Emmanuel Thomas, with DPA l Friday, April 21, 2023
BERLIN – An expert commission has been set up to investigate the terrorist attack on the Israeli delegation at the 1972 Munich Olympics, the German Interior Ministry announced on Friday.
Eight experts from different fields are to probe events leading up to the attack and its aftermath, supported by the Leibniz Institute for Contemporary History.
The decision to set up the unit was taken in the autumn of last year, 50 years after the attack.
“For too many years, there was a lack of understanding or reappraisal of the events, transparency about them or acceptance of responsibility for them,” said Interior Minister Nancy Faeser in a statement. She emphasized the need to examine the treatment of relatives following the attack.
The investigation will “hopefully will bring justice to history,” said Ankie Spitzer, the widow of Israeli fencing coach André Spitzer who died in the attack.
Palestinian terrorists forced their way into the Israeli team’s quarters on September 5, 1972, shooting two men dead and taking nine hostages.
An attempt to free the hostages at an airfield near Munich 18 hours later ended in a bloodbath.
All nine Israeli hostages, a German police officer and five terrorists died. The attack was aimed at freeing more than 200 prisoners in Israel and German left-wing extremists Andreas Baader and Ulrike Meinhof who were imprisoned in Germany.
