German president apologizes for 1972 Olympic attack failures

Germany's president apologized Monday for multiple failures by his country before, during and after the 1972 attack on the Munich OIympics as he joined his Israeli counterpart and relatives of the 11 Israeli athletes killed by Palestinian militants at the games 50 years ago.

The anniversary ceremony at the Fuerstenfeldbruck airfield outside Munich — the scene of a botched rescue attempt that left nine of the Israeli athletes, a West German police officer and five of the assailants dead — came days after an agreement ended a long dispute over compensation. German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier and Israeli President Isaac Herzog laid wreaths at the site.

Last week's agreement headed off a threatened boycott of the anniversary event by relatives of the slain athletes. They will receive a total of 28 million euros in compensation, a significant increase from the initial 10 million-euro offer.

As part of the agreement, Germany agreed to acknowledge failures by authorities at the time and to allow German and Israeli historians to review the events surrounding the attack.

"We are talking about a great tragedy and a triple failure," German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier said. "The first regards the preparation of the games and the security concept; the second the events of Sept. 5 and 6, 1972. The third failure begins the day after the attack: the silence, the denial, the forgetting."

Ankie Spitzer, the widow of fencing coach Andre Spitzer, said in remarks addressed to her late husband that "although we have finally, after 50 years, reached our goal, at the end of the day you are still gone and nothing can change that."

"Everybody is asking now if I finally feel closure," she said. "They don't understand that there will