German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier on Monday asked for “forgiveness” from the families of the Israeli victims of the attack that took place at the 1972 Munich Olympics, and took responsibility for the country’s various “failures”. that followed the incident. .
“As the head of state of this country, and on behalf of the Federal Republic of Germany, I apologize for the lack of protection for Israeli athletes during the Munich Olympics and for the lack of explanation for what happened,” Steinmeier told the family. . members of 11. Israelis killed in the attack.
At the ceremony marking the 50th anniversary of the attack, attended by Israeli President Isaac Herzog, Steinmeier admitted there had been “a triple failure”.
“We are talking about a tragedy and a triple failure. The first concerns the preparation for the Games and security, the second was everything that happened on September 5 and 6, 1972 and the third started the day after the attack: silence, repression and oblivion,” said the German president.
The two presidents and about 70 relatives of the victims were this morning in the area where the Olympic village was located, where the hostages were taken, and in the afternoon they were present at the military base in Fürstenfeldbruck, where the attempted liberation of the hostages ended. Steinmeier said, in a “bloodbath.”
The performance of the ceremony was even questionable, due to the difficulties of Germany and the victims’ relatives to agree on compensation.
After decades of secret negotiations over the matter, the German government announced on Wednesday it had reached a compensation agreement, amid fears that the victims’ families could boycott the ceremony because they considered the values proposed by Berlin too low. .
With the agreement, the government of German Chancellor Olaf Scholz decided to pay compensation of 28 million euros, partly paid by Bavaria and the city of Munich.
On September 5, 1972, eight members of the Palestinian organization Black September broke into an apartment of the Israeli delegation in the Olympic village of Munich, killing two Israeli athletes and taking nine other members of the entourage hostage, in the hope of getting 232 Palestinian prisoners.
The intervention of the German security services ended with the death of all the hostages, a bloody outcome for which the West German authorities were partly blamed. Five Palestinian terrorists were killed and three more arrested.
Source: DN
