Fifty years after the hostage-taking of the Munich Olympics, Germany asks for forgiveness
German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, left, and Israeli President Isaac Herzog, right, attend a wreath laying ceremony to commemorate the victims of the 1972 Munich Olympics in Fuerstenfeldbruck, near Munich, Germany, Monday, September 5, 2022. AP - Sven Hoppe
Text by: RFI Follow
2 mins
It was 50 years ago to the day.
During the Munich Olympics, a Palestinian commando took Israeli athletes hostage with the aim of exchanging with Palestinian prisoners.
The intervention of the German authorities ends in a fiasco and the death of eleven Israeli sportsmen and a German policeman.
Fifty years later, the latter made their mea culpa during a commemoration on the spot.
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With our correspondent in Berlin,
Pascal Thibault
"
A huge tragedy and a triple failure of the German authorities
": President Frank-Walter Steinmeier referred
in his speech
to the ill-prepared German security services, the disastrous management of the hostage taking of September 5 and 6, 1972 and to silence and repression around these events since then.
Fifty years later, and a few days after an in extremis compromise on higher compensation for the relatives of the eleven Israeli athletes, it was time for contrition for the German authorities.
"
As Head of State of this country and on behalf of the Federal Republic of Germany,
Frank-Walter Steinmeier declared,
I ask your forgiveness for the lack of protection of the Israeli athletes during the Munich Olympic Games and for the lack of explanations afterwards;
for the fact that what happened could have happened.
»
Bavarian Minister-President Markus Söder and Federal Minister of the Interior for the Government, Nancy Faeser, also apologized.
Monday, September 5 in the morning, on the site of the Olympic village, the mayor of Munich had done the same.
Israeli President Isaac Herzog present on the spot, welcomed the speech of his counterpart Steinmeier and the efforts of the President in the search for a compromise.
Ankie Spitzer, the wife of one of the Israeli coaches killed 50 years ago, wrote in a very personal message about "
a long road"
to talk about the struggle of families and a wound in her heart that will never heal.
Holocaust survivor Charlotte Knobloch hoped a drama-free Olympics would take place again in her hometown of Munich.
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