Hitler's Pawn (2 cents)

There was a one hour documentary this morning on HBO's second channel (in DC, channel 302) called Hitler's Pawn, which told the story of a German Jewish woman named Greta Bergmann, who was in the 1930's a world class athlete and the holder of Germany's women's high jump record. Beginning in 1933, when she was a young teenager with a growing reputation, her world collapsed with Hitler's arrival because she was Jewish, and she was dismissed from sports' clubs and shunned by friends.

When the 1936 Olympics were planned, the US threatened to boycott because of German's racial restrictions on its athletes, and (unbeknownst) to Bergmann, she became a pawn as one of the two Jewish athletes on Germany's team, sufficient to placate the easily convinced American Olympic Committee (thank you, Avery Brundage) and Amateur Athletic Union. The day after the American olympians set sail for Europe, Germany told Greta that she did not make the team, and she did not compete.

It was not until after she emigrated to the US in 1937 that she learned the full story and how she was used.

It is an excellent documentary, and would be very instructional for children and adolescents. If you get a chance to watch it, do.