Your brother, Luz
October 5, 2016 8:54 PM Subscribe
Athletes Jesse Owens and Carl Ludwig "Luz" Long, competitors at the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin, became devoted friends and corresponded long after Owens returned to America.
Long, a University of Leipzig-trained lawyer, served in WWII and was killed in action in 1943 during the Allied invasion of Sicily. His final letter reached Owens a year after it was sent; in it, Long wrote:
My heart tells me, if I be honest with you, that this is the last letter I shall ever write. If it is so, I ask you something. It is a something so very important to me. It is you go to Germany when this war done, someday find my Karl, and tell him about his father. Tell him, Jesse, what times were like when we not separated by war. I am saying—tell him how things can be between men on this earth.
Owens would honor his request.
(In 1964, Luz Long was awarded the Pierre de Coubertin "True Spirit of Sportsmanship" medal for his actions at the Berlin Games; previously on MetaFilter.)
Long, a University of Leipzig-trained lawyer, served in WWII and was killed in action in 1943 during the Allied invasion of Sicily. His final letter reached Owens a year after it was sent; in it, Long wrote:
My heart tells me, if I be honest with you, that this is the last letter I shall ever write. If it is so, I ask you something. It is a something so very important to me. It is you go to Germany when this war done, someday find my Karl, and tell him about his father. Tell him, Jesse, what times were like when we not separated by war. I am saying—tell him how things can be between men on this earth.
Owens would honor his request.
(In 1964, Luz Long was awarded the Pierre de Coubertin "True Spirit of Sportsmanship" medal for his actions at the Berlin Games; previously on MetaFilter.)
Good people are everywhere.
Owens said, "It took a lot of courage for him to befriend me in front of Hitler... You can melt down all the medals and cups I have and they wouldn't be a plating on the twenty-four karat friendship that I felt for Luz Long at that moment".
This is really touching, but it becomes especially meaningful if you consider what was going on in Owens' homeland. He wasn't allowed to enter through the main doors of the New York Waldorf Astoria where all the athletes stayed for the coming home celebration, he had to enter through the freight elevator. Roosevelt barely acknowledged he existed, and neither invited him to the White House or even send a telegram (this, for not only one of the greatest sportsmen of all time, but also the man who had humiliated the US number one enemy in the world). Owens would later say:
Some people say Hitler snubbed me. But I tell you, Hitler did not snub me. I am not knocking the President. Remember, I am not a politician, but remember that the President did not send me a message of congratulations because, people said, he was too busy.
The fact that his white german competitor not only treated him with respect, but with friendship and equality, must have been enormously meaningful to him.
These two people were far better than either of their countries deserved.
posted by gkhan at 1:17 AM on October 6, 2016 [11 favorites]
Owens said, "It took a lot of courage for him to befriend me in front of Hitler... You can melt down all the medals and cups I have and they wouldn't be a plating on the twenty-four karat friendship that I felt for Luz Long at that moment".
This is really touching, but it becomes especially meaningful if you consider what was going on in Owens' homeland. He wasn't allowed to enter through the main doors of the New York Waldorf Astoria where all the athletes stayed for the coming home celebration, he had to enter through the freight elevator. Roosevelt barely acknowledged he existed, and neither invited him to the White House or even send a telegram (this, for not only one of the greatest sportsmen of all time, but also the man who had humiliated the US number one enemy in the world). Owens would later say:
Some people say Hitler snubbed me. But I tell you, Hitler did not snub me. I am not knocking the President. Remember, I am not a politician, but remember that the President did not send me a message of congratulations because, people said, he was too busy.
The fact that his white german competitor not only treated him with respect, but with friendship and equality, must have been enormously meaningful to him.
These two people were far better than either of their countries deserved.
posted by gkhan at 1:17 AM on October 6, 2016 [11 favorites]
How exactly was Germany "humiliated" when they won 89 medals (33 gold) to the USA's 56 (24 gold)?
posted by L.P. Hatecraft at 4:02 AM on October 6, 2016
posted by L.P. Hatecraft at 4:02 AM on October 6, 2016
"Humiliated" may be too strong of a word, however "[w]hen Owens finished competing, the African-American son of a sharecropper and the grandson of slaves had single-handedly crushed Hitler's myth of Aryan supremacy. ".
The idea here is that a black man from the United States won 4 gold medals (the most of any athlete that year) within 45 minutes.
posted by eschatonizer at 4:49 AM on October 6, 2016 [2 favorites]
The idea here is that a black man from the United States won 4 gold medals (the most of any athlete that year) within 45 minutes.
posted by eschatonizer at 4:49 AM on October 6, 2016 [2 favorites]
Joe Louis and Max Schmeling also became friends. Schmeling was anti-Hitler (Schmeling had a Jewish manager and hid Jews during the war).
posted by dances_with_sneetches at 7:27 AM on October 6, 2016 [2 favorites]
posted by dances_with_sneetches at 7:27 AM on October 6, 2016 [2 favorites]
The English Wikipedia article doesn't mention that he was a member of the SA.
posted by pseudocode at 8:11 AM on October 6, 2016
posted by pseudocode at 8:11 AM on October 6, 2016
« Older Two Oreos and a glass of milk going to bed | Scar tissue is stronger than regular tissue. Newer »
This thread has been archived and is closed to new comments
posted by not_on_display at 9:45 PM on October 5, 2016 [1 favorite]