Olympic history

Germany continues to be forced to deal with problems from its involvement in the Olympic Games.

The current film “Munich” projects the terror and tragedy of the Black September group’s seizure and murder of Israeli athletes during the 1972 Olympic Games. Then it shifts to Israel’s determination to atone for the killings and the people and the processes employed to accomplish that goal.

There have been innumerable accounts of the tragedy over the years and many controversies about what is real and what is fictional. Yet many close to the scene during the ’72 Games contend that Germany was poorly prepared to handle such an event, was reluctant to act at the outset and then did a poor job of dealing with it once it got involved.

Even Germans admit that the World War II Holocaust mentality that led to so many death camp horrors still had a foothold in governmental thinking in 1972. There is evidence that the German officials held back because of some secret agreement that would spare the nation future terrorist activities if they “went soft” on the intruders. Some critics also said the Germans did not leap into the fray as decisively as they should have because “we don’t want to risk our lives for just a group of Jews.” That was even more chilling then than it is now.

Germany had no reason for pride in how it dealt with the Black September event of 1972. Yet there is evidence that some officials are starting to “see the light” regarding terrorism and brutality.

Germany has dropped three officials from its 2006 Winter Olympics team because of their ties to the former East Germany’s secret police. An investigation by an official committee found nine of the 162 officials considered for next month’s games in Torino had connections to the Stasi, the secret police who spied on citizens in the former Communist country and directed subsequent tortures, imprisonments and executions.

Six were cleared because their linkage was considered minor. The three ousted officials were coaches, according to German media, but they have not been named.

East Germany had a long record of involvement in the Olympic Games and helped enforce the state-approved and systematic doping that turned East Germany into a sports powerhouse. That ended with German unification in 1990 but the new government has been dealing with Olympic issues ever since.

Germany’s history in the Olympic Games is by no means as lustrous as many of its good citizens would prefer, starting with the Adolf Hitler-staged 1936 Games in Berlin, when the demented Hitler declined to associate with American Jesse Owens, who won four gold medals at the event. Then came the horrors of German-fostered World War II and a record at Munich that was far from flattering.

That being said, at least current German officials are trying to atone for some of the disgraces of the past. One has to sympathize with Germans who continue to regret the negative impact so many of their fellow citizens have made on the world.