The playing of a national anthem at a sporting event is a solemn moment, a chance for patriotism to swell in the breasts of athletes and fans alike.
So when a Nazi-era anthem, a song from “Borat,” or a Ricky Martin tune emerges from the speakers, it can be more than a little disquieting.
At a United States-Germany Fed Cup match over the weekend on Maui, an opera singer, Will Kimball, was called upon to sing the German anthem. The tune was right, but the words he sang, beginning with “Deutschland, Deutschland über alles,” or “Germany, Germany above all,” were from a verse that was dropped after World War II because of its close identification with the Nazi regime.