The forthcoming European Maccabi Games in Berlin will hold strong emotional ties for every visiting squad, but it holds added meaning for members of the guest delegation from Maccabi USA.
Sam Stoller and Marty Glickman qualified for the USA 4x100m relay team at the 1936 Berlin Olympics, but they were removed by the head of the US Olympic Team, Avery Brundage, on the day of the race to avoid upsetting Adolf Hitler.
Brundage always denied that Stoller and Glickman were removed because of their religion, but rather maintained the change was made to put the fastest runners on the relay team. However, during the heats leading up to the race, Glickman had beaten both Frank Wykoff and Foy Draper and should never have been removed for the purpose of keeping the fastest sprinters on the team.
This was a devastating blow for both Stoller and Glickman because it would turn out to be their only opportunity to race in the most elite contest of their lives, and they were denied this opportunity to appease the antisemitism of the German regime.
"I am thrilled that the descendants of Marty Glickman and Sam Stoller will be part of the USA delegation in Berlin,” said Tonja Magerman who is the chair of the Team USA delegation.
"It just increases the significance of everything we do, using sport to build Jewish pride and perpetuate Jewish continuity.
"The fact that these individuals, whose family members were denied the chance to compete at the 1936 Olympics because they were Jewish, are able to march into the Opening Ceremony and proclaim ‘We are still here’ and that Hitler is gone, speaks volumes as to why we are involved with the Maccabi movement."
Stoller of Cincinnati had the misfortune of attending high school at the same time as Jesse Owens. They raced for rival high schools and although Owens won most of those races, Stoller beat him once. The pair shared a healthy rivalry and Owens cheered Stoller on during the 1936 US trials as he staked his claim for qualification.
Sam’s second cousin, Steven Stoller, will represent the Stoller family at the EMG. Steven Stoller is an orthopaedic surgeon who regularly works with elite athletes and has a unique understanding as to the amount of training and dedication it takes for them to get to the top of their sport. He is very empathetic to the pain and disappointment that both Stoller and Glickman shared when the opportunity to compete at the pinnacle of their sport was abruptly taken away from them because of antisemitism.
"I am doing this because what happened was so significant,” Steven Stoller said. “I want to do this for my children and for the Stoller family. I think this is a great thing and I am honoured to be involved.”
Born in Brooklyn, Glickman was a track and field star and an outstanding American football player at high school and at Syracuse University. His athletics career really took off in his freshman year at Syracuse and he qualified for the Olympic trials, and qualified to run at the 1936 Olympics.
After the abrupt decision by Brundage to remove Glickman and Stoller from the competition, Glickman maintained from the beginning that the decision was solely based on their religion and Brundage’s relationship with Hitler.
Glickman’s youngest daughter, Nancy, and her daughter will also join the USA delegation and march into the Opening Ceremony. It will be very emotional for Nancy, just as it was for her father 79 years earlier. Nancy has shared that her father had returned to the 1936 Olympic Stadium some 30 years ago and had looked up at Hitler’s box and shouted: “I am still here and you are not.”
"While the main reason for my attendance is to honour my father, it is not often that one gets to be a witness, let alone a participant, in the irony of change,” Nancy Glickman remarked.
"I think my father would have added an addendum to his 1985 shout at Hitler’s box if he knew my daughter and I would be there, and it would be ‘and we will be here for generations to come’."
The EMG runs from July 28 to August 5. Maccabi USA Executive Director Jed Margolis said: “We’re very excited about this unique opportunity to be part of the largest gathering of Jewish athletes behind the Iron Curtain. It’s a major statement to say that we are here and our enemies are not.
"The EMG will take on a very special flavour, with young and more senior athletes involved from so many nations. We’re also very excited to be part of the world’s largest ever shabbat gathering."
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