This exhibition explores the tragic decade that began with the 1936 Berlin Olympics and ended with the 1948 London Olympics. The history of Europe in the 20th century was marked by powerful developments in the world of sport, especially following the 1936 Berlin Olympics, which opened a new sporting era—one in which athletic competition became a special propaganda tool for totalitarian ideologies. 

During this “tragic decade”, the Axis powers sought to create a “Europe of sport”, while seeking the destruction of the Jewish sporting movement and the deportation of its best athletes.

Using films, photographs, and newly uncovered archival documents and objects, this exhibition explores the sporting world’s reaction to the policies of exclusion, while also looking at the careers and lives of athletes and the specific sporting context in Lyon during the Second World War.

The exhibitions runs until January 29, 2017 at the Resistance & Deportation History Centre in Lyon, France. http://www.chrd.lyon.fr/chrd