Bayerisches Staatsministerium für Bildung und Kultus, Wissenschaft

Bayerisches Staatsministerium für
Bildung und Kultus, Wissenschaft und Kunst
LANDESZENTRALE FÜR POLITISCHE BILDUNGSARBEIT
Concept memorial Olympic-massacre
(short version)
The planned memorial reminds of the massacre on the Israeli Olympic Team during the XX.
Olympic Summer Games in 1972 in Munich. Special focus is taken on the victims’
biographies. Nevertheless there is no need to inform without a cultural, historical and political
context. For a deeper understanding of what happened on September 5th and 6th 1972 the
following main topics should be dealt with at the newly created place.
1. The massacre
2. The victims
3. Contextualization
o
The Olympics’ political dimension in general and the special relevance of the
1972 summer games for the city of Munich, for Bavaria and for Germany
o
The German-Israeli relationship at that time
o
International terrorism at that time and the assassins of the Black September
o
The attack’s aftermath and the commemoration to the victims worldwide
Details are shown as followed.
The massacre
In the morning of September 5th 1972 eight members of the terrorist organization Black
September entered the Olympic village by force, aiming at Connolly Street 31, the place
where members of the Israeli team stayed. When the terrorists broke in apartment 1, Tuvia
Sokolosky, coach of the weightlifters, was able to escape over the balcony. In apartment 3
several people were taken hostage. The wrestler Gad Tsabary was also able to escape.
Finally eleven Israeli athletes were taken hostage in the room of the fencing coach André
Spitzer: he himself, Jacob Springer (weightlifting judge), Joseph Romano (weightlifter),
Joseph Gutfreund (wrestling judge), Moshe Weinberg (wrestling coach), Ze'ev Friedman
(weightlifter), David Berger (weightlifter), Eliezer Halfin (wrestler), Amitzur Shapira (coach for
the track and field team), Kehat Shorr ( marksmanship coach) und Mark Slavin (wrestler).
Apartment 2, the place the two fencers Dan Alon und Yehuda Weinstain, the shooters Henry
Hershkowitz und Zelig Shtorch as well as the race walker Dr. Shaul Ladany stayed at, was
spared by the hostage-takers.
Moshe Weinberg and Josef Romano – both tried to fight the terrorists – were killed directly in
Connolly Street 31.
After several failed attempts to liberate the hostages, the emergency task force consisting of
the German Interior Minister Hans-Dietrich-Genscher, Police president Dr. Manfred Schreiber
and the Bavarian Interior Minister Dr. Bruno Merk, decided to bring all persons involved to
the Fürstenfeldbruck air base, pretending to fly the terrorists to Cairo. But the responsible
persons planned an act of liberation at the air base in Fürstenfeldbruck. This action ended in
a disaster. All hostages as well as the German police chief officer Anton Fliegerbauer and five
terrorists died.
Not only the sports event itself was in the media worldwide, the massacre itself became a
global event for the media. Broadcasting stations from all over the world reported live about
what happened on September 5th and 6th 1972. For the first time in history spectators could
follow an assassination live on TV. In public reception the Olympic massacre therefore is
often regarded as the hour of birth of international terrorism.
The victims
The biographies of the eleven Israeli victims are the central narrative of the planned
exhibition. With the memorial individual dignity is expressed via the fact that the victims are
personalized.
Individual remembering to each single one of them and their role in the tragic event are
respected in the presentation in order to show basic questions concerning human dignity in a
free constitutional state. At the same time through the presentation of their origin, steps in life
and effects the victims’ biographies show perspectives on the Israeli society, its variety and
heterogeneity. Over and above that each single biography shows selftelling intersections to
the history of sports.
In the same way the memories of the relatives and the Israeli team mates who survived are
to be respected. This also includes the severe effects the attack had on these people’s
further lives.
Starting with the athletes’ biographies an insight in Israeli society at that time is given and
Israel’s plural social profile – which is still valid today – is depicted. The athletes’ biographies
impressively mirror the heterogeneous Israeli society, which has a lot of immigrants up to
now and which still has to deal with questions of identity and living together.
Contextualisation
Olympia’s political dimension
The idea of the Olympic Games of the modern age was transported by the thought to
overcome national egoism in the spirit of international understanding. Since their foundation
the Olympic Games already present themselves as an opponent idea to the historic world
and its inherent principles. This thought still exists today and – among the sportive event the importance for the image of the equivalent scene can hardly be estimated high enough.
On an international basis the Olympic Summer Games showed a chance for the Federal
Republic of Germany, to generate cultural asset internationally as a cosmopolitan, liberal
country. Up to 1972 Germany’s relevance and cognition was not very distinctive, respectively
subjected to a clear structure of rules regarding foreign affairs. Political action of the Federal
Republic of Germany has always been regarded under the aspect of probation after the
rupture of civilization because of the National Socialism.
From this point of view the Summer Games 1972 were very important:
the idea was to show a modern Federal Republic facing peaceful and cheerful games.
For the city of Munich the decision had an accelerating effect. Because of the fact being the
place for the Olympic Games 1972, Munich became more modern. Despite the fact that this
had already started before the Olympic committee’s decision, everything became more
dynamic. The award for the Olympic Games 1972 led e.g. to a shortening of the Munich town
development plan from 30 to 6 years.
