The Cheerful Games

The following article is part of a blogburst - a simultaneous and cross-linked posting of many blogs on the same theme. This blogburst commemorates the Munich Olympics Massacre which began in the dawn hour of September 5th, 1972. Go to the The Index of the Munich Massacre Blogburst to find links to all the other articles.

Since the attack took place in Germany I was curious to see how the German press is looking back on the events. Recall that 1972 was only 27 years after the end of World War II, which means that the war was closer to the time of the Olympics than the Olympics are to the present time. This was the first Olympics held in Germany since Hitler cast his shadow over the Berlin Olympics of 1936. For Germans, the Munich Olympics were very much an opportunity to move beyond the Nazi legacy and to demonstrate that they were a normal country again. The official motto for the event was Heitere Spiele, Cheerful Games

I found this very comprehensive site , of uncertain authorship which calls itself "the unofficial homepage of the cheerful and tragic Munich games". It devotes a few pages to what it calls "The Olympic Tragedy". It includes background information, a detailed chronology, reactions from around the world and photographs. Especially chilling are the photographs of the terrorists.

This article from the Reuters German service, dated Sept 1, 2002, is headlined Thirty years after the Munich Olympic attack there are many open questions The article is written from a German perspective.

Heinz Hohensinn can't forget the scene to this day "It was the most horrible moment of my life," said the former policeman about the [failed rescue] operation "The worst was when my colleague was killed next to me. He was a family man with two children"

and it continues

38 [sic] years after the Nazis misappropriated the 1936 Berlin Olympics, West Germany wanted to put on the Cheerful Games in Munich. It took a considerable effort for many Israelis to travel to Germany. Police chief Manfred Schreiber deliberately minimized the security measures in the Olympic Village. He didn't want any barbed wire and guard posts to evoke memories of the concentration camps in the former "capital of the movement"

and the lack of adequate security is what made it so easy for the terrorists to enter the village. Moving on to the shootout at the airport, the authorities reject the criticism that they acted amateurishly.

Nevertheless, many open questions remain. The police weren't prepared for such an operation, said Guenter Krause from the Interior Ministry. Hohensinn said that some of the equipment dated back to the Second World War. Then there was a series of mishaps: The sharpshooters didn't have radios, the officers who were in the airplane dressed as flight crew left the plane of their own accord. The Palestinians were able to watch the first rescue attempt in the dormitory on television. Shortly after the massacre the government learned from the consequences and formed the elite GSG-9 unit for future operations

Sueddeutsche Zeitung, the main Munich newspaper ran this piece on August 31, which is the recollections of Olov Enquist, a Swedish author and journalist who covered and wrote a book about the 1972 games. His article is harshly critical of the amateurish German security and the decision of the Olympic organizers to rush to end the hostage crisis so the games could resume. He ends

They died and the games died with them. Nothing in hindsight could have saved those who died on the military airfield, where they were shot, because the games had to go on.

Posted by Stefan Sharkansky at September 05, 2002 06:22 AM