One of the defining moments of my childhood was when I was 12 years old. I came home from school, excited about being able to watch the Olympic games. Instead of coming home to the excitement of the Olympics that my mother loved, I found her glued to the television while Jim McKay struggled to find the words to explain a tragedy for which there were no words of explanation. It took some time for my 12-year-old brain to put together the pieces of the kidnapping and subsequent deaths of 11 Israeli athletes. Given that I grew up in a place where the concept of violence didn't extend far beyond a snowball fight, terrorism was a tough thing for me to grasp.
Thirty years later, and the memories just as vivid, Israeli athletes are back in Munich, this time for the European Track and Filed Championships.
Thirty years after 11 Israeli athletes and coaches were killed by Palestinian terrorists at the Olympic Games in Munich, Israel's entire contingent at the European track and field championships are staying at the same housing complex where their countrymen were taken hostage in 1972.
The Israelis say it was an important symbolic gesture for them to be here.
"You feel shivers when you close your eyes and think about the terrible things that happened,'' said distance runner Nili Abramski. "But we had to come and show that even the most terrible things won't stop us.''
Abramski said the massacre was on her mind as soon as she learned the championships would be held in Munich. The dark chapter in the city's history only made her want to compete even more. Seventeen athletes qualified for the championships, the most for Israel in the 18-year history of the meet.
"We wanted to show that we are even stronger -- that we never give up,'' she said. "We know we are targets everywhere we go, but you can't live in fear.''
Pole vaulter Alex Averbukh made the athletes' return a triumphant one by winning the gold medal, Israel's first-ever medal at the championships. He dedicated it to his late father and to the people of Israel.
On the night of Sept. 5, 1972, a group of armed Palestinians entered an Olympic Village apartment house, killing two Israeli athletes and holding the others hostage in an effort to gain the freedom of 200 Palestinian prisoners held by Israel.
During a botched rescue attempt that followed a 20-hour standoff at an airfield near Munich, the Palestinians killed the remaining nine Israeli athletes and coaches. Five terrorists and a German policeman also died in the firefight.
For the first time since the Munich Games, the housing built for the Olympians is being used by athletes, including all 17 Israelis.
It's difficult for most Americans to grasp the impact of the tragedy on the Israeli public. We live in a nation of more than 200 million- really more a collection of regions than a country- widely dispersed from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific. Israelis share a country that, at it's narrowest, is 12 miles across, surrounded on three sides by enemies sworn to destroy Eretz Israel, and on the fourth by the Meditteranean Sea. That the tragedy of Munich still reverberates through Israel, a country that has known more than it's share of heartache, speaks volumes about the interconnectedness and interdependence of Israelis.
A large stone tablet, often adorned with fresh flowers, marks the site of the abduction at Connollystrasse 31. The victims' names are written on the tablet in German and Hebrew, with the words "In honor of their memory.''
"They should also write it in English so that everyone knows why it is there,'' Abramski said.
And also so that no one will ever forget.
