The International Olympic Committee, meeting in London, has accepted Chancellor Adolf Hitler’s personal invitation to hold the 1940 Winter Olympic Games in Germisch-Partenkirchen, scene of the games in 1936, when a bitter world-wide controversy was stirred over holding of the international sports events in the Reich.
The Committee said that Finland, where the 1940 Summer games will be held, was unable to provide facilities for the Winter events, nor could Switzerland and Lake Placid, New York. However, H.L. Garren, representing a committee in Lake Placid formed in regard to the Olympics, denied that Lake Placid had refused the games and added that “Placid feels that instead of refusing to take the games, they were not even given a chance to refuse them.”
The I.O.C. also awarded a special diploma to Leni Riefenstahl, intimate of Hitler, who produced the film of the Berlin Olympics, which was termed “an outstanding sport film.”
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