Report: International Olympic Committee pledges funds for 'Munich massacre' memorial

Munich based Suddeutsche Zeitung says the IOC plans to contribute $250,000 to memorial for the 1972 terror attack.

By JPOST.COM STAFF
The 11 Israeli athletes killed in 1972 Munich attack 370 (R) (photo credit: REUTERS / Handout)
The 11 Israeli athletes killed in 1972 Munich attack 370 (R)
(photo credit: REUTERS / Handout)
The memory of the Israeli Olympians killed during the 1972 Olympics will be honored with a memorial in Munich and the International Olympic Committee (IOC) has pledged substantial funds for the project.
According to a report in the Munich based Suddeutsche Zeitung, the IOC plans to contribute 250,000 US dollars to the memorial that will focus on the biographies of the victims that were killed in the incident that came to be known as the "Munich massacre." 
 
On September 5, 1972, members of the Israeli Olympic team were taken hostage at the poorly secured athletes' village by Palestinian gunmen from the Black September group.
Within 24 hours, 11 Israelis, five Palestinians and a German policeman were dead after a standoff and subsequent rescue effort erupted into gunfire. 
Michael Vesper, the Director General of the German Olympic Sports Confederation wrote in a letter to State Minister of Education and Culture for Bavaria Ludwig Spaenle, that IOC President Thomas Bach had authorized the contribution to the memorial project, according to the report in the Suddeutsche Zeitung.
The biographies of the victims will be at the center of a pavilion like memorial site, to be built between the Olympic village and the Olympic Stadium in Munich, according to the report. 
The IOC refused to hold a minute of silence at the 2012 London games for the murdered Israeli athletes from 1972.
“The IOC has paid tribute to the memory of the athletes who tragically died in Munich in 1972 on several occasions and will continue to do so,” Emmanuelle Moreau, IOC head of media relations, told the Post before the London games in 2012.