German president Frank-Walter Steinmeier apologises for 1972 Olympic terrorist attack failures

German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier apologized to the Israeli athletes' relatives

It is reported by DW.

We will remind that the athletes died from a terrorist attack during the Olympics in Munich in 1972.

The head of Germany addressed the people of Israel during a ceremony to honor the memory of the victims at the air base in Fürstenfeldbruck on Monday, September 5.

"We cannot make up for what happened; we cannot make up for the obstruction, ignorance, and injustice you experienced and suffered. That shames me," the president said.

"As the head of state of this country and in the name of the Federal Republic of Germany, I ask your forgiveness for the woefully inadequate protection afforded to the Israeli athletes at the Olympic Games in Munich and for the woefully inadequate investigation afterwards — for the fact that it was possible for what happened to happen," Steinmeier added.

The prime minister of the federal state of Bavaria, Markus Söder, also asked for forgiveness from the victims' relatives.

"I apologize on behalf of the Free State of Bavaria for the mistakes and omissions made at that time," the politician said during the event.

The day before, the President of Germany called it a shame that it took five decades to reach an agreement on the payment of financial compensation to the families of the deceased athletes.

A compensation agreement was reached on August 31.

Germany will pay relatives a total of 28 million euros:

• 22.5 million will be provided by the government of Germany,
• 5 million euros and 500 thousand euros, respectively, will come from the budgets of Bavaria and the city of Munich.

Israeli President Isaac Herzog, currently in Germany on a state visit, welcomed the agreement.

He called it "an important, fair and moral step."

It will be recalled that earlier, Germany filed a lawsuit against Italy at the UN International Court of Justice because Italy continued to allow victims of Nazi war crimes to demand compensation from Germany.