Germany Reaches Compensation Agreement Over Munich Olympics Massacre

Facts

• Just days before marking the 50th anniversary of the 1972 Munich Olympics massacre, family members of the victims on Wed. reached a compensation settlement with the German government.
• On Sept. 5, 1972, the Palestinian group Black September stormed into the Olympic Village and killed two Israeli athletes while taking another nine as hostages. The group sought to negotiate the release of over 230 Palestinian prisoners being held in Israel as well as the founders of the left-wing militant Baader–Meinhof Group then held in West Germany. All nine hostages and a West German police officer were killed amid a failed rescue attempt.
• Germany reportedly increased its settlement offer to the victims' families to €28M, up from €10M. The German government is expected to pay €22.5M, with the state of Bavaria and the city of Munich paying €5M and €500k respectively. This latest payment is in addition to 4.19M German marks (roughly €2M) paid to victims' families immediately after the attacks, along with a further €3M paid in 2002.
• A provision of the agreement will also provide for the release of historical files on the massacre, which saw 11 Israelis killed. The files will be worked on by a joint commission of both German and Israeli historians.
• Negotiations over the amount of compensation that should be paid have been contentious between the two countries, who have worked to build a strong relationship in the decades since Israel's founding in 1948. Israel was established three years after the Nazi Holocaust, during which approximately 6M Jews were murdered.
• Before this settlement, family members of the victims had planned to show their discontent over the latest compensation offer by boycotting the memorial ceremony.

Sources: Guardian, US News, Washington Post, and Axios.

Narratives

• Narrative A, as provided by Reuters. This newly agreed settlement marks a major turning point for victims' families who have had to endure decades of suffering with no admittance of culpability by authorities. Negotiations, and the much larger compensation offer to those affected by the tragedy, reflect a public acknowledgement of security failings that led to the loss of innocent life.
• Narrative B, as provided by New York Times. Too much focus on the monetary compensation reached in this deal stains the legacy of Munich massacre victims. Families were not only negotiating for financial settlement but to ensure the legacy and memory of those murdered. A full investigation must now follow into the lapses that allowed such a tragedy to occur.