Israeli President Reuven Rivlin joined his German counterpart Frank-Walter Steinmeier in Munich today at the inauguration ceremony for a memorial marking 45 years since the murder of 11 members of the Israeli Olympic team by Palestinian gunmen at the 1972 Games.
The "Munich 1972 massacre memorial", unveiled at Munich's Olympic Park, commemorates the 11 Israeli athletes, coaches and officials who were taken hostage and subsequently murdered by Palestinians from the Black September group. A German policeman and five of the attackers also died after a stand-off at the Olympic village.
In an emotional address to an audience including relatives of the victims, Mr Rivlin evoked the harrowing moments in which "the Olympic spirit of brotherhood, of freedom and unity" was replaced by an "Olympic flag stained by blood".
Ilona Romano, whose husband Yossef, a weightlifter, was killed in Munich, described the athletes' "sense of great pride for the historic opportunity to represent the State of Israel at the Olympic Games" and condemned the "wicked murderers" whose actions "would decide their fates [and] that of their families".
During the ceremony, Israel’s former Consulate General to Munich, Tibi Schlosser, read the names of the 11 victims of the attack: Moshe Weinberg, Yossef Romano, Yossef Gutfreund, Amitzur Shapira, Ze'ev Friedman, Eliezer Halfin, Andre Spitzer, Kehat Shorr, David Berger, Yakov Springer, and Mark Slavin. Members of the families then unveiled a plaque in their memories.
President Rivlin's address:
“In September 1972, 45 years ago exactly, members of the Israeli Olympic team walked around the paths of the Olympic Village. Young men, full of hopes and dreams. Athletes who wanted to break records, sportsmen who wanted to be world champions, to bring home an Olympic medal, but most of all, they wanted to live; with their families, close to their children, with their loved ones. The massacre destroyed it all. Forty-five years have passed. And today we are here once again. Forty-five years have passed, until once again stands here an official Israeli delegation, of the State of Israel, on the paths of the Olympic Village, on the Munich soil, in Germany.
We are marching here, and our fallen march with us. Dear brothers, we are following today the footpaths on which you trod. We are walking here, and with us are your children, your grandchildren, your families, your fellow members of the delegation, all those who have not for one moment forgotten you. We are walking here, with Israeli sportsmen and women, Olympic medal winners, who saw in you a symbol and role model, and fulfilled your dreams to return to compete in the Olympic Games, and bring a medal home to Israel. Also for you. Also in your name. Because your dreams were a legacy.
We came here today to the Olympic Village, forty-five years too late, to close the circle. To close a circle that will never be closed.
Israeli athletes came to Munich, with the Olympian spirit of brotherhood, of freedom, and unity. Among the delegation there were also family members of Holocaust survivors. But in one moment, the Olympic Village transformed into a killing field. The Olympic flag stained with blood. The interwoven rings – the symbol of brotherhood and unity – torn from there place. The Munich Olympics were the Olympics of blood. All those old enough to remember will never forget those hours in which we followed the fate of the hostages. I remember them well. I remember the moments of hope with the erroneous announcement that the hostages had been safely rescued. And I remember the terrible feeling with the awful news that the hostages had been murdered. Not one of them had been left alive.
Forty-five years after the massacre, international terrorism continues to threaten and to strike against innocent civilians. There are still those who see in the murder of sportsmen, a heroic deed. Just last year Fatah marked the massacre of the sportsmen as an 'act of heroism'. The center we are inaugurating today must be a message to the whole world: There can be no apologizing for terrorism. Terror must be unequivocally condemned, everywhere. In Barcelona, in London, in Paris, in Berlin, in Jerusalem, and everywhere else. We – the international community – must stand united in the struggle against terror, dedicated to fight it and defeat it.
Global terrorism is changing all the time. There are times when the response to terror is a military decision. Sometimes, cyber warfare and monitoring electronic media, or science and technology offer a suitable response. At other times we must employ law enforcement to thwart channels for financing terrorism, disguised as charitable organizations and innocuous bank accounts. And at other times, to my sadness more and more frequently, neither the law nor guns, can stop the terror. Here, there is a need for education from a young age. A need to fight the incitement, the propaganda, to eradicate the discourse of hatred, according to the idea of ulove thy neighbour'.
I believe that Israel and Germany have the moral duty to be allies in the unwavering struggle against terror, and to find the ways to work together to overcome it.
Forty-five years – almost half a century – the victims’ families, and the State of Israel looked expectantly for this moment: the inauguration of a center of remembrance and a memorial in the Olympic Village. Some of the delegation who survived the massacre are sadly no longer alive – indeed just a month ago, weightlifter Tuvia Sokolsky passed away – and still we are waiting for injustice to be rectified, that there will be a minute’s silence at the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games."
