Germany has agreed a five-fold increase in its compensation offer to the Israeli families of the 1972 Munich Olympic massacre victims, salvaging next Monday’s memorial in the Bavarian capital.
On September 5th 1972 armed Palestinian terrorists invaded Munich’s Olympic Village and took the Israeli team hostage.
With 900 million people watching worldwide, the live hostage drama ended 24 hours later with a bungled rescue attempt that left 11 Israelis, five Palestinians and a German police officer dead.
Last month families of the Israeli victims vowed to boycott the memorial in protest over ongoing secrecy over what exactly happened 50 years ago – and a €5.4 million compensation offer they said was an “insult”.
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Germany has now reportedly offered families €28 million – €22 million of which would come from the federal government.
In a statement on Wednesday the German government confirmed the agreement but declined to confirm the amount, saying the talks with families’ representatives were confidential.
“With this agreement, the German state acknowledges its responsibility and recognises the terrible suffering of the murdered [athletes] and their families,” it said.
Volker Beck, president of the German-Israeli Society in Berlin, said he was “hopeful that this will really come together and not stumble over German stinginess”.
In 1972 West Germany made payments to relatives totalling around 4.2 million German deutschmarks (about €2 million), and another €3million was paid in 2002.
Relatives’ representatives reportedly demanded $165 million and suggested Berlin orient its compensation payments on the much higher pay-outs after the Lockerbie air disaster.
New evidence suggests that, as with that 1988 plane bombing in Scotland, Libya financed the Munich attack 16 years earlier.
Given that, Israeli relatives suggested additional compensation payments could be financed from confiscated Libyan state funds.
Germany insisted its original €5.4 million offer was already at the “highest threshold” for terrorism cases.
As well as settling compensation payments, Berlin said it had agreed an overall concept for a commission of German and Israeli historians to investigate original files and other material related to the 1972 attack.
“In doing so, Germany is fulfilling its historical obligation towards the victims and their families,” said Steffen Hebestreit, German federal government spokesman.
German president Frank-Walter Steinmeier is expected to issue the first official German apology for the massacre at next week’s ceremony.
“The agreement cannot heal all the wounds,” said Mr Steinmeier in a statement on Wednesday, “but it opens a door”.
Israeli media reported that the families had signalled their intention to accept the offer and attend the Munich event.
