The relatives of the eleven Israelis killed at the time are threatening to boycott the commemoration ceremony marking the 50th anniversary of the Munich Olympics attack. “None of us will come unless the question of compensation is finally clarified,” said Ankie Spitzer, the spokeswoman for the bereaved, of the “SZ”. 50 years after the games in September and the assassination, the city of Munich is planning a commemoration event to which the families of the victims should also be invited.
According to Spitzer, the bereaved are demanding “normal compensation according to international standards”. As a precedent, the relatives refer to the compensation payments for the Lockerbie attack, in which ten million US dollars were later paid per victim. However, the federal government considers the compensation procedures to be complete, the report said, citing government circles.
There has been a dispute over the question of financial compensation beyond payments already made for many years. The bereaved have also been vehemently committed to dealing with the background and consequences of the assassination for decades.
At the Olympic Games in Munich on September 5, 1972, Palestinian assassins stormed the Israeli accommodation and took hostages. The events later shifted to the Fürstenfeldbruck airfield near Munich. The assassins wanted to fly out to Cairo in Egypt. The attempt to free the hostages ended in disaster. In the end, eleven Olympic participants, a Bavarian police officer and five terrorists were dead.
