Ornstein May Not Visit Reich for Olympics Arrangements

In vigorous language that left no doubt about his sentiments, Charles L. Ornstein, only Jewish member of the National Olympic Games Committee, made clear yesterday in an exclusive statement to the Jewish Daily Bulletin, that as a representative of American sports and a Jew, he is not certain he will visit Germany this Summer to make arrangements for the housing of this country’s athletes during the 1936 Olympic Games.

Ornstein was greatly displeased by an item in the Olympic Games-News Service bulletin issued in Berlin and just received here, which stated that he “announces that he will visit Berlin this Summer in order to examine on the spot the plans for the Olympic Village at Doberitz. Mr. Ornstein at the same time will also make preliminary arrangements for the accomodation of other American visitors to Berlin in 1936.”

Ornstein immediately wrote a letter to Dr. Theodore Lewald, president of the German Olympic Games Committee, telling him that previously he merely said “I expect to be the chairman of the American Olympic Housing Committee” and that “it is possible” he may visit Berlin.

OBJECTS TO RESTRICTIONS

But since the events have taken such a turn, Ornstein wrote to Dr. Lewald, “I am not at all certain of what the fate of the 1936 Games will be as far as American participation is concerned. I refer, of course to the Jewish question in Germany, more particularly as it relates to the 1936 Games.

“I have been unable to find in any reports emanating from Germany that it is possible for a German Jew to participate in the Olympic Games, or for any Jew to visit Germany and maintain his or her self-respect under the conditions created and sanctioned by your government. I am mindful of the series of promises conveyed first to the International Olympic Committee and reiterated to the American Olympic Committee as recently as last November, that Jews would be permitted to participate in the Olympics.

“I am constrained to believe that no matter how scrupulously it is the intention of your government to adhere to the technicalities of that promise there is no sincerity and no real desire to make that participation possible. This is clearly indicated in the news reports which have reached this country from the most important correspondents in the world. Not only has the general situation as it affects Jews become more acute, but deliberate steps have been taken to further prescribe the possibility of Jewish participation in any sports in Germany immediately upon the heels of cabled promises that no discrimination as far as Jews in sports would be practiced.

ASKS REPLY ON PROMISES

“I am appending for your information the following decrees issued and implemented with government sanction from April, 1933, to March 12th of this year. I should like to have a direct reply as to how you square the promises of your government with the acts of discrimination against Jews on the part of its representatives, officially and unofficially, in Germany.

“Nor is this the entire story. In addition to the regulations affecting Jews in sports the decrees which make it impossible for Jews to enter any of the higher education institutions in Germany today represent a further barrier to training for the Olympics. I do not have to tell you the period of training, as we understand it, is at least a minimum of two years. Can it be that your government plans suddenly to open all avenues of training to Jews? Recent months have made it clear with grievous force that the Hitler government has no intention of desisting from its policy of exterminating Jews by the process of the strangulation through the noose of the ‘Aryan’ paragraph.

A CHALLENGE TO SPORTS

“The general destruction of civil liberties, the oppression of Protestants, Catholics, Liberals and others because of political and economic, racial or religious creed are a challenge to all that civilized society holds precious. The world of sport is in the forefront of those who are united in condemnation of this assault upon the foundations of the free and democratic society; pledged as it is to extolling the spirit of fair play, I cannot see how the world of sport can wish to be placed in a position of offering support, moral and financial, to any program of oppression. The possibility that the holding of the International Olympic Series in Berlin will be subject to both interpretations is one which is being given serious thought by those who are concerned with the Olympic Games.

“I am writing you at length, and with utter candor, because it is impossible to withhold these views, which represent not a personal reaction but a generally current standpoint, and because you have the right to know them.”

Appended to the letter was the list of laws and acts of the Hitler regime unfavorably affecting Jews in sports. It consists of twenty-two separate items, each with a different date, beginning on April 26, when Jews were barred from German sport organizations, and running through March 12 of this year when the Bavarian government ordered the dissolution of the Bavarian Jewish Sports Association, the last surviving Jewish sports group.

IN CONTACT WITH LEWALD

During the 1932 Olympic Games in Los Angeles Ornstein, as head of the American housing committee, was thrown into close association with Dr. Lewald and Dr. Carl Diem, secretary of the German committee. He has since been in frequent correspondence with them. It was in one of his letters to Dr. Lewald earlier this year that he mentioned he expected to be again in charge of housing for the American contingent and that there was a possibility of his coming to Berlin. On the strength of those remarks the Olympic Games-News Service of Berlin sent out throughout the world the statement quoted above.