Games of Deception

"Basketball" by mvongrue is licensed under CC BY-NC 2.0

Games of Deception: The True Story of the First U.S. Olympic Basketball Team at the 1936 Olympics in Hitler's Germany by Andre Maraniss

Text from the back cover:

In July 1936, thousands of people cheered as the U.S. Olympic teams boarded the S.S. Manhattan, bound for Berlin. Included were the 14 players representing the first-ever U.S. Olympic basketball team. Adolf Hitler had gained power in Germany three years earlier. Jewish people and political opponents of the Nazis were the targets of vicious mistreatment. But the Olympians wouldn't see any signs of trouble in Berlin. Streets were swept, storefronts were painted, and every German citizen greeted them with a smile -- all meant to distract from the terrible things happening behind the scenes.

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