Berlin games

"Behind the scenes, the Berlin Olympics were a crucible of the world's discord, a dress rehearsal of the horrors of the forthcoming conflict. Hitler had secretly determined that the Games would showcase Nazi prowess and, when they arrived in Berlin, the unwitting athletes found themselves to be helpless pawns in his sinister political game." "For the first time Guy Walters reveals how it was not only the Nazis who corrupted the Games, but the Olympic officials themselves, not least Baron Pierre de Coubertin, the founder of the modern Olympics, who received a massive secret donation from the Nazis." "From the remarkable tableau of the Games themselves, Walters stretches the story across a broad canvas, placing those two crucial weeks in the wider context of the 1930s. He brings alive a wide cast of characters and a complex political backdrop, and casts new light on a momentous yet little explored set piece of Nazi history."--BOOK JACKET.