Germany wants to move forward with the investigation of the 1972 Olympic attack. Juliane Seifert, Secretary of State for the Ministry of the Interior, said today in Tel Aviv, after a meeting with relatives of the Israeli victims, that a commission of historians should be created for this purpose in the spring. The independent panel must include German and Israeli historians.
Not only were the events of September 5, 1972 in Munich to be processed, “but also what happened before and after,” Seifert said. The German Bundestag approved the necessary funds. Victims’ families should be closely involved in the investigation. The commission’s work is scheduled for three years.
Many killed in liberation attempt
Eleven members of the Israeli Olympic team and a German policeman were killed in the attack. Palestinian terrorists wanted to use it to free over 200 prisoners in Israel and RAF terrorists Andreas Baader and Ulrike Meinhof.
In the early hours of September 5, 1972, assassins broke into the athletes’ accommodation in the Olympic Village in Munich, shot two men and took nine hostage. About 18 hours later, a rescue attempt at the Fürstenfeldbruck airfield ended in a bloodbath. All nine hostages, police officer Anton Fliegerbauer and five assassins died.
Last year, after decades of struggle with the German government, the families of the Israeli victims agreed to compensation of 28 million euros. On behalf of the Federal Republic of Germany, German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier apologized to relatives at a commemorative event in Fürstenfeldbruck in September.