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The International Olympic Committee (IOC) is courting controversy over a sold-out T-shirt on the official Olympics website depicting the Nazi-run 1936 Berlin Olympics.
The limited edition shirt features the poster for the 1936 Games designed by German artist Franz Würbel, which was used as propaganda by Adolf Hitler to promote the Nazi idea of Aryan supremacy.
That idea was deflated by black American Jesse Owens, who won four track and field gold medals at the Games.
Liora Rez, the founder of StopAntisemitism, called the move a “shame” for the IOC.
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The International Olympic Committee (IOC) is courting controversy over a sold-out T-shirt on the official Olympics website depicting the Nazi-run 1936 Berlin Olympics. (Olympic Shop; Kevin Voigt/GettyImages)
“The Olympic Games have been a staging ground for anti-Semitism for decades,” Rez told Pakinomist Digital on Friday. “At the 1972 Munich Games, when terrorists slaughtered the Israeli Olympic team, the competition barely paused. Even decades later, the IOC refused to properly commemorate the massacre. And this year, anti-Semitism is official.”
She added that earlier on Friday, an employee at the official Olympics 2026 store shouted “Free Palestine” to Israel’s fans at the Winter Olympics, currently being held in Milan and Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy.
“Possibly more shamefully, on the official Olympic online store as part of the ‘legacy collection’ the IOC is selling T-shirts commemorating and reproducing images linked to the 1936 Berlin Olympic Games held 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 multiple outlets that while it “of course recognizes the historical issues of ‘Nazi propaganda’ related 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 stunned the world with their athletic achievements, including Jessetic Owens.”
“The historical context of these Games is further explained at the Olympic Museum in Lausanne,” the committee continued. “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 Olympics. (Keystone/Getty Images)
Pakinomist Digital has reached out to the IOC for comment.
The Berlin Games shirts are part of the IOC’s Heritage Collection, which features designs from every Olympic Games.
The website states that 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 when the world came together to celebrate humanity.
Yoav Potash, director of the award-winning Holocaust documentary “Among Neighbors” called the t-shirt a “disgusting violation of human decency.”
Adolf Hitler watched the Olympic Games in Berlin in 1936. (Fox Photos/Getty Images)
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“To say the IOC’s sale of these shirts is in poor taste would be a gross understatement,” Potash told Pakinomist Digital. “The IOC has the benefit of 90 years of hindsight here. We know that Nazi Germany used its role as Olympic host for propaganda purposes aimed at showcasing supposed Aryan superiority.”
He added: “And we know that within a few years of those Games, Nazi Germany carried out a massive, industrialized genocide that killed millions of people in an attempt to promote the fantasy of Aryan superiority. To ignore all this and sell t-shirts commemorating the 1936 Olympics in Berlin is a sickening affront to human historical decency and our collective decency.”
