would mean the difference between losing and being crowned the world's fastest man. walter: you've got, you know, people like joseph goebbels, the nazi propaganda minister, looking at jesse owens, and he says, you know, quite openly, "i think it's unfair "to have people like jesse owens competing because you might as well have deer or gazelle on your team." (speaking german) narrator: owens's main competitors were the german runner erich borchmeyer

and his teammate ralph metcalfe. reporter (speaking german): (starter pistol fires) schaap: jesse owens wins in 10.3 seconds, equaling the world record. and now he can breathe. (band playing "the star-spangled banner") i'm very glad to have won the 100 meters at the olympic games here in berlin, a very beautiful place and a very beautiful setting. the competition was grand, and we're very glad to come out on top.

thank you very kindly. narrator: tradition called for the leader of the host country to congratulate the gold medal winner, but hitler refused to greet owens. "do you really think," the german leader said, "i wl allow myself to be photographed shaking hands with a negro?" the snub of jesse owens by adolf hitler gave the press a hook to really excoriate adolf hitler and to push jesse owens to the fore as the man who essentially stuck a thumb in the eye of the nazi leader and his theories of aryan superiority. louis stokes: as an african american, all of us shared the snubbery by hitler of jesse owens.

jesse was ours. he was us. he was me. and when hitler snubbed him, he snubbed every one of us. ♪ ♪ (crowd chattering) narrator: germany's top competitor in t broad jump was luz long, the european record holder in the event. (crowd cheering) luz long is a german athlete out of central casting. he's tall, he's blond, he's good-looking. this rivalry that was going to take place between luz long and jesse owens was very much built up by a nazi regime hungry to show that, in fact, the white man was better. narrator: as the preliminaries got underway, owens was uncharacteristically sloppy.

wallechinsky: jesse owens fouled his first attempts in the preliminaries. it was just a run-through, and they counted it. and then he fouled the second one. and so he had to qualify in the third one. narrator: owens was close to being eliminated when luz long offered some friendly advice. schaap: "why don't you just, "in your mind, put a mark a foot behind the board, and then you will be certain not to foul." jesse owens jumps 25 feet, easily qualifying for the next round. now we're in the final round of the broad jump, and they put on a spectacular show.

kluge (speakingerman): ♪ ♪ schaap: finally, jesse owens jumps 26 feet. long can't match him at this point, and the gold medal is owens's. (man speaking german over loudspeaker) large: long went over to jesse owens, he hugged him, and then together they walked arm-in-arm around the stadium. now this was really verboten. rhoden: that was extraordinary, when you think about it. there are these moments in history when the actors understand that moment in history.

and they just do the right thing. luz long did the right thing. that was a very humanizing moment for owens and for germany. ♪ ♪ narrator: by the time the runners set their marks for the 200-meter race, thousands of german fans knew they were witnessing something traordinary. crowd (chanting): "yessay offens! yessay offens!" walters: he hears this shouting, "yessay offens, yessay offens," and he suddenly realizes it's him. it's... it's, you know, it's obviously the german pronunciation of his name. and he's absolutely lionized by the german people. (starter pistol fis, crowd cheering)

(cheering continues) narrator: owens won his ird gold medal, shattering the olympic 200-meter record. he'd already equaled both the olympic and world records in the 100 meters, and his record in the long jump would last for decades. ♪ ♪ baker: after he won his third medal, arguably, he was the world's most famous athlete at that moment. macmillan: he seemed to be able to do everything effortlessly. he was enormously graceful, charming, a person of tremendous poise and elegance in public. and the nazis were absolutely furious i mean, hitler was absolutely livid. narrator: by the fourth day of the games, goebbels was enraged. "we germans win a gold medal, the americans get three,

two of which are won by niggers," he wrote in his diary. white humanity should be ashamed of itself." michael (speaking german): rhoden: for a lot of black folks, this was a popular thing to show black folks winning. yes, we were winning a lot in our private lives, just surviving day-to-day, but you need these sort of pubc moments. and that's the role that sports played for us.

