The German government announced today that it has established an international commission of experts to review the events surrounding the attack on the 1972 Munich Olympics.
The establishment of the commission is part of the agreement reached last year with the relatives of 11 members of the Israeli Olympic team who were killed by the Palestinian organization "Black September".
The Interior Ministry appointed an eight-member commission of historians, most of whom are based in Israel or Germany.
The commission will "rigorously examine the period before and after the attack," said German Interior Minister Nancy Feser.
"For me, it is particularly important that their work thoroughly deals with the treatment of family members after the attack," she said.
The tragedy occurred on September 5, 1972, when eight armed members of the Palestinian extremist organization "Black September" broke into the building where the Israeli Olympic team was located in the Olympic Village. They killed two people and held nine hostages.
For their release, the kidnappers demanded the release of more than 200 Palestinians from Israeli prisons and two German left-wing extremists from prisons in West Germany.
The hijackers demanded a plane and safe passage to Cairo. After a whole day of tense negotiations, the attackers and the hostages were allowed to go to the airport in two helicopters.
Snipers at the airport opened fire, and the attackers threw a grenade at the helicopter with the hostages, which exploded and killed the hostages in the second helicopter. All the hostages were killed, as were the five attackers and one policeman.
In September, German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier apologized for his country's multiple failures before, during and after the attack, while attending the 50th anniversary commemoration of the attack together with his Israeli counterpart and relatives of those killed.
A few days before the 50th anniversary, an agreement was reached on compensation of 28 million euros for the families of those killed.
Today's announcement by the German Ministry of the Interior states that the work and findings of the research project will be "transparently documented for the public" and that other experts with "additional expertise on various topics" will be involved in the commission's work.
The first meeting on the project is planned around the 51st anniversary later this year, but it was not specified when a "comprehensive scientific report" is expected.
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