Augsburg (dpa / lby) - Bavaria's anti-Semitism officer Ludwig Spaenle (CSU) has described the treatment of the Israeli survivors of the 1972 Olympic attack as "decades of shame". "It was about covering up, concealing, repressing," said Spaenle of the "Augsburger Allgemeine" (Saturday). The agreement with the victims' families on compensation shortly before the 50th anniversary saved the Federal Republic from an "extremely precarious situation".
"People wanted to get rid of it in Germany and across party lines - with a red mayor in Munich, a CSU-led state government in Bavaria and a social-liberal federal government," said Spaenle. It was only in 2012, 40 years after the bloody end of the hostage-taking, that steps were taken to build a memorial and open the archives.