(newsreel music playing) i'm very glad to have won my three events in the games here at berlin. wonderful competition here, wonderful stadium, and a wonderful crowd. and the days have been very nice. susan ware: jesse owens had learned not to share his deepest, most innermost thoughts with most people, especially white folks. keeping things on the surface at a fairly superficial level was perfect for the newsreel. narrator: telegrams flooded in from promoters in the u.s. showman eddie cantor offered owens $40,000 to appear with him on stage and radio; a california orchestra offered $25,000. coach snyder bragged to reporters that owens had a good chance to make $100,000 once he returned to the states. the people here in germany have been very nice to me,

and i'm very glad to have displayed my talent here. thank you. narrator: owens had completed all his events. then, u.s. officials abruptly announced changes in the lineup for the 4x100 relay. although the americans were heavily favored to win, the team's only two jewish sprinters, marty glickman and sam stoller, would be replaced by owens and metcalfe. medoff: their coaches did not give them a clear explanation why. glickman was told years later that in fact the nazis had specifically demanded that no jewish athletes take parin the race. the nazis hated blacks, too. but the jews were their primary targets. and so, if given the choice, they preferred to have blacks competing in the race rather than jews. jesse owens refused to do it.

he fought 'em back and they said... they pointed their finger in his face and said, "you'll do as you're told." and that was a horrible thing that happened during the olympic games. that fault was on our side. baker: marty and sam were crushed; they watched the medals that were their medals, essentially, put on the neck of jesse owens and ralph metcalfe. this is what they had spent their lives for and this is why they'd come to berlin for. narrator: owens became the first african american to win four gold medals in a modern olympics, yet he was far from triumphant. "i feel bad for marty and sam," he confided to friends. (crowd cheering) as the berlin games drew to a close,

avery brundage announced that the u.s. track team would go on a european tour to raise money for the aau. brundage wanted to cash in on the success of the american team and especially its popular new star. reporter: the 400-yards relay. jesse owens, number three, fresh from his olympic triumphs, competed. the race was run in 37 and four-tenths seconds, so we only had nine seconds in which to admire the wonderful running of this great athlete. narrator: for owens, the tour was a relentless grind of shabby accommodations, little food, less rest, and no money. for the first time, he rebelled, abruptly leaving the tour in london and boarding a ship back to america. jesse owens: i was tired, i wanted to come home, and i really did. after all, i haven't seen my wife for three months,

and i'm very glad to be back home to see her. (crowd cheering) avery brundage threatened that if he did go home, he would be stripped of his amateur athletic standing. my father chose not to continue. avery brundage suspended him. jesse owens: my suspension, i really couldn't say. i don't know anything about it at all. i haven't had any official word from it. i've been on the boat for four days, and i... i really don't know what it's all about. narrator: suspension from the aau barred owens from competing in any sanctioned sporting events in the u.s. the impact of the ban would play out later; for now, jesse owens was a hero. (marching band playing, crowd chattering)

stokes: when he came back from berlin, i was 11 years old, but i remember waiting excitedly to see this parade that was going to be in the black community. and of course you... you felt like, "jesse owens just waved to me!" (laughs) (crowd cheering) ♪ ♪ walters: he comes back to the united states thinking that everything's going to be good for him. he's going to be rich and he's going to be up there with all those movie stars he so loves and respects and wants to be part of. and the truth, of course, is very, very different. narrator: owens had always hoped that success on the track would translate to respect off the track. but on his first night home, owens and his wife could not find a hotel in downtown new york

willing to take black customers. finally, one agreed to rent them a room, but only if they used the service entrance. baker: there just simply aren't the roles for a black american to fit into in the 1930s, however many olympic medals he may have won. (making yodeling call) if he were a white athletic guy, he could maybe play tarzan in the movies, and that's what johnny weissmuller, bustecrabbe, glenn morris and a whole string of american athletes did. but who wants a black tarzan? nobody. narrator: the lucrative offers that had poured in to berlin turned out to be empty promises. to support his family, owens was forced to take part

in the most demeaning race of his life. ♪ ♪ announcer: cuba. jesse owens, the ebony streak of olympic games, celebrates turning professional by racing against a horse... schaap: thatinter, christmastime, he goes down to havana to race a horse named julio mccaw. announcer: jesse had a start of 40 yards and 100, and he won by inches. (crowd cheering, horse hooves pounding) ♪ ♪ zamperini: i thought racing a horse was kind of a depressing thing for publicity. and what did he get out of it? probably very little or nothing. they used him. it's just like saving somebody's life, and then the next day that person slaps you in the face. a lot of people felt that he was not dignifying his self.

but when you have a family to feed and you have no job, then you do what you have to do to feed your family, as long as it's honest. ♪ ♪ narrator: owens took whatever jobs he could find and tried his hand at business. he owned a dry cleaners, he tap-danced with bill "bojangles" robinson, and continued to make money racing against horses. edwards: he ended up in financial trouble over back taxes. the united states government sued him for moneys that he purportedly made racing horses and off those few endorsements that he was able to get, and, ultimately, he ended up declaring bankruptcy. baker: for years, jesse owens disappeared from view.

