Posted on 09/06/2012 1:17:07 PM PDT by Impala64ssa
Ankie Spitzer spoke at a memorial in Germany yesterday, commemorating the 40th anniversary of the Munich massacre.
Spitzer is the widow of Andre Spitzer, one of the 11 Israeli athletes killed by Palestinian terrorists at the 1972 Olympic games.
The tragedy was marked with a ceremony at the Furstenfeldbruck airfield in Munich, where the final showdown between German police and the terrorists took place four decades ago.
In her remarks, Spitzer criticized the International Olympic Committee, which refused to honor the occasion with a moment of silence at the opening ceremony of this summer’s London games. She criticized "the incompetence, the stupidity and the arrogance" of officials who should have protected the slain athletes.
"Today 40 years ago, our lives changed forever," she added. "For us, the families of the victims and for those of the 1972 Israeli Olympic delegation who were fortunate enough to escape the massacre, Munich and Germany will be forever connected to that darkest day in our lives.”
Dieter Graumann, head of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, also had harsh words for the IOC, criticizing the committee’s ultimate decision to continue the Olympics after the 11 murders.
"I will never forget 'The Games must go on' of [then-IOC head] Avery Brundage," Graumann said. "I understood the words as, 'Who cares that the Jews are gone?'"
"That day wasn't an attack against Israel, wasn't an attack against Jews," added Charlotte Knobloch, head of Munich's Jewish community. "It was an attack against us all. Against the Olympic idea, the vision of freedom and peace for all human beings."
Germany's Interior Minister Hans-Peter Friedrich addressed the gathering as well.
"We — the ones who had and have a special obligation to protect Israel — we were not able to protect the Israeli athletes," Friedrich said. "Were we too naive? Did we underestimate the dangers? These are questions that remain. We were not able to protect those who had come to Germany, unsuspectingly and peacefully, three decades after the Holocaust."
The memorial was also attended by Israeli Deputy Prime Minster Silvan Shalom and surviving members of the 1972 Israeli Olympic team
Brundage was a notorious anti-Semite, who left US Jewish athletes off the team to appease Hitler in 1936.
One of those moments I’ll never forget
The late great Jim McKay, exhausted . .”They’re all gone”
I was only 13, but even I knew the world changed that day - and not for the better.
And that Keystone Cops performance by the German Police. What a joke, it was like Obama was leading them.
To be fair, at that time, there were few organizations and agencies in the world trained to respond to that type of threat...perhaps the SAS, the FFL by virtue of their North Africa experience in the 60's, American SF, by virtue of their experience in Viet Nam, or the Israelis themselves.
Most European counter-terrorist organizations (GIGN, GSG9, etc.)were founded, at least in part, as a response to the Munich Massacre. Even LAPD SWAT had only gone operational a year or so earlier.
i was always fascinated by what happened and did a lot of research into the subject...ESPN Classic ran an hour special all day yesterday which mixed together clips of the ABC broadcast of September 5th, 1972- unreal....
Simon Reeve's “One Day in September” is an absolute must for anyone with an interest in the topic...
while Avery Brundage was a POS you cannot blame the IOC for continuing with the games...if they stopped the games short Black September would’ve won a bigger victory...many Jews and Israeli leaders also came out and said the games should’ve continued...
Ankie Spitzer has been the most outspoken relative on the Munich massacre since ‘72...its ironic but she's stated several times she was flabbergasted when Golda Mier (spell) called the families of the victims to the Kinissett (spell) telling them Israel would seek revenge for the murders of the loved ones (which Spitzer did not want) yet she's outspoken on being against the games continuing on...
And never forget the heroes’ welcome one of the surviving terrorists received in Libya. That’s one reason I don’t mourn Kadaffy (although those who did him in, still would have supported the terrorists).
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