The Olympic games are a worldwide government boondoggle
repeated every four years.
Modern Olympic games were revived in 1896 by an interest in militarism.
French nobleman, Pierre Frèdy, Baron de Coubertin searched for
a reason for the French defeat in the Franco-Prussian War (1870–1871). He
thought the reason was that the French had not received proper physical education,
and sought to improve this. It is said that at the same time, Coubertin
hoped that the world could compete in sports, rather than in war.
The irony in all of the above (especially for France) only grew in
the years to come, through WWI and during the Olympic games in Berlin in
1936, and in WWII.
At the 1936 Olympic games in Germany the so called "Greco-Roman" salute
caused controversy and reinforced the "Roman salute" myth. The controversy
involved athletes who did not want to perform the Olympic salute upon entering
the stadium because it would be misunderstood as a salute to Hitler, who
was present.
Among others, the French athletes gave the salute in 1936. A few years
later the National Socialist German Workers' Party invaded France and occupied
Paris.
Probably every article ever written about the "Olympic salute" was reviewed
in research for this article. In every article there was no author
who knew that the straight-arm salute was the prevailing salute for the pledge
of allegiance in the USA and had been since 1892, and there was no author
who knew of the historic discovery (by the journalist Rex Curry) that the
pledge of allegiance was the origin of the Olympic salute and the salute
of the National Socialist German Workers' Party.
Francis Bellamy created the pledge of allegiance and its straight-arm
salute, misnamed the "Roman" salute. Bellamy admired ancient Rome and its
militarism. He grew up in the city of Rome in New York, where he and his
neighbors were known as “Romans.” He waswas educated in the Rome Academy
there. To this very day, the school banner contains two fasces (axes through
the middle of wood with binding).
http://rexcurry.net/pledgehoratii.html
The fasces actually was a symbol of government authority
in ancient Rome. The straight-arm salute was not. The fasces
is common symbolism on government coins and emblems still today.
Francis Bellamy was the cousin and cohort of Edward Bellamy, author
of the international bestseller "Looking Backward." Both Bellamys
admired ancient Rome, and its militarism and they promoted what they called
"military socialism." Edward Bellamy's book was translated into all
major languages including Russian, Chinese and German.
The rejection of liberty that the Bellamys inspired led to the socialist
Wholecaust (of which the Holocaust was a part): 62 million killed in the
former Union of Soviet Socialist Republics; 35 million in the Peoples' Republic
of China; 21 million in the National Socialist German Workers' Party. http://rexcurry.net/socialists.html
In the USA, the Bellamys promoted a government takeover of education
to produce an "industrial army" (their term). Because of the Bellamy
dogma, segregation became institutionalized by government in its schools
and racism was taught as official policy. During that time children in government-schools
were required by law to salute the flag with the straight-armed salute in
military formation daily on the ring of a government bell, like Pavlov’s
lapdogs of the state.
The bizarre practice in the USA served
as an example for three decades before it was adopted by the National Socialist
German Workers’ Party.
News accounts indicate that the USA's athletes did not use the Olympic
salute in 1936. Nevertheless, when Jesse Owens competed
in the 1936 Olympics in Germany, his neighbors attended segregated government
schools where they saluted the flag with the Nazi salute. As under Nazism, Jehovah's
Witnesses and others in the USA were persecuted for refusing to perform the
straight-arm salute and robotically chant the pledge. The U.S. practice of
official racism and segregation in government schools even outlasted the horrid
Nazi Party, into the 1960's and beyond.
Even though the pledge salute has changed, the Olympic salute still exists.
The Olympic salute took place on March 13, 2004 in Washington, D.C., during
a Hellenic Heritage Achievement and National Public Service Awards Presentation
gala sponsored by the Washington-based American Hellenic Institute (AHI).
The first evidence of the "Olympic salute" myth is in an Olympic poster
from 1924 when the games were in Paris. http://rexcurry.net/olympic-salute1924.jpg
The 1924 poster shows semi-clothed athletes, a reminder of antiquity,
making the Olympic salute. In the background, the flag of the French Republic.
In the foreground, palm leaves, symbols of victory.
The next evidence is an Olympic poster for 1936 in Berlin. http://rexcurry.net/olympic-salute1936.jpg
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The 1936 poster features the Quadriga from the Brandenburg Gate, a landmark
of the city of Berlin. In the background is the figure of a wreathed victor,
his arm raised in the salute.
