Forgotten martyrs

In its infinite wisdom, the International Olympic Committee has decided once again not to honor the eleven Israeli athletes murdered at the Olympics in Munich. As I read Giulio Meotti's account of this injustice, I was reminded that after 40 years, I only recognize some of their names, and that like so many others remembered today, they too were victims of terror.

Some of the Israeli athletes assassinated by Arafat’s death squads were Holocaust survivors, while others were “sabras" born in Israel. Each of their stories calls up weeping and prayer. Every one of them was a member of the great body of Israel.

Like Amitzur Shapira, the father of four beautiful children and a teacher in Herzliya. Like Shaul Ladani, who contracted typhoid fever at the concentration camp of Bergen-Belsen. Like Yosef Romano, who the day before he was killed had said, “This is my last competition; I don’t have enough time for my children.”

Like David Berger, an idealist and pacifist Jew from Cleveland, who was supposed to get married after returning from the Olympics. Like Mark Slavin, who kissed the Jewish soil upon his arrival in Israel from Minsk, where he had fought against the Communists who imprisoned thousands of Jews who, like him, wanted to reach Jerusalem. Like Ze’ev Friedman, who spoke a wonderful mixture of Yiddish and Russian and was the last male of his family, incinerated in the gas chambers.

Like Kehat Schorr, who had fought against the Nazi troops in the Carpathian Mountains. Like Yakov Springer, who taught school in Bat Yam and one of the few survivors of the armed revolt in the Warsaw ghetto. Like Eliezer Halfin, who had lost all his relatives in the Holocaust. Like Yosef Gutfreund, who spent months in prison in Romania under the accusation of “Zionist propaganda.”

The building that housed the Israeli athletes was located less than 10 miles from the Dachau concentration camp. They were the first Jews killed in Germany for being Jewish since 1945. Since then, their murder vanished from international memory. The victims’ relatives asked just for “30 seconds” of silence. The Olympic Committee refused it. The next distribution of silver and gold medals will be stained in disgrace and shame. The 11 Israelis died a second time.

Read the whole thing.