The German government announced today its intention to grant compensation to the families of the victims of the 1972 Olympics massacre in Munich, where a commando of the Palestinian terrorist organization Black September broke into the Olympic village in the accommodation of Israeli athletes, killed two of them attempting to resist and taking nine other members of the Israeli Olympic team hostage. All the athletes died following a liberation attempt by the German police. A German police officer and five kidnappers were also killed.
A spokesman for the Interior Ministry today confirmed media reports that spoke of an offer in preparation, specifying that the talks are being conducted in private with representatives of the victims’ families. The “serious consequences for mourners, both in the immaterial and in the material sense,” are being reconsidered, the spokesman explained. Next September 5 marks the 50th anniversary of the massacre. The German government paid the victims 4.19 million marks (about $ 2 million) shortly after the attack.
Another $ 3 million was paid to family members in 2002 as a humanitarian gesture, in consideration of the special relationship between Germany and Israel, the government said at the time. But in 1994 the victims’ families had unsuccessfully sued the German government for a much higher sum, denouncing huge mistakes made by the police.
A representative of the victims’ relatives, Ankie Spitzer, turned down an invitation to a memorial event yesterday, prompting the head of the Bavarian anti-Semitism authority, Ludwig Spaenle, to cancel it. For Spaenle, the German government has a duty to take responsibility for its shortcomings and to compensate the survivors and families of the victims appropriately. In addition to reparations, the Interior Ministry has announced that it will form a commission of German and Israeli historians to examine and re-evaluate the events of 1972.
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