Conservationists Hitler Olympic Village - Conservations are in a race against time to save the abandoned Olympic Village built for the so-called 'Nazi Games' in 1936.
The site on the western edge of Berlin is where athletes from all over the world headed 76 years ago to take part in the most infamous Olympic Games in history.
But the athlete's accommodation has been largely left to rot since it was abandoned by Soviet forces in 1992 with only 25 of the 145 original buildings remaining - including the crumbling swimming pool, gym, theatre and dining hall.
Jens Becker, from the DKB Bank which owns the site, told The Times of the ongoing struggle to save the historic site.
He said: 'This is the oldest Olympic village that exists and that is why it is important to save it. It is a part of German history which nearly disappeared and now we are trying to save it.
'It was the first permanent Olympic village. The athletes were impressed - each house had its own steward and there had never been a swimming pool before at an Olympic village.'
Around 4,000 athletes – including Great Britain’s 208-strong squad – took part in the Games in the summer of 1936 as Europe teetered on the brink on war.
Adolf Hitler looked on with delight as his German ‘supermen’ lived up to his dreams of glory, winning the Games with a medal count of nearly 90; Great Britain came tenth with just 14.
The only real slap in the face for the Führer was the success of America’s black track-and-field athlete Jesse Owens.
He won four gold medals and was the star of the Games in the world’s eyes – even if Hitler regarded him as inferior because of his colour.
Ironically, Owens’s tiny room – No 5, in block 39 – is so far the only athlete’s room that has been renovated.
It’s a simple space that reflects the modesty of the humble man who stayed there – a man who, paradoxically, enjoyed more freedom in Nazi Germany at that time that he did in his segregated U.S. homeland.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2176977/Adolf-Hitlers-Olympic-Village-1936-Conservationists-race-save-forgotten-relic-infamous-Nazi-Games.html#ixzz21x7rGm3D
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