IOC Pays Tribute to Munich Games Victims

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Graves of the five victims of the Munich massacre

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) paid a surprise tribute to the 11 Israeli team members who were killed at the 1972 Munich Games on Monday, 23 July 2012, marking the event for the first time in an Olympic village.

IOC President Jacques Rogge, who previously had ruled out marking the 40th anniversary of the Munich massacre at the London Games opening ceremony, said the 11 victims deserved to be remembered

The Memory of the Attack

Germany was warned about a possible terror attack against Israeli athletes one month before the Munich Olympics in 1972, Der Spiegel reported.

The weekly magazine reported Sunday on its website that though solid warnings of an attack plan were received a month before the Games, no action was taken.
The Palestinian terrorists, for example, were able to walk by the apartments of the Israeli athletes without being stopped.

One of the helcopter destroyed in 1972

Der Spiegel also reported that German police had prepared possible scenarios for a terror attack at the Games, including one that dealt specifically with a Palestinian attack on the Olympic village, but after the attack the police said there were no written documents of the preparations and German authorities tried to cover up their failures.

The story is based on reports of the post-attack inquiry, minutes from German Cabinet meetings and documents from government bodies obtained by Der Spiegel.