This explains the consequences of the assassination of and for Munich; this is the reason
why the idea of cheerful games should be described. They connoted the portrait of a splendid
isolation as well as the attempt to finish the postwar period. Munich presents itself open and
modern, the organizers wanted to present a democratic Germany. The security concept of
the Olympic Games 1972 shouldn’t evoke the idea of a police state – e.g. with a lot of visible
security forces - or remind of the past. But the good will turned out to be a fatal estimation of
the real coordinates.
The German-Israeli Relations
The assassination shows a cut in history of international politics.
The attack itself means a break in latest history of international politics. Terrorism becomes a
global event in the media using medial ways of communication. Post war Germany now
becomes an actor in the network of conflicts on an international basis and at the same time
post war Germany is confronted with a new form of anti-Semitism, forcing the country into a
new definition of its own role. The assassination again involved Germany in general
responsibilities.
With the presentation of this situation the special relationship to Israel is to be focused. Since
1965 there has been an official diplomatic relationship between the Federal Republic of
Germany and Israel. The period up to 1972 had been determined by pressure on the one
hand and by advances on the other hand.
With regard to foreign affairs the assassination happened during the two most important wars
Israel had been fighting since the war of independence against its Arabic neighbours. The Six
Day War in 1967 fixed the feeling of togetherness of the Israeli people, whose society had
been in a menacing crisis before. Israel became a clear winner of the war. The neighbouring
countries were shocked and the situation in the Middle East became even tense up to the
Yom-Kippur-war in 1973. Israel’s victory in 1967 and the capture of new regions tightened the
conflict with the Palestinians. Thousands of people in West Bank, Jerusalem and Gaza were
forced under Israeli occupation and military administration.
The Six Day War of 1967 means a clear break in the relations between the Federal Republic
of Germany and Israel. While the Western German government keeping a neutral position
during the war, some combat operations in the Middle East released a couple of solidarity
promises towards Israel among the German population. In Israel it was noticed as a practical
test of the German-Israeli relations. There have already been economical relations, after the
end of the war the exchange of cultural relations progressed.
At the end of the 1960s the rise of anti-Israeli and anti-Semitic based radicalism in Western
Germany worried Israel and was echoed in a very negative way among the Israeli public.
Because of its past there was hardly any trust in Germany. Above that, Israel was worried,
Germany could move closer to the Arabic countries.
In this difficult situation, Israel sent the largest delegation to the Olympic Summer Games
ever.
International terrorism
This level is to show the context of the Olympic-massacre in Munich and international
terrorism. The Palestinian offenders should be focused.
After the assassination on the Israeli participants of the Olympic games the German Interior
Minister Genscher spoke about ’’a new form of crime, namely international terrorism“. The
assassination was carried out by the Black September Organization, founded in 1971 as an
offshoot of Fatah and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP). Therefore it is
to show, to what extent the attack on the Israeli team was a break in latest history of
international politics.
Though there had been several attacks before 1972 by transnational, terrorist aggregations –
even in Germany. E.g. a hand grenade attack was carried out on the Israeli embassy in Bonn
in September 1969. In February 1970 Palestinian terrorists attacked the passengers and the
crew of an EL-AL aircraft, where one Israeli was killed. Almost two weeks later a bomb
exploded on an aircraft of Austria Airlines on its flight from Frankfurt/Main to Vienna. All
passengers survived. In contrast to that on the same day all 47 passengers and crew
members died during an attack on a Swiss Air aircraft on its way from Zürich to Tel Aviv. The
attacks were admitted by PFLP.
Regarding these attacks, the Olympic massacre was the essential break in terms of public
realization of the whole criminal context: the general shock effect connected to the medially
and politically constructed as well as in public absorbed cheerful games became a basis for a
new definition and cognition of terrorism in Germany and on an international basis.
Effects
The attack on the Israel athletes during the Olympic summer games in 1972 had expansive
effects, up to now.
The idea is to explain why this massacre is of high importance for the Israeli society – until
today. The changeful history of the country since its foundation in 1948 is affected by
permanent acts of war with its neighbours, who had attacked Israel from the first day of the
foundation and who still do not accept Israel’s existence. The shock about what had
happened was even bigger that an assassination could be carried out outside the Middle
East – and of all things in Germany. The shock and the grief about the incidents in Munich
right after the action were tremendous, and quickly there was the voice for revenge. Israel’s
former Prime Minister Golda Meir appointed a secret Israeli Union with the task to kill the
manipulators and surviving offenders of the Munich massacre.
At the same time the Federal Republic of Germany realized to be confronted with a
meticulously planned terrorist act which had been carried out with extreme violence.
In September 1972 the former Interior Minister Genscher brought about the foundation of a
German anti-terror unit – the GSG9.
After the assassination the International Olympic Committee (IOC) decided to continue with
the games. After the failure in Fürstenfeldbruck and the death of all eleven hostages as well
as the police chief officer Anton Fliegerbauer a funeral service was given in the Olympic
stadium. During the ceremony for the victims the IOC president Avery Brundage claimed:
’’the games must go on!“. Until today the IOC balks at the fact to question this decision or to
commemorate the victims regularly and adequately in public. The victims’ relatives,
especially the widows Ankie Spitzer and Ilana Romano are still fighting for the
implementation of a minute of silence for the victims of 1972 during the Olympic Games. But
the IOC has always decided against.
Triggered by the attack 1972 and another assassination during the Olympic Summer Games
1996 in Atlanta with two killed and 111 injured people, the safety measures have become
stricter in an extreme way. The Olympic summer Games in London 2012 have become the
biggest British military action since the Korean War.