I first heard the story of the Munich Massacre at my Jewish summer camp this year. My cabinmates and I were in charge of organizing a campwide Color War, a full day of sports competitions between campers. Since the theme of our Color War was the Olympics, one of my friends suggested that we hold a moment of silence during the day for the Israeli athletes killed in the 1972 Munich Olympic Games because the International Olympic Committee was not planning to. I was shocked to learn not only that murders had taken place, but also that the IOC refused to acknowledge this tragic incident.
On Sept. 4, 1972, a terrorist group called Black September kidnapped nine Israeli athletes from their lodging in the Olympic Village and shot two Israeli trainers. In the following days, hostage negotiations took place between Israel, the United States, Germany and Black September.
Eventually, the terrorists took the hostages to a small airfield outside Munich where two helicopters would take them to Cairo, Egypt. Unknown to the terrorists, the German police had laid a trap to recover the hostages, which began when a German sniper shot one of the terrorists from the roof of the surrounding buildings. The result was a gun battle that ended in the death of a German police officer, five of the terrorists and all nine Israeli hostages, who were killed by members of the terrorist group.
A memorial service was held the next day at the Olympic stadium and although many called for the suspension of the games, the president of IOC Avery Brundage said, “The games must go on.”
That was 40 years ago. Since the Munich Massacre, as it is known now, every four years at the Olympics, Ankie Spitzer, the widow of one of the murdered trainers, leads a petition effort meant to convince the IOC to hold a moment of silence in honor of the 11 Israelis who were killed. Hundreds of thousands of people sign it every year. Unfortunately, however, every time for the past 10 Olympics, the IOC has rejected the petition and refused to hold that moment of silence, though they have agreed to hold the usual private commemoration with the Israel Olympic Delegation. In an interview with ESPN, IOC President Jacques Rogge said, “We feel that the opening ceremony is an atmosphere that is not fit to remember such a tragic incident.”
This position is something I can’t grasp. How can the IOC not spend 10 seconds out of the 17 days of the Olympics for a moment of silence to honor the murdered Olympic athletes? The Olympics are supposed to be a time when countries come together in peace. Most athletes say their competitors are like family to them. When a family member dies, do you leave the memories of them behind and forget them? No, you honor them and make sure they are remembered forever. By refusing to hold a moment of silence, the IOC is tarnishing the memory of those athletes, allowing their deaths to be forgotten.
At Grady, we try not to let local or national events go by without expressing our opinion on the matter. For example, last year when Trayvon Martin was killed in Florida, Grady students organized a “Hoodie Day” in his memory. In 2010, when the Westboro Baptist Church came to Atlanta to protest against gay rights, students organized a counterprotest.
News stations such as CNN and BBC held their own moment of silence this year during the Olympics, as did well-known political figures in New York City. In addition, famous figures such as Bob Costas and President Barack Obama signed petitions and pressured the IOC during the 2012 Olympics to hold a moment of silence. I urge all of Grady to sign petitions and take a stand in 2016. Help the widows and families of the athletes to convince the IOC to give the victims of the Munich Massacre the moment of silence that IOC has denied them for the past 40 years.
