Germany’s president apologized for failures by his country before, during and after the 1972 attack on the Munich OIympics, as he joined his Israeli counterpart and relatives of the 11 Israeli athletes killed by Palestinian militants.
The anniversary ceremony at the Fuerstenfeldbruck airfield outside Munich — the scene of a botched rescue attempt that left nine of the Israeli athletes, a West German police officer and five of the assailants dead — came days after an agreement ended a long dispute over compensation. German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier and Israeli President Isaac Herzog laid wreaths at the site.
Ankie Spitzer, the widow of fencing coach Andre Spitzer, said in remarks addressed to her late husband that “although we have finally, after 50 years, reached our goal, at the end of the day you are still gone and nothing can change that.” Some Israeli athletes managed to escape but nine were seized. The captors demanded the release of more than 200 Palestinians held by Israel and two German left-wing extremists in West German prisons.
Sharpshooters at the airfield opened fire. The attackers threw a grenade into one of the helicopters carrying hostages, which exploded, and shot the hostages in the other helicopter. “As this country’s head of state and in the name of the Federal Republic of Germany, I seek your forgiveness for the inadequate protection of the Israeli athletes at the Olympic Games in Munich and for the inadequate resolution afterward; for the fact that what happened could happen,” he said.
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