- Saudi crown prince says no Israel ties without Palestinian state
- Canada to further cut international student, foreign worker permits
- YouTube launches new TV-focused tools for creators
- White Sox heading for worst season in MLB history
- China the top challenge in US history: senior diplomat
- Hong Kong democracy tycoon's son warns time running out
- New migraine drugs no better than cheap painkillers: big study
- Sean 'Diddy' Combs again denied bail in sex trafficking case
- Brewers clinch division title as MLB playoff race heats up
- Man City blunted by 'giant' Inter in Champions League stalemate
- US stocks dip despite larger Fed interest rate cut
- Man City held by Inter as PSG pinch win in Champions League
- All Blacks recall Beauden Barrett for Australia Test
- Fears of all-out war as new Lebanon device blasts kill 20, wound 450
- Spurs late show saves Postecoglou blushes at Coventry
- PSG snatch late goal to beat Champions League debutants Girona
- Gittens' late double gives Dortmund Champions League win at Brugge
- Man City blunted by Inter in Champions League stalemate
- Hidden talent: French Olympic star Marchand opts for disguise
- MrBeast named in California lawsuit over 'Beast Games' show
- Gauff splits with Gilbert as coach after 14-month run
- Hundreds of thousands at risk in Sudan's El-Fasher: UN
- Harvey Weinstein pleads not guilty to new sex crime charge
- Venezuelan opposition candidate says letter conceding election was coerced
- Ukraine official claims Russian advance in Kursk has been 'stopped'
- X update allows app to bypass Brazil ban: internet providers
- Fears of all-out war as new Lebanon device blasts kill 14, wound 450
- US Fed makes aggressive rate cut, weeks before election
- Arsenal's Odegaard faces lengthy injury absence
- India coal expansion risks massive methane growth: report
- China the top challenge in US history, top diplomat says
- US Fed makes larger half-point cut in first reduction since 2020
- Ronaldo's Al Nassr appoint former AC Milan boss Pioli
- Ainslie 'relieved' as British book place in Louis Vuitton Cup final
- Struggling Roma replace sacked icon De Rossi with Ivan Juric
- Women's NBA will add 15th team in Portland in 2026
- Brazil fires need harsher punishment: environmental police boss
- Boeing to start large temporary furloughs amid Seattle strike
- Fears of all-out war as new Lebanon device blasts kill nine, wound 300
- 'Emergency' declared over falling UK butterfly numbers
- McIlroy outlines threats to golf peace deal
- Stock markets, dollar slip before US rate decision
- Russian advance in Kursk 'stopped': Ukraine official to AFP
- UN members demand end to 'unlawful' Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories
- Snapchat pushes 'safer' platform image, but not everyone agrees
- Three dead, 100 wounded in new wave of Lebanon device explosions
- So where does the oceans' plastic waste come from?
- Allied war heroes buried in Netherlands... 80 years on
- Marsh coy over Australia's choice to open alongside Head
- New London sculpture pays tribute to trans community
CMSC | 0.02% | 25.055 | $ | |
SCS | 0.71% | 14.11 | $ | |
RIO | -0.02% | 62.91 | $ | |
CMSD | -0.12% | 24.98 | $ | |
NGG | -0.46% | 70.05 | $ | |
RBGPF | 5.79% | 60.5 | $ | |
GSK | -0.31% | 42.43 | $ | |
BCE | 3.09% | 35.61 | $ | |
AZN | 0.06% | 78.58 | $ | |
JRI | 0.45% | 13.44 | $ | |
BTI | -0.34% | 37.88 | $ | |
BCC | 1.33% | 137.06 | $ | |
BP | -0.37% | 32.43 | $ | |
RYCEF | 1.37% | 6.55 | $ | |
VOD | 0.49% | 10.23 | $ | |
RELX | -0.82% | 47.37 | $ |
'Memories of war' returned, witness of 1972 Olympics attack recounts
Klaus Langhoff experienced World War II as a child and found memories of the carnage flooding back when he went to Munich in 1972 as a handballer captaining East Germany at the Olympics.
