In the last few months, many Ukrainian sports leaders and politicians have sent messages to Olympic officials asking for the ban on Russian and Belarusian athletes to be maintained for the Paris 2024 Olympics.

Many of the messages have drawn parallels with events before the Second World War.

Ninety years ago, the IOC held their first meeting since Adolf Hitler and the Nazis came to power in Germany.

The members then faced a dilemma not dissimilar to that faced by the Olympic Movement today. 

How to deal with a regime which acted in a way contradictory to "Olympic Values?"

The decision to award the Summer Olympics to Berlin had been taken two years before at the IOC Session in Barcelona, a city which was also bidding for the 1936 Games.

The vote was a hybrid between those at the Session and a postal ballot for people unable to attend.

Berlin was chosen by 43 votes to 16 over Barcelona, with eight abstentions.

When Hitler became chancellor in January 1933, there was speculation outside Germany whether the Games would go ahead, not least because of the contradictory attitude of the Nazis toward sport.

Hitler himself had previously been very dismissive of the value of the Olympics.

The IOC's official history reveals that Karl Ritter von Halt, one of three IOC members in Germany, had extracted an assurance that the Nazis would "place no difficulties in the way of the staging of international competitions such as the Olympic Games, nor will it oppose the participation of 'coloureds' in such competitions".

Another German IOC member, Theodor Lewald, had been installed as President of the Organising Committee.

Before the IOC gathered in Vienna, Lewald was summoned to meet Hitler. 

He was accompanied by organising secretary Carl Diem, Von Halt and Heinrich Sahm, Mayor of Berlin.

"I will do everything to advance the Games as well as all sports interests," Hitler told them.

Many point to the influence of Joseph Goebbels, who had been appointed as head of the Ministry of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda.

Goebbels realised how valuable the Olympics might prove to be to the regime, and the Nazis soon ordered that they should be held on a scale bigger than anything seen before.

"During the last few weeks the foreign press has reported in many instances that the Reich Government opposed the Olympic Games," Lewald wrote to Indian IOC member Guru Dutt Sondhi.

"This is one of the numerous wrong things about Germany, it is as unfounded as widely circulating rumours of atrocities in this country."

IOC President Comte Henri Baillet-Latour sounded out Charles Sherrill, an IOC member in the United States, to gauge the depth of feeling in the US where a groundswell of opposition was developing among Jewish groups.

It was rumoured that Jewish competitors were to be barred from taking part.

"The American Olympic Committee (AOC) feels that no amateur athlete should be barred from the Games on the grounds of race, creed or colour," the AOC message responded.

En-route to Vienna, Sherrill had sent a cable to the American Jewish Congress.

"Rest assured, I shall stoutly maintain the American principle that all citizens are equal under all laws," his message said.

At the Session, Baillet-Latour "broached questions relating to the Olympic Games in Berlin" and asked if "guarantees undertaken by the Government in power in 1931 would be considered as valid", and if the rules on participation would be "scrupulously observed".

There was also an oblique reference to the latest actions by the Government in Berlin, where brown shirted storm troopers had already started to enforce a boycott of Jewish shops and businesses. 

"Certain of our international regulations would appear to be in contradiction of recent internal arrangements made in Germany," Baillet-Latour observed.

Even so, Lewald responded at the Session by insisting that "all the laws of the Olympic Games shall be observed" and that "in principle German Jews shall not be excluded from German teams".

Thus reassured, the IOC confirmed Garmisch-Partenkirchen in Germany as the host for the 1936 Winter Olympics.

In the course of the following year, the Nazi grip on society tightened and German officials were again questioned at the 1934 IOC Session in Athens.

"The pledges given by Germany to admit to the German Olympic team sportsmen of non-Aryan origin, provided they have the necessary capability, will be strictly observed," German officials insisted.

Many now feel that these assurances were accepted at face value with little investigation.

"As regards the persecution of the Jews in Germany I am not at all in favour of said action but I fully understand that an alteration had to take place," wrote Sigfrid Edström of Sweden, a future IOC President, to AOC President Avery Brundage, another later to lead the IOC.

"Many of my friends are Jews so you must not think I am against them but they must be kept within certain limits," he added.

German officials insisted that "facilities for preparation will be given to all sportsmen".

Even so, the AOC decided to delay its official acceptance of the invitation to participate which had been sent by the host city as was then the custom.

Brundage was due in Europe for meetings about athletics, and was asked to give a report on the situation in Germany.

In Stockholm, he met Diem, Von Halt, Lewald and Justun Von Meyerhof, a Jewish member of the Berliner Sport-Club,

"We showed Brundage documents indicating that the Jews are able to participate freely in sports and to train for the Olympic team," Diem said.

Meyerhof also told Brundage that although he had offered to resign from his club, it had not been accepted.

"Brundage was visibly impressed," Diem noted.

Brundage's report concentrated strictly on sporting matters.

"I was given positive assurance in writing and you cannot ask for more than that, I think the guarantees will be fulfilled," Brundage wrote after his inspection.

Yet, even Lewald found his position as Organising Committee President in jeopardy.

He practiced as a Christian, but his paternal grandfather had been Jewish. Lewald had resigned from his position with the Reich Sports Committee, although ultimately he was allowed to retain his position with Olympic organisers.

In the US, opposition to the Games found support from some leading sports officials.

Brundage came into conflict with Jeremiah Mahoney, his successor as Amateur Athletic Union President who authored a pamphlet called Germany Has Violated The Olympic Code.

Meanwhile, IOC member Ernest Lee Jahncke voiced his opposition to the Games in an open letter.

The IOC members "objected strongly to the attitude of Mr. Lee Jahncke in view of the fact that he had clearly infringed upon the status of the International Olympic Committee in betraying the interests of the Committee and in failing to preserve a sense of decorum toward his colleagues," it was said.

Jahncke was later expelled from the IOC and Brundage took his place.

Brundage's influence back home won the day and the Americans voted to compete in Berlin.

The Winter Games were held in Garmisch-Partenkirchen and then, at the beginning of August 1936, Hitler arrived at Berlin's Olympic Stadium after a stately procession through the city.

He was presented with an olive branch as a symbol of peace by Spyridon Louis, the winner of the Olympic marathon in 1896.

When the German team marched in, it included Helene Mayer, the 1928 fencing gold medallist. She was the only Jewish athlete selected for the team and won silver in the foil.

Meyer gave the Nazi salute on the podium, a gesture which attracted considerable criticism.

A notable absentee from the German team was Gretel Bergmann, a world class high jumper who in normal circumstances would have been expected to qualify.

She had been expelled from her club because she was Jewish.

Her family sent her to Britain, where she won the National Championships.

She had returned to Germany where, despite training in sub standard facilities, she still jumped 1.60 metres, equalling the German record at that time.

When the Olympic team was announced, she was left out because of what officials called "underperformance".

Hitler was a highly visible presence at the Games, often accompanied by Olympic officials.

When Baillet-Latour died six years later, leading Nazis attended his funeral in what was by then occupied Belgium.

Events in the years up to 1936 emphasise the difficulties in maintaining the integrity of sport as an independent entity, however well meaning the officials.

When the lavish official report of the 1936 Berlin Games appeared, it included an introductory message.

"Sporting and chivalrous competition awakens the best human qualities," it read. "It does not sever, but on the contrary, unites the opponents in mutual understanding and reciprocal respect. 

"It also helps to strengthen the bonds of peace between the nations. May the Olympic Flame therefore never be extinguished!"

The words were by Adolf Hitler.