Panel of historians begins 3-year evaluation of 1972 Munich Olympics assault

BERLIN (AP) — A panel of historians set as much as evaluation the 1972 assault on the Munich Olympics is beginning its three-year mission to look at what occurred earlier than, throughout and after the occasions of 5 many years in the past on Tuesday, the German authorities mentioned.

In April, Germany’s Interior Ministry named the eight-member worldwide fee of consultants, most primarily based in Israel or Germany. That was a part of an settlement final 12 months with relations of the 11 Israeli workforce members who have been killed by Palestinian militants.

The panel’s first assembly was being held on the Interior Ministry on Tuesday. Interior Minister Nancy Faeser pledged that “the events surrounding this terrible attack will finally be examined thoroughly and transparently.”

“The research findings should deliver answers to the many unresolved questions — answers which the German government has owed the victims’ family members and the public for more than 50 years,” Faeser mentioned in an announcement. Her ministry mentioned there could be “regular publications and events.”

In September, German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier apologized for a number of German failures earlier than, throughout and after the assault as he joined his Israeli counterpart and relations of the slain athletes at a ceremony marking the fiftieth anniversary.

Days earlier, an settlement for the relations to obtain a complete of 28 million euros ($30 million) in compensation headed off a threatened boycott of the occasion. The sum included a lot smaller funds made earlier.

Germany additionally agreed to acknowledge failures by authorities on the time and to arrange the skilled evaluation.

On Sept. 5, 1972, eight members of a Palestinian group known as Black September clambered over the Olympic village’s unguarded fence. They burst into the constructing the place the Israeli workforce was staying, killing wrestling coach Moshe Weinberg and weightlifter Yossi Romano.

Some Israeli athletes managed to flee however 9 have been seized. The captors demanded the discharge of greater than 200 Palestinians held by Israel and two German left-wing extremists in West German prisons.

The attackers demanded a aircraft and secure passage to Cairo. After a day of negotiations, the assailants and their hostages have been allowed to go away aboard two helicopters for the Fuerstenfeldbruck airfield, exterior Munich.