after the berlin games, the mainstream press simply did not deal with him any further. ♪ have you anything to do with athletics? some. nine down and one to go, mr. randall. randall: tiddlywinks? (crowd laughs) daly: ten down and no more to go. panel, would you meet jesse owens. narrator: by the mid-1950s, as the cold war heated up, jesse owens suddenly emerged from obscurity. here ijesse owens... narrator: in 1955, president dwight eisenhower named owens goodwill ambassador, charged with promoting america to the world. i'm glad we could make it before you leave on your trip.

where exactly are you going? well, we're going to india, singapore, malaya and the philippines for about 51 days. on that trip, we will be talking about our american way of life, mr. murrow. we feel that we have the best way of life in the world today. we're going to combat communism, we're going to show... wallechinsky: he did eventually become "a professional good example." here was jesse owens, who was still considered a god in the world of track and field, and that was the way he could support himself. narrator: in the 1960s, the endorsements started coming in. ♪ ♪ i always carry the american express card. the american express card. don't leave home without it. zamperini: i was on a national tv show with him, and he was...

he didn't look too good. and when i got back to california i said, "you know, jesse didn't look too good. i think... i don't think he's going to live long." he died within a year. and he was fairly young. but i think his heart was broken. you know, after winning all those gold medals, he expected the whole nation to love him, and here the greatest athlete in america is being treated shabbily. (crowd cheering) ♪ ♪ dressler:

macmillan: his career is partly a reflection of the ways in which we use our public figures. you know, we use them when we need them and then we forget about them when we don't need them. jesse owens was immenselypop, and then people forgot about him. so jesse owens got relegated to a back burner. edwards: without him, the issue of integrating blacks into mainstream american sports would have been moot. jackie robinson stood on the shoulders of jesse owens. you have to understand jesse owens in the pantheon of great athletic figures who have contributed to not just black advancement in sport

but to black advancement overall. schaap: he is the quintessential olympic hero. he stood up to racists in germany, he stood up to racists at home, and he did it with a grace and a genius that have not been equaled. ♪ ♪ announcer: go to pbs.org/americanexperience for more on "jesse owens." explore video shorts, image galleries, and articles. connect with "american experience" on social media, and watch our films on the pbs video app and at pbs.org/americanexperience.

announcer: major funding for "american experience" is provided by: announcer: carlisle companies-- a proud sponsor of "american experience." liberty mutual insurance, a proud sponsor of "american experience." announcer: the power of inquiry, the joy of discovery. the alfred p. sloan foundation, driven by the promise of great ideas. ♪ ♪ announcer: major funding for "jesse owens" is provided by the yawkey foundation. "american experience" is also made possible by the robert david lion gardiner foundation; members of the american expeence trust; including the nordblom family foundation and the gretchen stone cook charitable foundation; the corporation for public broadcasting; and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. ♪ ♪

announcer: "american experience: jesse owens" is available with pbs passport and on amazon prime video. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪

vo: you're watching pbs.

>> breaking news out of the hague in the netherlands, the international criminal court has issued an arrest warrant for russia's vladimir putin for his alleged involvement

in the unlawful deportation of children from russian-occupied areas of ukraine... >> narrator: thousands of ukrainian children, taken and held by russia. >> (speaking ukrainian): >> they put them in these military camps and trying to re-educate them politically, ideologically. >> narrator: families searching for their loved ones, and the investigators following the trail of alleged abductions. >> our mission is to find families whose children are missing till this day... >> (speaking russian): >> narrator: now on frontline, children of ukraine. >> frontline is made possible by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. and by the corporation for public broadcasting.

additional support is provided by the abrams foundation, committed to excellence in journalism... park foundation, dedicated to heightening public awareness of critical issues... the john d. and catherine t. macarthur foundation committed to building a more just, verdant and peaceful world. more at macfound.org. the heising-simons foundation, unlocking knowledge, opportunity and possibilities. at hsfoundation.org. and by the frontline journalism fund, with major support from jon and jo ann hagler, and additional support from koo and patricia yuen, committed to bridging cultural differences in our communities. and from laura debonis. ♪ ♪ >> (speaking ukrainian):

(speaking russian): >> (speaking russian): >> narrator: since the start of the war, thousands of ukrainian children have been taken and held in russian-controlled territory. >> (speaking ukrainian): >> narrator: this is the story of ukrainian families and investigators trying to track down missing children and collect evidence of alleged abductions.

