Adolf Hitler\u2019s Olympic showcase is stirring controversy nearly 90 years later.<\/p>\n
The Olympics\u2019 official online shop has sold out<\/a> of a T-shirt featuring artwork from the 1936 Berlin Games, which Hitler used to promote Nazi Germany and its ideology of Aryan supremacy.<\/p>\n The shirt, part of the IOC\u2019s \u201cHeritage Collection<\/a>,\u201d reproduces the original 1936 poster by German artist Franz W\u00fcrbel.\u00a0<\/p>\n The T-shirt reproduces the official 1936 Berlin Olympics poster, a design later associated with Adolf Hitler\u2019s efforts to promote Nazi Germany on the world stage. shop3<\/p>\n The design includes a laurel-crowned male figure, the Olympic rings and Berlin\u2019s Brandenburg Gate.<\/p>\n German politicians and Jewish advocacy groups called for the item to be removed.<\/p>\n \u201cThe 1936 Olympic Games were a central propaganda tool of the Nazi regime,\u201d Klara Schedlich, sports policy spokesperson for the Green Party faction in Berlin\u2019s House of Representatives, told German press agency DPA.<\/p>\n She charged the International Olympic Committee with \u201cclearly not reflecting sufficiently on its own history\u201d and said \u201cthe choice of image is problematic and unsuitable for a T-shirt,\u201d without context. <\/p>\n Liora Rez, founder of StopAntisemitism, called the sale a \u201cshame.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe Olympics have been a staging ground for antisemitism for decades,\u201d Rez told Fox News Digital.<\/p>\n Bronze medalist Jajima of Japan, gold medalist Jesse Owens of the United States, and silver medalist Lutz Long of Germany during the Olympic broad medals ceremony at the Summer Olympics in Berlin. AP<\/p>\n \u201cAt the Munich games in 1972, when terrorists butchered the Israeli Olympic team,<\/a> the competition barely paused. Even decades later the IOC refused to properly commemorate the massacre. And this year, the Jew-hate is official,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n Yoav Potash, director of the Holocaust documentary \u201cAmong Neighbors,\u201d described the shirt as a \u201csickening affront to human decency.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cTo say that the IOC\u2019s sale of these shirts is in poor taste would be a gross understatement,\u201d Potash told Fox News Digital.<\/p>\n The Berlin Olympics drew athletes from 49 countries and featured 149 medal events, figures the IOC cited in its response to critics, including gold medalist Black American sprinter Jesse Owens. AFP\/Getty Images<\/p>\n The IOC said the shirt was sold out as part of a limited production run.<\/p>\n The Berlin design is part of the IOC\u2019s Heritage Collection, which features artwork from every Olympic Games and, according to the website, \u201ccelebrates the art and design<\/a> of the Olympic Games.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cOf course, we recognize the profound historical context surrounding the Berlin 1936 Olympic Games,\u201d the IOC said in a statement to The Post.<\/p>\n \u201cThe 1936 Games also brought together 4,483 athletes from 49 countries competing in 149 events and included remarkable sporting achievements.\u201d<\/p>\n German lawmakers and Jewish advocacy groups urged the International Olympic Committee to remove the shirt from its online store. Getty Images<\/p>\n