Dhe federal government has made a new offer of compensation to the families of the victims of the 1972 Olympic attack. But they refuse. “The sum we were offered is insulting,” spokeswoman for the victims’ families, Ankie Spitzer, told the editorial network Germany (RND) on Wednesday. If it stays that way, the relatives would not come to the commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the assassination in early September in Munich.
According to the RND, which relies on information from the families of the victims, the federal government has proposed a total payment of ten million euros to all survivors. Earlier payments from 1972 and 2002 amounting to around four and a half million euros are to be taken into account. According to the report, Spitzer criticized that this did not meet international standards in similar cases. “We never wanted to talk publicly about money, but now we’re forced to do it,” she said.
Victims want to orient themselves to Lockerbie
Ilana Romano, another widow of a murdered athlete, told the evangelical Chrismon magazine that compensation for the bereaved would be fair, based on the Lockerbie assassination of 1988. At that time there had been ten million dollars for each victim of the caused plane crash. Libya played just as central a role in Lockerbie as it did in Munich in 1972, the widow said. Scottish courts rated the attack as a state terrorist act by the Libyan secret service.
According to her, the compensation would not cost Germany anything. Seven billion dollars from Libya were stored in accounts in Germany, which were frozen after the death of dictator Gaddafi in 2011. “With the help of the federal government, part of this money could be released by the responsible sanctions committee of the UN Security Council and paid out to the bereaved,” said Ilano.
According to information from the editorial network, a solution is to be sought in government talks between Germany and Israel by August 15. The Federal Ministry of the Interior announced on Wednesday that “trustful talks” were being held with representatives of the victims’ families. According to this, the federal government, the Free State of Bavaria and the city of Munich should pay.
Further open questions of processing
In the past few weeks there have also been calls from several sides in Germany for higher recognition services, including from the Greens, Bavaria’s anti-Semitism commissioner Ludwig Spaenle (CSU) and the German-Israeli Society (DIG).
In the assassination attempt by Palestinian terrorists in Munich in September 1972, eleven Israeli athletes and coaches and a German policeman were killed. According to the Bavarian anti-Semitism commissioner, the federal government paid those affected 3.2 million Deutschmarks (about 1.6 million euros) that same year.
On the occasion of the upcoming anniversary of the assassination and still open questions of historical processing and classification, the Federal Government has subjected these events and the handling of them to a re-evaluation in the past few weeks, according to the Ministry of the Interior. The result is an overall concept with the pillars of processing, remembering and recognizing. The commemoration should be an occasion for a “clear political classification of the events of 1972”.
A central element is the establishment of a commission of German and Israeli historians. It is about a comprehensive processing of the events. This is also a requirement of the bereaved.
