Germany appoints commission to re-appraise 1972 Munich Olympics attack

Germany has appointed an eight-person commission to re-appraise the attack on Israeli athletes and team members at the 1972 Munich Olympics to answer unresolved questions, said German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser in a statement on Friday.

"For too many years, there was a lack of understanding or reappraisal of the events, transparency about them or acceptance of responsibility for them," she said.

The project is part of a larger government approach to seek reconciliation with the families affected, including a compensation offer of 28 million euros ($30.67 million).

What happened in the Munich Massacre?

Terrorists from the Black September terrorist group broke into the Olympic village, murdering two Israeli athletes and mutilating one of them as a warning Sept. 5, 1972. They then took a further nine Israeli athletes hostage, demanding that Israel release more than 200 Palestinian prisoners in order to free the hostages.

The nine hostages were also killed in a standoff when the German police ambushed the terrorists in an attempt to free the hostages. A German policeman was also killed in the crossfire.

The Games continued throughout that day and ran until the end after the attacks and the IOC took almost half a century to comply with families' requests for an official act of remembrance at an Olympic event.