Olympics-Israeli victims of 1972 Games honored 44 years on

Reuters

After years of refusing requests by 1972 Munich Olympic Israeli athletes’ widows to mark a moment’s silence for their murdered husbands, IOC inaugurates Place of Mourning for every Olympics and observe moment’s silence in Rio de Janeiro ; Wife: ‘This gives us closure.’

Widows of two of the 11 Israelis killed by Palestinian gunmen at the 1972 Munich Olympics got the recognition that they had so long sought with a ceremony and minute’s silence at the Olympic village in Rio de Janeiro on Wednesday.

Ankie Spitzer’s husband Andre, a fencing coach, was killed along with weightlifter Joseph Romano, whose wife Ilana Romano was also at the ceremony led by International Olympic Committee (IOC) President Thomas Bach.

Ilana Romano, center, and Ankie Spitzer, right, widows of Israeli Olympic athletes killed at the 1972 Munich Olympics,
attend a memorial in their husbands’ honor, ahead of the Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro (Photo: AP)

“This is closure for us. This is incredibly important. We waited 44 years to have this remembrance and recognition for our loved ones who were so brutally killed in Munich,” Spitzer told reporters at the newly established Place of Mourning. “That they would be really accepted as members of the Olympic family. It is what we wanted because they were members of the Olympic family.”

A tree filled with ribbons stands as part of a memorial in honor of Israeli Olympic athletes killed by Palestinian gunmen
at the 1972 Munich Olympics (Photo: AP)

On September 5, 1972, members of the Israeli Olympic team were taken hostage at the poorly secured athletes’ village by Palestinian gunmen from the Black September terror organization.

Within 24 hours, 11 Israelis, five Palestinians and a German policeman were dead after a standoff and subsequent rescue effort erupted into gunfire.

A memorial in honor of Israeli Olympic athletes killed by Palestinian gunmen at the 1972 Munich Olympics stands in the
Olympic Village ahead of the Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro (Photo: AP)

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