There were scenes of chaos on the streets of Paris and London in early April 2008. The Olympic torch - that age old symbol of the harmony that can co-exist between nations - was in the eyes of many hijacked by a ruthless totalitarian regime to become a representation of their own state pride. A most ancient and venerable of symbols became the target of protestors who objected to the regime's treatment of its own people.
Perhaps it is time to have a look at the history of the Olympic torch.
Imagine you were asked about the origins of the Olympic torch. Like many people, you might say that the torch was carried throughout Ancient Greece in order to signify to the population that the games were about to commence. It was used, you might say, as a universal sign of peace - an indicator that people could travel without threat of violence to Olympia to attend and participate in the games.
If you believe this then you haven't been reading your history books properly. The origin of the torch is much more recent than that. In fact it is very much a twentieth century idea and we have one gentleman to thank for it. Step up and take a bow, Mr Adolf Hitler.
The ceremony the world has been witnessing did not even originate when the modern Olympics started in the late nineteenth century. The whole ritual was devised by a Doctor Carl Diem. He was responsible for running the infamous 1936 Berlin games and it was he, in fact, who devised the whole torch bearing scheme.
Diem was an opportunist. He was not a member of the Nazi party and had been appointed to run the games before Hitler and his cohorts came to power. He was very quick, however, to adapt to the new regime and cooked up a propaganda mechanism bar none to demonstrate the might of the fledgling Third Reich. He ended the war as a fanatical commander, urging thousands of German youths to their deaths as the allied forces approached. He lived till he was eighty, long after the war and the sacrifice was over.
There are 3,422 kilometres between Mount Olympus and the Temple of Hera and Berlin. Diem persuaded the Minister for Propaganda, Josef Goebbels, that it would be a hoot if the same number of perfect young Aryans ran the route. An even greater hoot would be the fact that the route between Athens and Berlin ran through countries such as Bulgaria, Yugoslavia, Hungary, Austria and Czechoslovakia. All these countries were targets for the Nazis - places where they wished to - and would - increase their influence.
With some irony, on its way through Hungary, the flame was accompanied and serenaded by Romany gypsies who only a few years later would end up in the concentration camps in their hundreds of thousands.
So what exactly did the ancient Greeks do? It is true enough that a flame burned permanently in the temple of Hestia - one of their many goddesses. It is also true that some relay races were run with the athletes carrying burning torches. However, the ancient games were proclaimed with crowns of olives. Messengers would be sent outwards from Athens wearing these crowns and it was this that represented the four yearly truce. There were absolutely no torch relays until Mister Hitler came along.
And so went ahead one of the greatest and enduring propaganda coups of the twentieth century. You can still see the propaganda film “Triumph of the Will” by the Nazi director Leni Riefentsahl to see the sheer breathtaking audacity of the regime that invented the Olympic torch “event”. That many people are unaware of its true origins may not excuse the world a second blind-eye moment.
