New report reveals the depth of brutality at Munich Games

Relatives of the 11 Israeli team members who were murdered by Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) terrorists during the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich have revealed new details of the grizzly attack—including how the Israelis were brutalized, and one in case even castrated, by the terrorists.

In 1972, six Israeli coaches and five athletes were taken hostage and then murdered by the PLO terror group Black September after a pre-dawn attack on their apartment in the Olympic Village. 

The family members of the victims only learned the details of how they were treated nearly 20 years after the massacre, when German authorities released reports of the attack that the authorities previously denied existed, the New York Times reported.

“The terrorists always claimed that they didn’t come to murder anyone—they only wanted to free their friends from prison in Israel,” said Ankie Spitzer, widow of Andre Spitzer, one of the murdered Israeli coaches. “They said it was only because of the botched-up rescue operation at the airport that they killed the rest of the hostages, but it’s not true. They came to hurt people. They came to kill.”

After decades of failed attempts, the families of the slain Israeli athletes recently finally gained recognition from the International Olympic Committee (IOC). There will be a moment of remembrance for the athletes at the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, and the IOC will also fund a permanent memorial to the athletes in Munich.“In Jewish law and tradition, cemeteries are sacred places that must not be disturbed,” Kestenbaum said. “The site is a cemetery, plain and simple, and it needs to be preserved as such in keeping with Jewish tradition.”

From JNS.org