MILAN, Feb 15 (Reuters) - Official Olympic sales of T-shirts emblazoned with the poster of the 1936 Berlin Olympics, known as the “Nazi Games”, have caused a stir but the International Olympic Committee defended the move on Sunday, saying it was mainly concerned with protecting its trademark from potential uncontrolled use.
The Berlin Games are mostly remembered for being turned into a Nazi propaganda tool at the time by German Chancellor Adolf Hitler, symbolizing his idea of a superior Aryan race and of Nazism, but they took place against a much more sinister backdrop.
Forced labour was used to deliver material for the construction of the Olympic stadium while the Nazis were already filling concentration camps across Germany with homosexuals, Jews, Communists, Roma and dissidents as well as other groups they openly hounded and vilified.
IOC spokesman Mark Adams raised a number of points when asked about the Olympic Games online shop - which the IOC runs - selling the Berlin 1936 T-shirts.
“The first answer is we cannot rewrite history. The 1936 Games happened. We hold up what (American sprinter) Jesse Owens did, and a number of other athletes, as a great example of upholding the Olympic spirit,” he told a press conference.
