Maria Zakharova's rejoinder to Boris Johnson

British officials at the Olympic Games in Nazi Germany in 1936

THE BRITISH SAY THE WORLD CUP IN RUSSIA IS LIKE THE 1936 BERLING OLYMPICS. LOOKS WHO WENT TO HITLER'S OLYMPICS AND EVEN GAVE THE NAZI SALUTE



From Maria Zakharova, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russian Federation

On March 14, British Prime Minister Theresa May said that officials and members of the Royal Family would not attend the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia.

On March 21, answering questions from members of the Parliamentary Foreign Affairs Committee, British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson agreed with a suggestion that the upcoming FIFA World Cup Russia was comparable to the 1936 Olympic Games in the Third Reich. “I think that your characterisation of what is going to happen in Moscow, the World Cup, at all the venues – yes, I think the comparison with 1936 is certainly right,” said Johnson, commenting on the statement.

Mr Johnson, what are you talking about? Let us look into this.

First, what are you talking about – is it sport? If you are talking about sport and the organisation of international sporting events, including the Olympic Games, you should admit that the International Olympic Committee at the time officially appreciated the high level at which those Olympic Games were prepared and held.

We looked into the archives and retrieved messages from Soviet Ambassador Yakov Surits, who reported to Moscow that he agreed with the assessment of the International Olympic Committee regarding the order and the competent organisation of the Olympic Games.

Second, might British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson have meant things other than sport and the organisation of a sporting event? What was he talking about? One is likely to assume that he was talking about the political situation in Germany at the time and how the British political class saw it. We would like to remind Boris Johnson and all Britons, for that matter, of who officially represented Britain at the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin. We managed to find an official brochure, “Guests of Honour at the XI Olympic Games,” which was published in Germany in 1936. I am holding it in my hand. Frankly, I feel disgust whenever I have to hold anything relating to that period, events and, even more, political situation – it is a kind of “greeting” from the past. However, I had to read it.

So, who represented Britain at the 1936 Olympic Games?

1. Lord Portal of Laverstoke, Chairperson of the British Olympic Association;
2. Captain Evan Hunter, O.B.E., Secretary of the British Olympic Association

Britain’s representatives at the International Olympic Committee:

1. Lord Aberdare
2. Lord Burghley, Marquess of Exeter
3. Sir Noel Curtis Bennett;

International Sporting Federations:

1. William Jones, Secretary of the International Basketball Federation;
2. Sir William P. Burton, President of the International Yacht Racing Union;

3. Major Heckstall Smith, Secretary of the International Yacht Racing Union.

This means that the above persons attended official events during the Olympic Games, including the opening ceremony, attended stadiums and maintained contact with local authorities in Berlin in 1936.

Unlike the representatives of the diplomatic corps, who were accredited in Germany at the time and whose responsibility it was to attend the sporting events, the members of the British establishment mentioned in the brochure arrived in Germany of their own free will. I would like to emphasise again that they came to Adolf Hitler in Berlin in 1936 as members of the British establishment, the House of Lords, aristocrats.

I would like to remind you that Germany had already been “infected” with its well-known ideology by 1936. I will not talk about the political atmosphere that prevailed then. But I would like to remind you that the system of concentration camps for the opponents of the Nazi regime, asocials, convicts and other categories of citizens had already been created by that time and the so-called “Nuremberg” race laws had been enacted.

Importantly, until 1952, when Finland hosted the Summer Olympics, the Soviet Union did not take part in the Olympic Games. The USSR also ignored the Olympic Games in Berlin. There were a number of political and ideological reasons why Soviet athletes did not take part in the Olympic Games at the time. One reason for this was that the International Olympic Committee refused to establish direct contact [with the Soviet Union] but it appreciated the organisation of the Olympic Games in Berlin. The USSR National Olympic Committee was established on April 23, 1951. I will not delve deeply into the history of these events, you can do it yourself.

Mr Johnson, do you not find it shameful and, as you like to say, “emetic” that so many British officials attended the opening ceremony of the 1936 Olympic Games? What were all those respectable British sporting functionaries and lords doing as Hitler’s guests? Tell your countrymen about this.