Olympic Gold 1936: How the Image of Jesse Owens Crushed Hitler's Evil Myth

How the Image of Jesse Owens Crushed Hitlers Evil Myth. Jesse Owens gold-medal winning feats at the 1936 Olympics in Berlin struck a mighty propaganda blow against Adolf Hitler. The Nazi leader had planned to use the German games as a showcase for supposed Aryan superiority. Instead, and for four times, there was an American black athlete on the podium being photographed by Hitlers personal photographer, Heinrich Hoffmann. In addition, Owens would figure prominently in the groundbreaking film Olympia by Hitlers favourite director Leni Riefenstahl. Photo and film both captured Owens stunning success and revealed how wrong Hitler was in