Tuesday, September 4, 2012

Munich Massacre: 40 Years

From the Globe and Mail:
"Chastened Germany To Mark Munich Massacre 40 Years On"

Germany on Wednesday marks the 40th anniversary of the Munich Olympics massacre amid fresh questions about how the 11 Israeli victims could have been killed on German soil. A tribute to the victims will be held at 1400 (GMT) at the Fuerstenfeldbruck air base, west of Munich, site of the tragic climax of the bloody hostage-taking by members of a radical Palestinian group known as “Black September”.  Seven Israeli survivors as well as around a dozen relatives of the slain Olympic team members will join about 500 political and sport officials including German Interior Minister Hans-Peter Friedrich. The southern state of Bavaria has ordered flags on public buildings to be flown at half-mast and pictures of the victims will be exhibited for the first time at the former air traffic control tower at Fuerstenfeldbruck. The sombre anniversary has given rise to new research into the horrifying chain of events at the 1972 Games, which were meant to showcase the new face of Germany nearly three decades after Second World War. A bungled rescue operation resulted in all the hostages being killed along with a West German policeman and five of the eight hostage-takers.
The news sent shockwaves through Germany just 27 years after the Holocaust and opened a deep rift with Israel. Last week, Israel released 45 official documents on the killings, including specially declassified material, which lambasted the performance of the German security services. Included in the reports is an official account from the former Israeli intelligence head and his heavy criticism of the German authorities for the failure of their rescue operation.The German police “didn’t make even a minimal effort to save human lives,” former Mossad head Zvi Zamir said at the time after returning from Munich. He said elite German snipers had been equipped only with pistols, and that personnel carriers meant for the rescue operation had arrived late. “They had no follow-up plan, nor any means of improvising an alternative,” he said. The files also show evidence of failures by the Israeli security forces. Meanwhile in Germany, investigative news weekly Der Spiegel threw its spotlight on the violent proceedings of that late summer day, accusing the German government and Olympic organizers of covering up grave mistakes. Months before the hostage taking, the German interior ministry and the Bavarian state police warned federal authorities in vain of the possibility of “terrorist acts” at the Games, the magazine said. The Spiegel report recalled that the Olympic village was surrounded by a simple chain link fence without security reinforcements. The head of the Munich police evidently feared that a robust security presence would revive ugly memories of the 1936 Games in Berlin, presided over by Adolf Hitler. And even the head of the West German Olympic Committee, Willi Daume, snapped at his security chief that he had no intention of making the Olympic village look like a “concentration camp”. The 40th anniversary already gave rise to anger and recriminations this summer during the London Games. Two widows, Ankie Spitzer and Ilana Romano, had unsuccessfully campaigned for the anniversary to be marked with a minute’s silence at the opening ceremony in the British capital, a request rejected by IOC President Jacques Rogge.

^ I have been following this story for a while and believe the German law enforcement at the time was guilty of not doing enough to protect the athletes or to save them after they were taken. Blame also needs to be placed with the IOC at the time for not taking the threats seriously. The current IOC needs to also be placed in this because they did not mark the 40th anniversary of the massacre at this years Games in London. It is clear that this does steam because it happened to Israeli athletes. I'm sure that no one (the German law enforcement, the IOC, etc) cried that it only happened to the Jews and so did everything they could to cover-up their "mistakes" to hide their anti-Semitism. It wouldn't have been too off-base to think that former Nazis were still in the German law enforcement since it was only 27 years after the Holocaust and they could have known and not cared (or even helped.) It is good that some Germans are remembering the massacre instead of making excuses for it. The IOC should be ashamed of themselves for not taking a moment to remember the athletes murdered while at the Olympics. The IOC president should be forced to resign and replaced with someone who actually cares of the Games and the athletes (past and present) that participate/participated in them. ^


http://www.theglobeandmail.com/sports/more-sports/chastened-germany-to-mark-munich-massacre-40-years-on/article4515865/

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