>> basically, they try to erase our identity as ukrainians. they try to impose their distorted version of history. we're still hoping to bring them back home. they are still our children. ♪ ♪ (swing squeaking) ♪ ♪ >> (speaking russian):

♪ ♪ (explosion roars) ♪ ♪ (explosion pounds) >> narrator: when russia began to bombard ukraine

in the early days of the invasion, nadiya was no longer in mariupol. but most of her family were still in the city. >> (speaking russian): (glass clanking) >> narrator: nadiya's sister tried to escape with her children, husband, and parents. the streets of mariupol were incasingly dangerous. the russian troops were now advancing through the city. the family was crammed into one car. >> (speaking russian):

>> (speaking russian, echoing) >> narrator: they came under attack. the car was riddled with bullets. >> (speaking russian): (exhales) ♪ ♪

>> narrator: nadiya's mom told her that her three-year-old nephew max was taken to the hospital. but soon afterwards, as russian forces swept through the city, the boy disappeared. >> (speaking russian): ♪ ♪ >> narrator: max's older brother and sister survived the attack. but with their mother dead, nadiya arranged for them to come to live with her in western ukraine. >> (talking in background)

(speaking russian): >> what do you remember about your little brother? >> (speaking russian): >> dyou remember what happened when you were in the car? when the loud gunshots happened? >> (speaking russian): >> narrator: max's family thinks he's been taken to russian territory, like thousands of other ukrainian children. ♪ ♪

>> (inhales) (speaking russian): (crowd cheering and chanting) >> (speaking russian over loudspeaker) narrator: russia has said it's been relocating ukrainian children as part of a mass humanitarian effort. a year into the war, president vladimir putin held a televised rally featuring children thanking russian soldiers for rescuing them. >> (speaking russian):

(sniffles) >> (speaking russian): (crowd cheers, chanting) >> narrator: in a statement, the russian government told us that ukrainian children have been relocated to ensure their safety and to provide medical care and education. (crowd cheering) putin's children's commissioner, maria lvova-belova, has overseen the operation. she claims to have five adopted children of her own, including one from mariupol. >> (speaking russian): >> mm-hmm. >> (continues in russian): >> (speaking russian):

>> narrator: but in march 2023, the international criminal court issued an arrest warrant against president putin and his children's commissioner for the alleged war crime of unlawful deportation of children from occupied areas of ukraine. ♪ ♪ the kremlin dismissed the charges as "outrageous." >> (speaking russian) (crowd cheering and applauding) (people talking in background) >> narrator: a team of ukrainian investigators for the international criminal they arecourt case.l be used they work for a human rights group, the iphr, and are traveling through recently liberated territories across ukraine. ♪ ♪ >> our mission is to find families

whose children are missing till this day. and we're trying to collect all the evidences and information about such cases so that our lawyers could qualify it after, whether it was a war crime or a crime against humanity. ♪ ♪ >> narrator: on this day, the team is heading for the city of kherson, in the southeast of ukraine. it was occupied by russian troops for the first eight months of the war, and control of some neighborhoods is still fiercely contested. ♪ ♪ they've come here to speak with the head of a ukrainian children's home about the alleged abduction of 15 children

in october 2022. ♪ ♪ >> (speaking ukrainian): >> narrator: he says some children were smuggled o into the care of distant relatives. >> (speaking ukrainian):

>> narrator: for three months, the russians left them alone. then a group of soldiers arrived. (static buzzes) (static buzzes) >> (speaking ukrainian): ♪ ♪ >> narrator: he says the security cameras were turned off. (static buzzes) and then soldiers brought a group of 15 ukrainian children

from a nearby school and left them in his care. three months later, he says they returned and took the children away again. >> (speaking ukrainian): (russian pop song playing) >> narrator: russian-occupied crimea is home to many summer camps for kids. but since the war began, some of these camps have become holding facilities

for ukrainian children. the iphr team thinks thousands of children from kherson region may have ended up in camps like this. >> (speaking ukrainian): >> narrator: in its statement, the russian government said that parents had voluntarily sent their children on vacation to protect them from ongoing military action. (accordion playing, people singing) this is footage posted online in june 2022 from inside a crimean camp named delfin. the children can be seen

learning patriotic russian songs. >> (singing in russian): >> (speaking ukrainian): >> narrator: a pro-russian news agency published this video in october 2022, stating that it showed ukrainian schoolchildren arring in crimea for placement in camps, and that the children would be given lessons in russian language, literature, and history. the russian authorities have said that family members have always been welcome to collect their children

from camps, but that the situation on the front lines hasn't always allowed it. ♪ ♪ >> (speaking russian) >> narrator: in ukraine's capital, a group of women are preparing for a dangerous journey. >> (speaking ukrainian): >> narrator: this afternoon, they'll be setting off for russia. >> (speaking ukrainian): (talking in background) >> woman (speaking ukrainian):

