A German security guard has been arrested for performing a Hitler salute in front of a group of Israeli athletes visiting a memorial to those murdered at that 1972 Munich Olympics.

The 16 Israeli athletes from the Israeli European Championships team were visiting the Olympic Park in Munich on Tuesday evening when the incident happened, according to Munich Police.

A 19-year-old man from Berlin was arrested, and he has been reportedly banned from all further championship events.

Luckily, the athletes themselves had not noticed the gesture, police added.

The group was visiting a memorial to the victims of the 1972 attack by the Palestinian group “Black September” at the Munich Olympics, where 11 Israelis were murdered in their accommodation after a late night raid.

Palestinian terrorists broke into the apartment block where the Israeli team was based and took nine athletes hostage, after killing two early on in the attack.

All the hostages were eventually killed by the group after a botched rescue attempt by West German police at Munich airport which saw a German police officer killed in the crossfire.

In Germany, performing a Hitler salute or displaying Nazi symbols such as the swastika are punishable by law and can result in fines or prison sentences of up to three years.

This incident comes ahead of the 50th anniversary of the attack, which took place on September 5. The families of the victims have said that they will decline the invitation to attend commemoration events.

A lawyer acting for some of the victims’ families told the JC last week that they have “proof” that the government of West Germany, as it was at the time, staged a hijack to free the killers. 

Three suspects awaiting trial for the massacre of 11 Israeli Olympic athletes in September 1972 were freed less than two months later and flown to Libya after a Lufthansa jet was hijacked. West Germany, as it then was, also paid a $9 million ransom.