The American Olympic Association late yesterday unanimously adopted a resolution protesting the discrimination against Jewish athletes in Germany. The resolution expressed the hope that discrimination against Jewish athletes will have been removed before the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin so that American athletes may be certified for participation.
Olympic Association meeting in convention here today.
Acting on the motion of Murray Hulbert, former president of the Amateur Athletic Union, which on Monday adopted the resolution voicing condemnation of Germany’s anti-Jewish discriminations, the A. O. A. referred the matter to a committee including among its members Gustavus Town Kirby and Brigadier General Charles S. Sherrill.
Mr. Kirby is strongly in favor of a resolution which would boycott the German Olympiad Committee by refusing to participate in the games scheduled to be held in Berlin in 1936. He sponsored the motion at the Pittsburgh convention of the A. A. U.
General Sherrill at today’s meeting of the A. O. A. sounded his belief that the resolution would do more harm than good, and that a protest would be preferable.
Charles L. Ornstein, representing the Jewish Welfare Board, demanded positive action on the matter of Germany’s bar against Jewish athletes. He cited forty instances of Nazi anti-Jewish discrimination since the meeting of the German Olympic Committee in Vienna where a pledge was issued promising justice to Jewish athletes.
A second promise of this nature was received by the committee in a cablegram directed to the Amateur Athletic Union by the Reich body.
General Sherrill retorted to Ornstein’s address with the declaration that he is not a defender of Nazi policies. The matter should not be made an issue in this country, he said, adding that American athletes would be deprived of the opportunity of playing in the 1936 games.
One bloc of delegates, motivated apparently by the adoption of the emphatic stand against Germany by the A. A. U. on Monday, is reported to be circulating a round robin which demands that a rider be appended moving to hold the games in another country.
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