Anti-Semitism officer expects Steinmeier to apologize for terror at the Olympics

The federal government's anti-Semitism commissioner is expecting an apology from Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier at the commemoration ceremony marking the 50th anniversary of the 1972 Olympics attack. "I think it's time for an apology, and I think the Federal President will be at the commemoration ceremony on Monday find the right words,” said Felix Klein to the newspapers of the Funke media group. The surviving relatives of the victims had also demanded such an apology.

On September 5, 1972, Palestinian terrorists attacked the Israeli team at the Olympic Games in Munich. Eleven members of the team and one police officer were killed during the failed rescue operation by the police at the Fürstenfeldbruck air base. The safety precautions were considered inadequate. Adequate compensation for the bereaved has been a struggle for decades and an agreement has now been reached.

The act of terrorism and "everything that followed after that was a state failure on the German side," said Klein. It is therefore "almost a miracle" that bilateral relations between Germany and Israel have not suffered any major damage. The commemoration event takes place in the presence of the relatives of the murdered athletes and the Israeli President Yitzchak Herzog at the Fürstenfeldbruck air base.

Klein also fears a new wave of anti-Semitic acts this fall because of the social situation. “In times of crisis, people are more and more vulnerable to anti-Semitism. Unfortunately, blaming Jews for crises is a pattern in Germany,” he said. "You can feel something is brewing."

"I'm very worried that we will see a new wave of anti-Semitic incidents or even criminal offenses in the fall," emphasized Klein: "That groups, whether from the left or the right, are uniting in hatred of Jews or undifferentiated criticism of Israel, the have nothing else in common than social dissatisfaction.” But he is confident that there are courageous civil society forces who will oppose this and stand up for democracy, he emphasized.