In the 1936 poster, the salute is not clear because only part of the
arm is shown. There are disputes about whether the Olympic salute differed
from the salute of the National Socialist German Workers' Party and the
1936 poster seems designed to obscure the issue, and it added to the debate.
No official poster was made for the first games, the 1896 Olympic Games,
in Athens. However, the cover page of the official report is often
used to refer to the Games of the I Olympiad and has the inscription "776-1896."
The second modern Olympics were in Paris.
One claim holds that the Olympic salute was used at the 1912 Stockholm
games, but no further evidence has been found yet. If that is true
then it would be more clear that the Olympic salute predated the Nazi salute
and probably helped (with the pledge of allegiance and early films with
innacurrate Roman scenes) to influence that adoption of the salute by the
Nazi-Sozi.
The first Olympic Games were held in ancient Greece. The Games gradually
lost in importance as the Romans gained power in Greece. When Christianity
became the official religion of the Roman Empire, the Olympic Games were
seen as a "pagan" festival threatening Christian hegemony, and in 393 the
emperor Theodosius outlawed the Olympics, ending a thousand year period
of Olympic Games. After the modern Olympic revival they have been held every
fourth year, with the exception of the years during the World Wars.
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NO OLD ROMAN EVIDENCE
It is a myth that the straight-arm salute is an
old Roman salute adopted by Mussolini. According to Dr. Martin Winkler
in "The Roman Salute on Film" of the American Philological Association, the
salute is not in any Roman art or text. The salute occurs in these
films: the American "Ben-Hur" (1907), the Italian "Nerone" (1908), "Spartaco"
(1914), and "Cabiria" (1914).
In imitation of such films, self-styled Italian "Consul" Gabriele D 'Annunzio
borrowed the salute as a propaganda tool for his political ambitions upon
his occupation of Fiume in 1919. Earlier, D'Annunzio had worked with
Giovanni Pastrone in his colossal epic Cabiria (1914). Mussolini worked with
D'Annunzio.
Even so, evidence shows that the National Socialist German Workers'
Party officially adopted the salute before Mussolini did, not vice versa.
http://www.rexcurry.net/pledgesalute.html
Dr. Winkler didn't know about the original U.S. flag salute (1892) that
inspired the films.
Francis Bellamy was a national socialist in the U.S. and created the
pledge of allegiance to the flag using a straight-armed salute, the so-called
"Roman" salute, in 1892. http://www.rexcurry.net/pledge1.html
The straight-armed salute in the USA's racist and segregated government
schools, served as an example to Germany through WWI and for over three decades
before Nazism and WWII. The National Socialist German Workers' Party
was inspired by the films, by the pledge of allegiance, and by the older
national socialism movement in the USA.
The National Socialist German Workers' Party was also inspired by German-Americans
who were already national socialists in the U.S. and who joined the German-American
Bund movement to support national socialists in Germany before WWII. http://rexcurry.net/pledgebund.html
The salute began to change during WWII.
Francis Bellamy was inspired by his cousin and cohort Edward Bellamy,
the author of the book “Looking Backward” (a bestseller written in 1887
by Edward Bellamy).
http://www.rexcurry.net/pledgebackward.html
Both Bellamys wanted the government to take over all schools and create
an “industrial army” of totalitarian socialism as described in the book.
Government-schools spread and they mandated racism and segregation
by law and did so through WWII and beyond
http://www.rexcurry.net/stopthepledge4.html
Edward Bellamy’s best-selling book was translated into 20 different
languages, including Russian, German, Italian, and Chinese. It was
popular among the elite in pre-revolutionary Russia, and Lenin’s wife was
known to have read the book, because she wrote a review of it. John
Dewey and the historian Charles Beard intended to praise the book when they
stated that it was equaled in influence only by Das Kapital (1867) (The Communist
Manifesto was written in 1848).
25 years later, Bellamy’s totalitarian ideas continued. The Union
of Soviet Socialist Republics began in 1917. The National Socialist
German Workers’ Party came into existence in 1920 (with electoral breakthroughs
in 1930 and dictatorship in 1933). In 1922, Mussolini gained power.
The People's Republic of China began in 1949.
