The German president apologizes for the mistakes made in Munich’72

Germany’s president apologized Monday for the many failures his country committed before, during and after Munich Olympics ’72with his Israeli counterpart and the families of the 11 Israeli athletes who died in the bombing by Palestinian militants at the Games 50 years ago.

The anniversary ceremony at Fuerstenfeldbruck airfield outside Munich – the scene of a failed rescue attempt that killed nine of the Israeli athletes, a West German police officer and five of the attackers – came days after a settlement that ended a long-running dispute over compensation.

german president Frank-Walter Steinmeier and the president of Israel isaac herzog Wreaths of flowers were laid on the spot. Last week’s agreement ended the threat of a boycott of the anniversary event by relatives of the slain athletes, who will receive a total of 28 million euros in compensation, representing a significant increase compared to the initial offer of 10 million euros . .

As part of the agreement, Germany agreed to acknowledge the failures of the authorities at the time and allow German and Israeli historians to examine the events surrounding the attack. “We are talking about a great tragedy and a triple failure,” said German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier. “The first refers to the preparation of the Games and the concept of security; the second, to the events of September 5 and 6, 1972. The third failure begins the day after the attack: silence, denial, oblivion”.

Before the dawn of September 5, 1972eight members of a Palestinian group called Black September they climbed the unguarded fence of the Olympic village. They destroyed the building where the Israeli team was staying and killed the wrestling trainer Moshe Weinberg and weightlifter Yossi Romano. The hijackers demanded the release of more than 200 Israeli-held Palestinians and two German leftist extremists in West German jails. The attackers demanded a plane and safe passage to Cairo. After a day of tense negotiations, the assailants and their hostages left in two helicopters for Fuerstenfeldbruck. Snipers opened fire at the airport. The attackers threw a grenade at one of the helicopters carrying the hostages, which exploded, and shot the hostages in the other helicopter.

The Olympic Games were suspended for 34 hours, but then resumed, and the then president of the International Olympic Committee, American Avery Brundage, insisted that “the Games must go on”. Steinmeier acknowledged that politicians at the time also did their best to return to normalcy as soon as possible. “We cannot take back what happened, or what you lived and experienced in the form of resistance, ignorance and injustice,” Steinmeier told relatives of the victims. “I am ashamed. As the head of state of this country and on behalf of the Federal Republic of Germany, I apologize for the inadequate protection of Israeli athletes at the Olympic Games in Munich and for the poor resolution afterwards; for the truth that could have happened,” he said.

The compensation agreement includes payments that have already been made. Immediately after the attack, Germany paid victims’ relatives a sum of about 4.19 million marks (about 2 million euros or dollars), according to the country’s Interior Ministry. Steinmeier pointed to Palestinian militants and their Libyan aides as directly responsible for the killings, saying “it is very sad that there are no words of sympathy, no words of remorse coming from the political representatives of those countries.”

On a recent visit to Berlin, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas caused outrage by refusing to condemn the 1972 attack and saying he could point to Israel’s “50 Holocausts.”