JERUSALEM, Sept 4 (Reuters) – Ankie Spitzer was 26 when her husband Andre, coach of the Israeli fencing team, was killed by Palestinian gunmen at the 1972 Munich Olympics 50 years ago this week, and the memories of her of the day have dominated her life ever since. The attack on the Israeli team by gunmen linked to the Palestinian militant group Black September shocked the world, playing out largely on live television watched by millions of viewers. In the end, 11 members of the Israeli team were killed as well as a German policeman and five of the Palestinian gunmen. German and Olympic authorities faced heavy criticism for their response to the attack. Sign up now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.comSign up “I was only married to Andre for a year and three months, we were a young couple, very much in love with a little baby, you know, we were on top of the world,” Spitzer told Reuters before a ceremony in Germany. Massacre Remembrance Week. “I was with him at the Olympics and I was in the room after they were killed, just a few hours later, and I looked around, everything was covered in blood,” he said. “I told myself…if they can do this, I will never shut up, I will never stop talking about it, just for one reason, so that this never happens again.” When militants infiltrated the unsanctioned Olympic Village in the early hours of September 5, 1972 and stormed Israeli apartments, it was the start of a bloody 24-hour standoff that began with a struggle between the armed and unarmed athletes who tried to defend themselves. The attackers demanded the release of more than 200 Palestinians held in Israeli prisons as well as German Red Army Faction radicals Andreas Baader and Ulrike Meinhof and a plane to the Middle East. After a rescue attempt was called off when police realized it was being broadcast on live television, German authorities then agreed to take the attackers and several hostages to the airport. A further rescue attempt also failed with a firefight breaking out at Furstenfeldbruck Air Base, which eventually ended when the surviving gunmen were captured. Along with other relatives and survivors, Spitzer had initially refused to attend Monday’s ceremony in Munich, angered by what they saw as derisive compensation offers from Germany, until a 28 million euro ($28 million) settlement was reached last week. read more Israeli President Isaac Herzog will attend the ceremony in Munich on Monday with German leaders including President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, but for those who lived through it, the scars will not fade. “For me the trauma of 1972 will remain,” said Ilana Romano, whose weightlifter husband Joseph was another of the athletes killed in the attack. “I hope that people understand better and are ready to do more, and the most important thing is not to support terror and understand that terrorism destroys everything good.” ($1 = 1.0049 euros) Sign up now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.comSign up Written by James Mackenzie. Editor: Hugh Lawson Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