The worldwide impact of Bellamy’s totalitarian ideas influenced the socialist
trio of atrocities. While the Holocaust was monstrous, it was part of the
bigger socialist "Wholecaust": Under the industrial army of the Union of
Soviet Socialist Republics, 62 million people were slaughtered; the
People's Republic of China, 35 million; and the National Socialist German
Workers’ Party, 21 million (numbers from Professor R. J. Rummel's article
in the Encyclopedia of Genocide (1999)).
http://www.rexcurry.net/socialists.jpg
Benito Mussolini was the leader of the Socialist Party of Italy.
Like many modern media Mussolinis, he was a socialist and a journalist. Between
1912 and 1914 he was the editor of the Socialist Party newspaper, "L'Avanti"
(Avanti means "in front", "advance" or "forward" or even "come in"). In
1914 he started his own socialist newspaper "Il Popolo d'Italia" ("The people
of Italy").
He was considered by socialists to be a great writer about socialism.
He was a staunch proponent of revolutionary rather than reformist socialism,
and actually received Lenin's endorsement and support for expelling reformists
from the Socialist Party. He was in fact first dubbed "Il Duce" (the
Leader) when he was a member of Italy's (Marxist) Socialist Party.
When Mussolini differed with some Socialists it was over participation
in World War I, not over abstract theory, or economic doctrine.
Many socialists were neutralists in the First World War, whereas Mussolini
correctly foresaw that the Austro/German forces would not win the war and
therefore wanted Italy to join the Allied side and thus get a slice of Austrian
territory at the end of the war.
During World War I, Mussolini publicized what he admitted was his new
brand of socialism.
On October 28, 1922, Mussolini led his "March on Rome", which brought
him to power for 23 years.
In late 1937, Mussolini visited Germany and pledged himself to support
the National Socialist German Workers’ Party.
In 1938, he introduced his ‘reform of customs.’” Hand-shaking
was suddenly banned as unhygienic: a salute was to be used instead - the
right forearm raised vertically. He imposed a new march on the Italian
Army which was simply the goose-step of the National Socialist German Workers’
Party. According to the book “A Concise History of Italy” by Christopher
Duggan, these reforms were introduced mainly to underline ideological kinship
with the National Socialist German Workers’ Party and to impress it’s leader.
The so-called “Roman salute” (saluto romano) is as much of a fiction
as is the so-called “Roman step” (passo romano) as is the idea that the National
Socialist German Workers’ Party emulated Mussolini and not vice versa.
The most notorious instance of Italy imitating the National Socialist
German Workers’ Party was in the racist laws imposed in November 1938.
Before and during it all (from 1892), children in the U.S. attended
government-schools where racism and segregation were mandated by law, and
where they performed a straight-armed salute to the U.S. flag, and were forced
to robotically chant a pledge written by a national socialist who wanted
to produce an “industrial army” for totalitarian socialism as popularized
worldwide in a best-selling novel.
There is only one place on the web that has Francis Bellamy’s original
speech that accompanied the first pledge of allegiance.
Http://rexcurry.net/pledgespeech.html
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THE MILITARY SALUTE
MADE THE NAZI SALUTE
The pledge of allegiance was the origin of the
salute of the National Socialist German Workers’ Party (Nazi Party) because
Francis Bellamy was a self-proclaimed national socialist who promoted
“military socialism” (a Bellamy term). To promote militarism, Bellamy
started the pledge of allegiance with a military salute.
The military salute was held for the phrase “I pledge allegiance” and
then the right arm extended straight outward toward the flag for the rest
of the chant. Historic photographs are linked at
http://rexcurry.net/pledge1.html
http://rexcurry.net/pledge_military.html
The first description of the pledge had the palm of the hand turned
upward for the straight-armed gesture. The gesture changed
in use, growing into the "Heil Hitler" appearance because of the military
salute (palm down) extended casually straight toward the flag.
James Bailey Upham suggested to Bellamy part of the gesture (the straight-arm
with the palm upward). Upham’s suggested gesture (palm up) was like
saying “Here is the flag.” It was because of Bellamy’s alteration
(the addition of the military salute) that the pledge evolved into the Nazi-style.
Upham was also familiar with Bellamy's "military socialism" dogma because
Edward Bellamy, cousin and cohort to Francis, had written of it in the
international bestseller "Looking Backward" in 1888, and both Bellamys
had been openly involved in the national socialism movement and the "Nationalist"
magazine.
