The German president apologized for the failures in connection with the massacre in Munich – Topky.sk

As AP reported, Steinmeier said this in a speech as part of a mourning ceremony at the Fürstenfeldbruck air base near Munich, which was the site of a failed attempt to rescue the hostages 50 years ago. Nine Israeli athletes, one West German policeman and five attackers were killed in it. The ceremony – also attended by Israeli President Yitzchak Herzog – took place just days after an agreement ended a long dispute over compensation for victims and survivors. In his speech, Steinmeier declared that Germany must bear some responsibility for the attack half a century ago. He turned to the relatives of the victims and, as head of state and on behalf of the Federal Republic of Germany, asked them to forgive them for insufficient protection of Israeli athletes during the Olympic Games in Munich and for insufficient clarification of the situation after the tragedy. In his speech, the German president stated that German police had “catastrophically failed” in protecting Israeli athletes and rescuing them after they were taken hostage by a Palestinian commando. Photo gallery (2) Source: SITA/Jana Birošová As part of the aforementioned agreement, Germany agreed to acknowledge the mistakes of its authorities at the time and allow German and Israeli historians to examine the events related to the attack. The settlement also includes payments already made. Immediately after the attack, Germany paid out approximately 4.19 million marks (about two million euros) to relatives of the victims, according to its interior ministry. In 2002, the surviving relatives received another three million euros, the German news agency DPA reported. According to Steinmeier, Palestinian militants are responsible for the murders Steinmeier noted in his speech that Palestinian militants and their Libyan helpers are directly responsible for the murders. According to him, it is a bitter fact that “no word of sympathy, no word of regret will be heard today” from the political representatives of these countries. The AP agency recalled the recent statement of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. When asked if he would apologize to Israel for the attack by Palestinian terrorists in Munich, Abbas replied that “Israel has carried out 50 massacres in 50 Palestinian locations since 1947 until today” and called these attacks “50 holocausts”. The attack, which took place on September 5, 1972 during the Munich Olympics, was committed by eight members of the Palestinian terrorist organization Black September. In total, 11 Israeli athletes lost their lives – two directly in the Olympic village and the remaining nine during a shootout with the police at the Fürstenfeldbruck airport, from where the Palestinians wanted to take them out of Germany. An operation to free the hostages was supposed to take place at this airport: however, when the snipers opened fire, the attackers threw a grenade into one of the helicopters with the hostages, which exploded, and shot the hostages in the other helicopter. In exchange for the hostages, the kidnappers demanded the release of more than 200 Palestinians held by Israel and freedom for two German left-wing extremists imprisoned in West German prisons. They also demanded a plane and a safe departure to Cairo.