opinion
BY JOSEPH FRAGER
Memories of the Munich
Massacre Avi1111 / commons.wikimedia
A s the world was amazed by the superhuman
achievements of the proud Jewish swimmer
Mark Spitz at the Munich Olympics in 1972, Muslim
terrorists aligned with the Black September
organization shocked Western civilization and
threw it into chaos and turmoil by murdering 11
Israeli athletes.

The Olympics, which were supposed to bring
all nations together, had been hijacked by evil
incarnate. At the time, I thought the Munich Olympics
should have been canceled. Munich was not far
from the Dachau concentration camp. Memories
of the Holocaust were still fresh in everyone’s
minds. It was only 36 years after Hitler tried to
use the Berlin Olympics to fool the world about
his intentions.

Spitz was the highlight of the Munich Games.

I was certain at the time that Black September,
aligned with Yasser Arafat’s PLO, which had been
forcibly expelled from Jordan by King Hussein
in 1970-1971, targeted the Munich Olympics
precisely because of Spitz. After the Games
resumed, Spitz had to be heavily guarded. The
Black September terrorists had joined with the
German neo-Nazi Baader-Meinhof Group, aka
the Red Army Faction, to carry out their barbaric
and nefarious deeds.

After 50 years, Germany has fi nally apologized
for its actions. Its mistakes were numerous:
Failure to protect the Olympic Village and spe-
cifi cally the Israelis, as well as a bungled rescue
attempt. They were made even more galling
because Germany had been responsible for the
worst genocide ever perpetrated by man against
the Jewish people.

Germany should have insisted on canceling the
Games. The International Olympic Committee
should have stopped them then and there.

The IOC had a responsibility to at least com-
memorate and memorialize the 11 Israelis and
one German who had been killed. But it took
them 44 years before they did so in 2016 and
held a moment of silence before the 2020
games. These were steps in the right direction,
but not nearly enough. I propose that just as the
names of the victims of 9/11 are read every year
in a very public display, so should the names of
the 12 killed in 1972 be read before and during
the Games. Kaddish should be recited by a
family member. The memorialization has to be
Munich massacre memorial
Germany should have insisted on canceling the
Games. The International Olympic Committee should
have stopped them then and there.

sincere so that the terrorists never feel as though
they won.

In his movie “Munich,” Steven Spielberg tried
to capture the range of emotions and actions
that the massacre and its aftermath caused.

Unfortunately, the movie went too far toward
a moral equivalency that I do not think was
helpful. The world has never fully recovered from the
Munich massacre. Track runner Frank Shorter,
who won the Olympic marathon in 1972 and
inspired me to become a marathon runner, was
quoted recently saying, “After they killed the
athletes, we thought we were going home. The
marathon got delayed a day. I told [runner] Kenny
Moore, who ended up coming in fourth, that I
was not going to think about terrorists as I ran
because, if I did that, then they win.”
I would have liked Frank Shorter to have said
that he won the marathon to honor his murdered
fellow athletes. Perhaps that is what he meant
when he said “then they win.” He did not want to
give the terrorists any kind of victory.

In any case, the Munich massacre will always
be on the minds of every Israeli athlete who
competes in the Olympics. Many lessons have
been learned after 50 years and many more will
be learned. “Never again” is the goal. JE
Dr. Joseph Frager is chairman of Israel advocacy
for the Rabbinical Alliance of America, chairman
of the executive committee of American Friends
of Ateret Cohanim and executive vice president of
the Israel Heritage Foundation.

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