OpEd: Munich Memorial Showcases Complications of History

(ATR) Growing up with supplementary Jewish education you learned quite about the Munich 1972 Olympics.

The Games were an example of both the highest of highs and the lowest of lows for the Jewish experience.

First, you are taught that Mark Spitz executed the greatest individual Olympic performance of all time. This was before Michael Phelps went to Beijing, so Spitz’s accomplishment of seven gold medals in Munich stood above the rest.

In the United States there are not many Jewish sporting icons for young people to look up to. Spitz, along with the great baseball pitcher Sandy Koufax, are held aloft. A reminder for a culture not necessarily seen as producing sporting royalty, that one day you too could make the Olympic Games.

Right after that lesson, another darker one is immediately taught. The lesson of the fragility of the Israeli state and the external threats it and its citizens face.

This lesson serves as a reminder that the terrible things done on September 5-6, 1972 were not done in a vacuum. The sanctity of the ideals of the Olympics were destroyed that day as Israeli athletes were targeted because of their heritage and culture. Forty-five years later the Olympic world reconvened to rightfully present a memorialfor the victims of the 1972 attacks.

The ideals that were shattered in Munich may have never truly existed, but that does not mean every Olympic Games should not try to bring together people from every country in a show of solidarity.

An Emotional, Unique Assignment

I’ve had the opportunity to cover numerous events all over the world for Around the Rings but few have personally resonated with me the way last week’s memorial ceremonies did. It is hard not to get engulfed by cynicism covering the IOC full time, but seeing as many parties as I did come together to honor those victims allowed for a brief respite.

The surviving family members of the attacks took center stage in Munich. First, a private ceremony was organized to allow for them to grieve at a permanent spot dedicated to the worst day of their lives. Second, political leaders from Germany, Israel, and the IOC expressed condolences and the importance of the monument.

The feeling at the event was one of many conflicting emotions. For those who worked on the project, such as the Foundation for Global Sports development who I was shadowing, there was a feeling of satisfaction and relief. For the political and sport leaders there was a feeling of accomplishment. For the victims families, there was still mourning to be done.

There was also some annoyance by those in attendance at the rushed pace of the second service. Thankfully, that was just a minor blip in a long day.

I existed in the nexus of all this, thankful to see such a memorial completed, but also upset that it took nearly a half century. It was hard to express these feelings in the moment, as I worked really hard to stay neutral filing my report from Munich. Still, I was honored to say the Mourner's Kaddish in a moment alone at the memorial, a personal sharing of condolences in a day that was about so much more.

Sport, Politics Converge in Munich and Beyond

IOC President Thomas Bach gave a speech at the 2014 Asian Games where he acknowledged that sport and politics cannot exist without each other. It was a landmark speech that I kept replaying in my head as Bach spoke about how the IOC has worked to provide more opportunities for the Munich families with this monument and others at recent Olympic Games.

The debate over whether a moment of silence is appropriate during the Olympic Opening Ceremony may never cease. I believe that the world can celebrate coming together for the Games, while also acknowledging the events of the past collectively in a silent moment.

Acknowledging the horrid parts of history is the first way to begin moving on. The Olympic Games are not above that, nor are they free from missteps and injustices.

The words of Ankie Spitzer during the service resonated with me long after the day’s events and all the way back to the United States. She thanked those in attendance for giving her and the other relatives a fixed mourning spot, but could not shake the fact it took a decades-long fight to make it a reality. Her words were powerful as she refused to give full credit to the other figures associated with bringing the memorial to fruition. This memorial was clearly necessary for those family members, but cannot absolve the missteps taken along the way to get here.

"For decades we repeated our plea but to no avail," Spitzer said. "It is hard to describe our deep emotions and satisfaction here today that the debt for our murdered loved ones was finally paid off with this beautiful and moving memorial."

I wrote a story about the memorial two months before coming to Munich, and spoke with the IOC member from Israel Alex Gilady about the project. Gilady was in Munich to see it opened, but he summed up how the memorial will never truly erase the terror of the past quite succinctly in an email to me.

For those associated or touched by the events in 1972 a needed bandage was put on a long-exposed wound. Still, as Gilady says "whatever will be done is never enough to clear the blood stains from the Olympic Flag."

Written by Aaron Bauer

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