Ideas and practices rooted in racial prejudice have been part of the modern Olympic Games since their inception in the late 19th century, but never more prominently than in the 1936 Summer Games held in Nazi-ruled Berlin. Here, antisemitism and anti-Black racism combined to produce an especially toxic brew.

David Clay Large, author of “Nazi Games: The Olympics of 1936,” will examine how racial politics and theories of race defined all aspects of the 1936 Olympics. These “Tainted Games” generated a complex legacy with which we are still grappling today.