; Kevin Voigt/GettyImages)
“The Olympics have been a breeding ground for anti-Semitism for decades,” Rez told PK Press Club Digital on Friday. “At the 1972 Munich Games, when terrorists massacred the Israeli Olympic team, competition barely stopped. Even decades later, the IOC refused to properly commemorate the massacre. And this year, hatred of Jews is official.”
She added that earlier Friday, an employee at the official 2026 Olympics store shouted “Free Palestine” to Israeli fans during the Winter Olympics currently taking place in Milan and Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy.
“Perhaps more shamefully, on the official Olympics online store, as part of the ‘heritage collection’, the IOC sells T-shirts commemorating and reproducing images related to the 1936 Berlin Olympic Games, organized under the racist Nazi dictatorship of Adolf Hitler. Is this the legacy the IOC wants to celebrate?” she continued. “Shame on the International Olympic Committee for this latest outrage. No medals for this pathetic performance.”
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The IOC told several media outlets that while they “of course recognize the historical problems of ‘Nazi propaganda’ linked to the 1936 Berlin Olympics, we must also remember that the Berlin Games saw 4,483 athletes from 49 countries compete in 149 medal events.” Many of them have stunned the world with their athletic feats, including Jesse Owens.
“The historical context of these Games is explained in more detail at the Olympic Museum in Lausanne,” continues the committee. “For the 1936 edition, the number of T-shirts produced and sold by the IOC is limited, which is why they are currently sold out.”
Jesse Owens won the 100 meters at the 1936 Olympic Games. (Keystone/Getty Images)
PK Press Club Digital has contacted the IOC for comment.
The Berlin Games jerseys are part of the IOC Heritage Collection, which features the design of each Olympic Games.
On the website, it says the Heritage collection “celebrates the art and design of the Olympic Games. Each edition of the Games reflects a unique time and place in history where the world came together to celebrate humanity.
Yoav Potash, director of the award-winning Holocaust documentary “Among Neighbors,” called the t-shirt “a sickening affront to human decency.”
Adolf Hitler watching the 1936 Berlin Olympics. (Photos by Renard/Getty Images)
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“To say that the IOC’s sale of these jerseys is in poor taste would be an understatement,” Potash told PK Press Club Digital. “The IOC benefits from 90 years of hindsight here. We know that Nazi Germany used its role as Olympic host for propaganda purposes, with the aim of highlighting supposed Aryan superiority.”
He added: “And we know that within a few years of those games, Nazi Germany carried out a massive, industrialized genocide, killing millions in an effort to promote the fantasy of Aryan superiority. To ignore all of this and sell T-shirts commemorating the 1936 Olympics in Berlin is a sickening affront to human decency and our collective ability to learn from history.”
