The Nazi Games: Politics, the Media and the Body returns to 1936 at The Wiener Library

Exhibition: The Nazi Games: Politics, the Media and the Body, The Wiener Library, London, until October 3 2012

The 1936 Olympic Games, in Berlin, hold particular notoriety for the efforts of the Nazis to push a message of racial purity and superiority through images of the body, made all the more globally visible by the new innovations of slow-motion replays and live event broadcasting.

The Wiener draws on its extensive collection of pamphlets, photographs, illustrated books and other propaganda to emphasise the intimidating skill with which the party manipulated public opinion, as well as revealing the stories of those who opposed their vision of the “ideal sporting body” – one objector, Sir Ludwig Guttmann, actually founded the Paralympic movement while living as a Jewish refugee in Britain.

The German Embassy in London, the Holocaust Educational Trust, the Wellcome Library and the Heritage Lottery Fund have all helped create the display.

• Open Monday-Friday 10am-5pm (7.30pm Tuesday). Admission free.