Langhoff and his teammates were staying just across from the apartment block that Palestinian gunmen stormed into on September 5, 1972, taking the Israeli team hostage.
As the day wore on, he witnessed helplessly the terrifying scenes unfolding from his balcony -- from gunmen dropping the lifeless body of an Israeli coach on the street to the tense negotiations carried out between the hostage-takers and the West German police.
"It was like part of a war," said Langhoff, who had seen corpses of German soldiers lying in hastily dug graves as a six-year-old.
"These memories of the war came back" when he saw the hostage takers carrying out the body of Israeli wrestling coach Moshe Weinberg and leaving it on the street, he told AFP.
The shock had been doubly hard to bear as the Games had started off so well, said Langhoff, who still cuts an imposing figure at the age of 82.
Langhoff had counted among the few East German citizens who were permitted to head abroad for the first time and had arrived in Munich "with great expectations".
The first week at the Olympics was "so excellent, so joyful," Langhoff recounted.
But that ended abruptly when the team's secretary general woke him up at 5:30 am.
"He came to me in the room and said 'Klaus, inform all the other players. Over there at the Israelis' lodgings, there's been a shooting and a terror attack'," said Langhoff.
- 'Grenade' -
The East Germans were initially told to stay well away from the windows and to remain inside.
But it soon became clear that they were not the target, so Langhoff began looking out and going on the balcony where he took photographs of the terror.
Pointing to one of the photographs, Langhoff said he saw a member of the Palestinian militant group Black September patrolling the roof "with a Kalashnikov ready to fire".
Below, guarding the front door "was always someone, probably the head of this terrorist group, who always had a hand grenade in his hand."
During a scuffle, coach Weinberg was shot and killed.
His body lay on the street "for a long time until they took him away," said Langhoff.
"It was awful. Whenever we looked out of the window or on the balcony, we saw this dead athlete there."
Weightlifter Yossef Romano was also shot dead, while another nine Israelis were taken hostage.
But West German police's bungled rescue operation ended with all nine hostages killed, along with five of the eight hostage-takers and a police officer.
- 'Games must go on' -
With the Games suspended for the first time in Olympic history, the team prepared for a complete cancellation.
However, they were halted for only 34 hours, with then-IOC President Avery Brundage declaring "the Games must go on".
Langhoff said it was "doubly difficult" for his side to focus on their sporting objectives after the attacks.
The team lost against the Soviet Union and ultimately finished fourth.
Despite the harrowing experience, the team found little understanding from the East German public upon returning home.
"Only medals counted," he recalled. "For us in the GDR (East Germany), finishing fourth was a shock to the system. I mean, there wasn't a prison camp, but only places one to three were financially rewarded."
The East German government, allied with the PLO and hostile to Israel, officially called the hostage-taking a "tragedy", while there was hardly any mention of the atrocity in the media.
The Communist authorities "completely ignored this attack and didn't include us in any evaluations or anything else… (they) were only concerned with being successful in the competition," Langhoff said.
- 'Incomprehensible' -
But the West German government was also criticised for failing to acknowledge responsibility for the disaster.
In 2012, Israel released 45 official documents on the killings, including specially declassified material, which lambasted the performance of the German security services.
Included in the reports is an official account from the former Israeli intelligence head Zvi Zamir who said the German police "didn't make even a minimal effort to save human lives".
Relatives of victims have over the years battled to obtain an official apology from Germany, access to official documents and appropriate compensation beyond the 4.5 million euros ($4.5 million) provided in 2002.
Only on Wednesday, 50 years after the atrocity, did Germany reach a compensation deal of 28 million euros with relatives.
Germany's official in charge of fighting anti-Semitism, Felix Klein, also said it "time for an apology", adding that he believed German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier "will find the right words" at the 50th anniversary commemoration event on Monday.
"In retrospect, there were great omissions in the process of reckoning with the terror," Langhoff said.
"I don't even want to get started with the financial aspect. But even morally there are many things that are just incomprehensible."
M.Odermatt--BTB