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1972 in the Olympic Village: Masked Palestinian terrorist on the balcony of the Israeli accommodation on Connollystrasse
Photo: Sven Simon / imago images
Half a century after the attack on the Israeli Olympic team in 1972, the families of the victims are to receive late compensation from Germany.
A spokesman for the Federal Ministry of the Interior confirmed to SPIEGEL on Wednesday that a decision had been made "to re-articulate the serious consequences for the victims' families in immaterial and material terms".
This is the result of a "reassessment" of the attack and its consequences by the federal government "over the past few weeks."
The Süddeutsche Zeitung reported about it first.
However, this has by no means settled the decades-long dispute over appropriate compensation payments.
"The sum we were offered is insulting," said Ankie Spitzer, spokeswoman for the victims' families, the editorial network Germany on Wednesday.
"We are upset and disappointed."
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Ankie Spitzer, widow of fencing coach André Spitzer, demands appropriate compensation for the families of the victims
Photo: Jonas Opperskalski / Jonas Opperskalski / laif
When Palestinian terrorists attacked at the Summer Olympics in Munich on September 5 and 6, 1972, eleven Israeli athletes and supervisors and a German policeman were killed.
Two members of the team from Israel were murdered in the Olympic Village, the others died during a failed liberation operation at the Fürstenfeldbruck airfield.
It later became known that the German authorities had, among other things, neglected previous warnings of a possible terrorist action and had made numerous fatal mistakes during the attempted hostage rescue.
The ministry spokesman explained that a comprehensive review of the events of that time and renewed financial contributions should now "express Germany's special relationship with the state of Israel" and create the starting point for a new, lively culture of remembrance.
Accordingly, a commission of historians from both countries should be set up to deal with the matter.
"Now we are forced to talk publicly about money"
The ministry did not provide any information on the amount of the compensation payment.
"Confidential talks with the representatives of the victims' families" are currently underway.
The financial services should be provided jointly by the federal government, the Free State of Bavaria and the state capital Munich, it said.
According to the editorial network Germany, Steffen Seibert, the new German ambassador to Israel, presented the new German proposal to the victims' families last Friday at the embassy in Tel Aviv.
According to information from the families of the victims, it is a total payment of ten million euros for all survivors.
However, earlier payments from the years 1972 and 2002 totaling around four and a half million euros should be taken into account.
Spitzer said this does not meet international standards in similar cases: "We never wanted to talk publicly about money, but now we are forced to do it." Attacks will come to Munich in early September, continued Spitzer.
The victims' families have received two payments so far
A few weeks ago, the families of the Israeli victims announced that they would stay away from the official commemoration if the question of compensation remained unresolved.
"If they don't even pay us compensation according to international standards, we won't come at all," Ankie Spitzer told SPIEGEL.
Over the past 50 years, the victims' families have repeatedly complained about the inadequate processing of the events and the non-release of investigation files;
In addition, nobody on the German side ever apologized for the failure of the authorities in the course of the hostage-taking.
Volker Beck, President of the German-Israeli Society, as well as the Greens parliamentary group in the Bundestag and Ludwig Spaenle (CSU), the Bavarian government's anti-Semitism officer, had recently pushed for appropriate compensation and a complete investigation.
The relatives have received money twice so far.
Ankie Spitzer puts the amount of the first payment from 1972 at one million marks for 34 surviving dependents, "along with the coffins," as she says - but "not from Germany, but from the Red Cross, because money from the state would have been tantamount to an admission of guilt." .
In court, the surviving dependents demanded 40 million marks in damages from 1994 because of massive errors in the police operation, but their lawsuit was ultimately dismissed in 2000 - due to the statute of limitations.
Another payment of around 3.2 million euros followed two years later as a “humanitarian gesture” by the Federal Republic, as the Federal Government, the Free State of Bavaria and the City of Munich explained at the time.
The majority was spent on legal costs, and 920,000 euros remained for 34 relatives, says Spitzer.
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