Edward Bellamy was a bitter West Point failure but he loved Prussian
militarism and the educational system. According to Tom Peyser
"On his deathbed, he wiled away the hours by arranging tin soldiers along
the folds of his coverlet." That would interest all who loathe the National
Socialist German Workers’ Party, because Prussia led to the formation of
the German empire, and after World War I, Prussia continued to exist as the
largest Land (state) within the Weimar Republic and under the National Socialist
German Workers’ Party. After World War II it was dissolved by decree
of the Allied Control Council in 1947.
Even with the palm turned upward, people would later see the relationship
to the National Socialist German Workers' Party and that is why the straight-arm
salute was disfavored in 1942, and the hand-over-the-heart was adopted.
(On June 22, 1942, the pledge was included in the U.S. Flag Code, but Congress
gave it the modern hand-over-the-heart gesture. There is probably one overriding
reason why Congress interfered: to make everyone drop the straight-arm
salute, which was becoming very embarassing and very revealing. The US
had entered WWII on December 7, 1941 against Japan after Pearl Harbor.
On December 11, 1941 Germany and Italy declared war on the United States
and the U.S. declared war on Germany and Italy.)
It is interesting to note that Upham's father had operated a school
in New Hampshire that included Roman and Greek classics and Upham had attended
that school. It is not clear how this might have influenced the
“Roman salute” myth that eventually arose about the straight-armed salute.
Upham was the head of the premium department of the Youth’s Companion
Magazine and was also a junior partner in its firm, the Perry Mason Company
of Boston, which was owned by Daniel S. Ford, uncle-by-marriage to Upham.
Ford had supported churches where Francis Bellamy preached socialism.
Ford was attracted to socialism and was interested in the Social Gospel
which, to his friend Francis Bellamy, meant Christian Socialism. At
his death Ford bequeathed almost one million dollars to the Baptist Social
Union of Boston, and that money was used to build Ford Hall, the meeting place
of the Ford Hall Forum, which still exists. In leaving money to the
Forum, Ford said that the Social Union and the nation should foster closer
personal relations between Christian businessman and the workingman because
of the latter's "religious indifference, his feverish unrest and his belief
that businessmen and capital are his enemies.”
Before Bellamy worked for the Youth’s Companion, Upham had promoted
the use of the Flag in government schools. In 1891 and 1892, Upham
coordinated a national celebration of Columbus focused on government schools
and a flag ceremony with the as yet unwritten pledge. Upham wrote
many drafts of a pledge and asked for comments from the magazine’s staff.
He was never happy with his drafts and he asked Bellamy to take over.
The only well known flag salute at that time was Colonel Balch's salute,
written in 1889. That salute went as follows: "We give our heads
and our hearts to God and our country; one country, one language, one Flag."
During the speel, the youngsters would point at their heads, their heart
and then at the flag. Thus, Balch’s chant ended with a straight arm
pointing at the flag. Balch had first used his pledge on Flag Day,
June 14th, in his free kindergarten for New York City's poor and immigrants
where he served as a principal. It seems to have become a daily salute in
the classroom for all of his students.
Bellamy and Upham wanted a better pledge.
When Bellamy finished writing the pledge in August, 1892, he showed
it to Upham. The pledge still did not have a salute. Upham came
to attention, snapped his heels together and chanted, "I pledge allegiance
to my flag," and he stretched out his right arm and hand with palm up while
he recited the rest of the pledge.
Later, the first program for the pledge stated: “At a signal from the
Principal the pupils, in ordered ranks, hands to the side, face the Flag.
Another signal is given; every pupil give the Flag the military salute
- right hand lifted, palm downward, to a line with the forehead and close
to it. Standing thus, all repeat together, slowly: "I pledge allegiance
to my Flag and the Republic for which it stands; one Nation, indivisible,
with Liberty and Justice for all." At the words, "to my Flag," the right
hand is extended gracefully, palm upward, towards the Flag, and remains in
this gesture till the end of the affirmation.; whereupon all hands immediately
drop to the side.
Because of Bellamy’s military socialism and his addition of the military
salute, the pledge’s salute evolved into the Nazi-style salute.
Government schools teach that the pledge was created to sell flags to
schools and Francis Bellamy is described as an advertising pioneer.
That is a whitewashed piece of the whole story. A better description
is that Bellamy was a propaganda pioneer, comparable to Leni Riefenstahl.
Germans learned bad American behavior via old films, via WWI, and via
the widespread use of the straight-arm salute by German-American groups
(including the German American Bund) in the USA, that led to its adoption
later by the National Socialist German Workers’ Party (Nazi Party). http://rexcurry.net/pledgebund.html
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