Israeli athletes’ visit to Munich memorial
German guard detained for Hitler salute
A German security guard has been arrested for making a Hitler salute in front of a group of Israeli athletes visiting a memorial to the 1972 Munich Olympics massacre, police said last Wednesday.
The 16 athletes, who were from the Israeli European Championships team, were visiting the Olympic Park in Munich last Tuesday evening when the banned gesture was made, police said in a statement.
“One of the four security guards present was observed at around 7.20pm making a National Socialist gesture [forbidden ‘Hitler salute’],” the statement said.
Police immediately arrested the suspect, a 19-year-old from Berlin, and he has been banned from all further European Championships events.
The athletes themselves had not noticed the gesture, police said.
The arrest comes at a sensitive time, with Munich hosting the European Championships ahead of the 50th anniversary of the Olympics massacre, in which 11 Israelis were murdered.
On September 5, 1972, eight gunmen broke into the Israeli team’s apartment at the Olympic village, shooting dead two and taking nine Israelis hostage, threatening to kill them unless 232 Palestinian prisoners were released.
West German police responded with a bungled rescue operation in which all nine hostages were killed, along with five of the eight hostage-takers and a police officer.
The families of those killed have received 4.5 million euros in compensation, but have said it is not enough, and are vowing to boycott upcoming commemorations of the tragedy.
German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier is considering flying to Israel in a bid to convince the families of the Munich victims to attend commemorations in Germany after they decided they would boycott the events, Hebrew media reported last week.
The families of the 11 Israeli athletes killed in Munich are refusing to attend after rejecting a German compensation offer as insulting.
According to reports, Steinmeier’s potential visit to the victims’ families was spurred by Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’ remarks that Israel has carried out “50 Holocausts” against Palestinians and the subsequent controversy over Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s lack of immediate reaction.
TIMES OF ISRAEL, AFP
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