>> narrator: the women are working with the humanitarian group save ukraine, which has been helping families get safe passage into russia to retrieve their chilen. their chances are uncertain. some previous attempts succeeded, negotiating with russian officials on the ground, but others have been intercepted and turned back. >> (speaking ukrainian) ♪ ♪ >> narrator: among those making the journey is olha, who is trying to retrieve her granddaughters vlada and anastasia. >> (speaking russian):

>> narrator: her route needs to avoid front lines, and will take her west out of kyiv, through poland and belarus, around 2,000 miles, to russian-annexed crimea. olha says she originally agreed to send her granddaughters to a camp in crimea after a pro-russian teacher convinced her it would be a two-week vacation from the war. they've now been gone for five months. anastasia sent these pictures from inside the camp to her grandmother. she said she'd been forced to sing pro-russian songs. the team at save ukraine is concerned that the girls may be put up for adoption. >> (speaking ukrainian):

♪ ♪ >> (speaking russian): (typing) >> narrator: nadiya is still trying to find her nephew max, who disappeared after survivin the attack in mariupol. he'd now be four years old. >> (speaking russian):

>> narrator: she has been trying to find out more about the day max disappeared. ♪ ♪ >> (speaking russian): ♪ ♪

>> narrator: she sends max's photo to several search agencies. >> (speaking russian) >> narrator: and her mother, lyudmyla, appears on ukrainian television to appeal for help. >> (speaking russian) >> (speaking ukrainian): >> (speaking russian): (video continues on computer) ♪ ♪ >> narrator: a family friend has also taken up the search. elizaveta was a colleague of max's father, nikolai. in the days after the attack on their car, she became convinced that both max and nikolai were still alive.

>> (speaking ukrainian): ♪ ♪ >> narrator: mariupol is still under russian occupation, so it's almost impossible for her to get reliable information from the city. (people talking in background) >> narrator: early on, she says she found a russian lawyer who agreed to help her. at first, the news seemed positive. >> (speakingussian): >> narrator: but five months later,

the lawyer tells her a different story. >> (speaking russian): ♪ ♪ >> narrator: but max's family still believes he's alive. their search continues. they give a photograph of max to a ukrainian private intelligence firm, molfar, which specializes in investigating war crimes and tracing missing children. one of the molfar investigators agrees to an interview as long as we conceal her identity.

>> our work is a bit secret, and some secrets we cannot show to the public, because it can be dangerous for me if we investigate the war criminal cases. of course, the opposite side, the russian cyber services' hackers, if they want to investigate our identity, they can make our life not safe. mainly, we use very advanced technologies, face recognition, artificial intelligence technologies. and, you know, that technician progress now is higher than it was even five years ago, and we can use a specter of the technologies. >> narrator: after several weeks, molfar comes up with a photograph of a boy who resembles max, and is up for adoption in the far east of russia.

save ukraine has also been helping with the search for max. >> (speaking ukrainian): >> olia (speaking ukrainian): >> fedosenko: >> olia: ♪ ♪

>> (talking softly) >> narrator: the iphr team is planning a risky trip to territory taken back from russia. they're hoping to gather more evidence to give to the international criminal court. ♪ ♪ >> there are a lot of cases we already documented abt our young boys. they put them in these military camps and trying to re-educate them politically, ideologically. >> narrator: the team has heard about a 15-year-old boy named artem, who disappeared from his school in kupyansk. the wn was taken over by russia just three days into the war. it was occupied for more than six months,

but now the russians have been driven out, and the iphr team can go in. they've been told that artem has recently made it back to his family. (afanasiev speaking ukrainian) (both speaking ukrainian) >> afanasiev: ♪ ♪ >> narrator: there's a constant threat of being bombed by russian drones. the front is about nine miles away. ♪ ♪ artem agrees to talk to the team at a quiet location near his home. he says he was at school when a convoy of russian minibuses arrived toake him