Daniel Ferris, Secretary of the American Amateur Athletic Union, left Germany early this week after promising German authorities privately that the United States would attend the international Olympic Games in Berlin in 1936, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency learned today. Ferris came to Berlin for a brief survey of the situation. American Jewish organizations had protested against the Olympic Games being held in Germany on account of the Nazi persecution of the Jews.
Avery Brundage, president of the American Olympic Committee, left Stockholm, Sweden, today for Berlin after having attended conferences in that city. Brundage was accompanied by Dr. Theodor Lewald, German representative of the Olympic Executive Committee, who reported on the plans for the Olympic Games in Berlin.
Up to the present, American participation in the Berlin Olympic Games had been doubtful, owing to the prevalence of sentiment in the country that Jewish athletes in Germany had been discriminated against by the Nazi regime. But the visit of Ferris to Berlin and his assurances to the Germans coupled with an article published in the United States by Brundage hinting that American athletes would compete at Berlin, indicate that the American Olympic Committee has definitely decided on participation.
On behalf of the Nazi regime, Dr. Lewald, himself of Jewish descent, declared that the Hitler government would give German Jewish athletes a place on the German Olympic team and would give those athletes every facility for training and competition.
Immediately after the Nazi advent to power all German Jewish athletes were ousted from the Ger-
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
