BERLIN — The German authorities stated Friday it has arrange a global fee of specialists to assessment the occasions surrounding the 1972 assault on the Munich Olympics, a panel that was a part of an settlement reached final yr with relations of the 11 Israeli group members who have been killed by Palestinian militants.
The Inside Ministry named an eight-member panel of historians, most of them based mostly in Israel or Germany. Inside Minister Nancy Faeser underlined Germany’s dedication to “a radical reappraisal of what occurred.”
The fee may even “rigorously study the interval earlier than and after” the assault, Faeser stated in an announcement. “It’s significantly vital to me for his or her work to additionally completely tackle the therapy of the members of the family after the assault.”
In September, German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier apologized for a number of failures by his nation earlier than, throughout and after the assault as he joined his Israeli counterpart and relations of the slain athletes at a ceremony marking the fiftieth anniversary.
An settlement days earlier for the relations to obtain a complete of 28 million euros ($30.7 million) in compensation — a sum that features a lot smaller funds made earlier — headed off a threatened boycott of the occasion. Germany additionally agreed to acknowledge failures by authorities on the time and to arrange the assessment by historians.
Earlier than daybreak on Sept. 5, 1972, eight members of a Palestinian group known as Black September clambered over the unguarded fence of the Olympic village. They burst into the constructing the place the Israeli group was staying, killing wrestling coach Moshe Weinberg and weightlifter Yossi Romano.
Some Israeli athletes managed to flee however 9 have been seized. The captors demanded the discharge of greater than 200 Palestinians held by Israel and two German left-wing extremists in West German prisons.
The attackers demanded a aircraft and protected passage to Cairo. After a day of negotiations, the assailants and their hostages have been allowed to depart aboard two helicopters for the Fuerstenfeldbruck airfield outdoors Munich.
Sharpshooters on the airfield opened fireplace. The attackers threw a grenade into one of many helicopters carrying hostages, which exploded, and shot the hostages within the different helicopter. The botched rescue try additionally left a West German police officer and 5 of the assailants {dead}.
Friday’s German Inside Ministry assertion stated that the analysis undertaking’s work and findings “will likely be documented transparently for the general public” and that different specialists with “extra experience on numerous matters” additionally will likely be included within the panel’s work. It stated {that a} first assembly on the undertaking is deliberate across the time of the 51st anniversary later this yr, however did not specify when the fee is predicted to ship its “complete scholarly account.”
It stated that Germany’s Leibniz Institute for Up to date Historical past will conduct an accompanying analysis undertaking and can assist the skilled fee.
Ankie Spitzer, the widow of fencing coach Andre Spitzer, stated within the assertion that the victims’ households “are more than happy that our request to open the archives and set up a fee of historians has been honored.”
“We’re grateful to the distinguished members of the fee that they’re prepared to re-examine the murderous assault and its aftermath,” she added. “That is of the utmost significance to the households and hopefully will deliver justice to historical past.”