Olympic symbols ring a Nazi bell

And it was Hitler’s Nazi propaganda machine that popularised the five interlocking rings as the symbol of the Games.

‘‘The torch relay is so ingrained in the modern choreography that most people today assume it was a revival of a pagan tradition — unaware that it was actually concocted for Hitler’s Games in Berlin’’, author Tony Perrottet writes in a new book, The Naked Olympics.

‘‘Ironically, considering its repellent origins, the torch race has come to symbolise international brotherhood today, and remains a centrepiece of our own pomp-filled olympic opening ceremonies.’’

A sacred flame did burn 24 hours a day at Olympia and, at some other ancient festivals, relay racers passed a torch to light a sacrificial cauldron. But the ancient Greeks opened their Olympics by word of mouth, not fire, sending heralds — not torchbearers — running through the streets. The modern tradition of spiriting the Olympic torch to the main stadium didn’t become a fixture of the Games until 1936, when a 12-day run opened the Games in Berlin.

Hitler, who admired the powerful imagery of Greek gods such as Zeus, wanted his Games to promote his belief in Aryan supremacy.

The torch relay, memorialised in Leni Riefenstahl’s film Olympia, was part of the Nazi leader’s elaborate attempt to add myth, mystique and glamour to an Olympics intended to intimidate pre-World War II Europe.

The Olympic rings, another universally recognised symbol of the Games since they made their debut at the 1920 Games in Antwerp, Belgium, have their own Nazi connection.

Originally, they were designed in 1913 by Baron Pierre de Coubertin, the father of the modern Olympics movement, for a 1914 World Olympic Congress in Paris. They were supposed to symbolise the first five Olympics, but the Congress disbanded when World War I broke out.

Riefenstahl, who also chronicled Hitler’s rise to power, had the rings carved into a stone altar at the ancient Greek city of Delphi, spawning the myth that they were a symbol dating back more than two millennia.

With Hitler’s influence, the rings became part of the Nazi pageantry at Berlin — and they’ve come to symbolise the Olympics ever since.