2023-04-21 17:59:13
The German government announced on Friday, April 21, the creation of a commission made up of eight historians, who are responsible for documenting the context in which the attack was perpetrated which led to the death of eleven Israeli athletes at the Olympic Games. from Munich in 1972.
“It is a shame that these atrocious questions have remained unresolved for so long. We have lacked explanation, questioning, transparency and accountability”, German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser said in a statement. A speech that comes eight months after the conclusion of a compensation agreement between the German government and the families of the victims of the attack.
On August 31, 2022, five days before the fiftieth anniversary of the attack, the German executive had agreed to the payment of 28 million euros in compensation and the establishment of a group of researchers. It is therefore this commission, after Friday’s announcement, which is responsible for conducting a “full scientific assessment of events” September 5, 1972 and document the memory of the attack.
Shedding light on the course of the final assault
That day, the eleventh day of the Olympic Games, the first in Germany since those organized by the Nazi regime in 1936, the Palestinian commando group Black September entered the Olympic village in Munich. The terrorists infiltrate the accommodation of the Israeli delegation, and kill two athletes there, before taking nine others hostage. They demand, among other demands, the release of the 234 Palestinian prisoners held captive in Israel.
The kidnapping will last all day, for lack of conclusive negotiations, and ends with a confused assault by German police on the Fürstenfeldbruck airbase – northwest of Munich. This operation cost the lives of all the hostages, five members of the commando and a West German policeman.
The commission of historians, which will work in collaboration with the Institute of Contemporary History (Munich-Berlin) (IfZ), will therefore have to shed light on the responsibilities of the police and the German government of the time.
Because several gray areas persist, in particular on the lack of police officers around the Olympic village at the time of the hostage taking and on the negligence in the face of terrorist threats, while the intelligence services were aware of these risks before the Games Olympics. Historians will also seek to inform the context of the course of the final assault.
Spokesperson for the families of the victims of the attack, Ankie Spitzer, widow of fencer Andre Spitzer killed in the attack, welcomed the announcement: “We welcome the fact that the archives are becoming accessible and that a commission of historians has been set up. » This is a new breakthrough for the families of the victims, who are still looking for answers to their questions, fifty years later. The work of the commission should culminate in a first symposium, scheduled for the fall of 2023, fifty-one years after the attack.
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