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Remembering the Munich Olympic massacre By LAUREEN FAGAN (Wednesday, September 6, 2000) - Festive preparations for the Sydney Olympics had a somber interruption yesterday in Tel Aviv as relatives, officials and other mourners remembered the 11 Israeli athletes and officials murdered by Palestinian guerrillas at the 1972 games in Munich.
Memories of the tragedy remain bitter and some relatives of the victims are still calling for a minute's silence at the Games to honor the dead. 'I feel that young athletes born after 1972... should be reminded that these men also came to participate in sport in peace and brotherhood and came home in a coffin,' Ankie Spitzer said. Her husband Andre, a fencing coach, was killed in the attack by the Black September guerrilla group. He was 27, Ankie was 26 and their daughter was five weeks old. 'We would like to have a moment of silence at the opening of the Games in Sydney or any Olympic Games so that the world will know this should never happen again,' she said, adding that that suggestion for the ceremony, to be held in just 10 days, had been rejected because it was considered a political act. She said the security at Munich had been 'a laugh.' 'I certainly hope the security in Sydney will be much better. In Munich I could come in to the Olympic village and everyone could come in,' she said. But she added: 'It's a shame the Olympics turned into something that must be guarded.'
'Being here today is a significant moment. I know most of the people in sport here, and the families of the victims, and I am taking all these things I have carried for years into the stadium with me,' he said. 'I think it is important that young people learn [about the murders].' Nahum said he is not worried about security in Sydney. The Munich deaths cast a shadow over the Olympics, and the Games organizers have concentrated heavily on security since.
[Click here to see photos of the murdered athletes]
Olympics still haunted by Munich massacre (Monday, September 4, 2000) - LONDON - With less than two weeks to go before the start of the 2000 Olympics in Sydney, final preparations are being made for this huge sports festival. More than 10,000 athletes and 340,000 foreign tourists are expected to visit Australia for the games, and organizers naturally want the event tobe a huge success. Just outside the main Olympic stadium, a simple stainless-steel panel bearing 11 names has been suspended from a tower in the Olympic plaza. Above it a double-sided blue glass panel displays inscriptions in Hebrew - a reminder of what the organizers desperately hope to avoid. This poignant memorial commemorates the greatest disaster in the history of the modern Olympics: the massacre of 11 Israeli athletes and officials at the 1972 Munich Summer Games. The monument symbolizes the need for security in Sydney and is a constant reminder that the families of the dead Israelis are still campaigning for justice. The Munich tragedy began in the early hours of September 5, 1972, when Palestinian terrorists burst into the building housing the Israeli delegation to 'The Games of Peace and Joy.' The attackers killed two Israelis, took hostages and demanded the release of prisoners in Israeli jails. When prime minister Golda Meir refused their demands, a day of tense negotiations and torturous deadlines began. The Germans eventually decided to shift the problem out of the Olympic Village and try to rescue the Israelis using force. The terrorists were taken by helicopter with their hostages to an airfield outside Munich. Moments after the terrorists landed at the airfield, the Germans launched a bungled rescue operation. Police snipers missed their targets and the terrorists hid under the helicopters and raked the airfield with bullets. The sporadic gun battle lasted for more than an hour, until the arrival of German armored cars at the airfield. The terrorists apparently thought they were about to be machine-gunned, and they massacred the nine Israeli hostages still inside the two helicopters.
For decades, the Germans stonewalled, perhaps fearing their officials would be accused of antisemitism, and claimed there was just one short report on the attack. But then a few years ago Ankie Spitzer received an anonymous package that included details of a hidden hoard of documents, reports and files relatingto the Munich massacre. It proved there had been a huge cover-up. Recent investigations have discovered that a crucial group of German police officers, who were supposed to ambush the terrorist leaders at the airfield,actually voted to abandon their position just before the hostages and terrorists landed in two helicopters. This left five snipers to deal with eight heavily armed terrorists. The snipers had no walkie-talkies, no flak jackets or helmets, inadequate rifles and no proper rifle sights or infra-red equipment. Police marksmanship was also poor. 'I am of the opinion that I am not a sharpshooter,' admitted 'Sniper Two' later. Relatives of the athletes still campaign to remind the world what happened in 1972, and have been to every Olympics since Munich. 'It must never happen again,' says Spitzer, 'not anywhere, but especially not at the Olympic Games.' Spitzer's daughter Anouk, who has grown up without a father, believes it is important that people still talk about the massacre. 'We always say that they didn't only murder 11 athletes and 11 Israelis but they murdered the Olympic dream,' she said. 'And a dream that, as much as I know, my father really believed in.' Anouk is desperate that her father's spirit should not be forgotten: 'I think the world has to remember. He deserves, and his friends deserve, to be remembered.' Simon Reeve is the author of One Day in September: The Story of the 1972 Munich Olympics Massacre. In March, the film of the same name won an Academy Award for best documentary. Click here for the JTA website.
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