World Jewish News

Israeli President in Germany to inaugurate memorial center for the Israeli athletes murdered by Palestinians in 1972 at the Muni

Israel’s President Reuven Rivlin will inaugurate Wednesday in Munich a memorial in memory of the 11 Israeli athletes and trainers murdered by Palestinian Black September terrorists during the 1972 Olympics.

German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, together with the Minister-President of Bavaria Horst Seehofer who initiated the event, will accompany President Rivlin in inaugurating the memorial.

“Forty-five years after the massacre, international terrorism continues to threaten and strike innocent civilians. There are still those who see the massacre of the sportsmen as an heroic act,” the President said before departing for Germany.

“The center which we will inaugurate must carry a message for the whole world: There can be no apologizing for terror. Terror must be condemned unequivocally, everywhere. In Barcelona, in London, in Paris, in Berlin, in Jerusalem, everywhere. We, the international community, must stand untied in the struggle against terror, determined to fight and defeat it," Rivlin added.

The Memorial Center will be inaugurated at the 1972 Olympic Village. A memorial wall will be unveiled.

At the inauguration, World Jewish Congress President Ronald Lauder will also be present and address the memorial ceremony in the presence of the athletes’s families. Ilona Romano, widow of Yossef Romano, one of the 11 victims, will also address the event.

Lauder said it was “regrettable that it took nearly half a century after the saddest moment in Olympic history” to reach this point, but lauded the German government for its “role in this significant tribute.”

He also said that life for Jews has changed for the better in Europe over the past 80 years, despite a recent increase in anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism. “We should also be encouraged by the fact that so many European governments are vigilant in their defense of Israel and of all of their citizens, Jews and non-Jews alike,” he added.

Following the inauguration, President Rivlin, accompanied by German President Steinmeier, will visit the Dachau concentration camp where he will lay a wreath at the general memorial before attending a memorial ceremony at the Jewish memorial at the camp. There the Israeli president will pronounce the mourner’s prayer.

EJP