By Duncan Mackay

A total of 11 Israelis were killed during the Munich Massacre in 1972 ©Getty ImagesA planned memorial to commemorate the 11 Israeli athletes and officials killed by Palestinian terrorists during the 1972 Olympics in Munich is to receive a $250,000 (£150,000/€184,000) contribution from the International Olympic Committee (IOC), it has been reported.


According to a report in the Munich-based newspaper Suddeutsche Zeitung, the IOC plans to contribute the money towards the $2.3 million (£1.1 million/€1.7 million) memorial.

Michael Vesper, director general of the German Olympic Sports Confederation (DOSB), wrote in a letter to State Minister of Education and Culture for Bavaria Ludwig Spaenle, that new IOC President Thomas Bach had authorised the contribution to the memorial project, according to the report.

Spaenle, who is coordinating the project, had appealed to Vesper to seek Bach's support in April.

"For me, it certainly would have been good, ideally, if the IOC were to contribute," Spaenle said at the time.

The IOC suffered severe criticism after they refused to hold a minute's silence at London 2012 to mark the 40th anniversary of the massacre in five Palestinians and a German policeman, in addition to the Israelis, were killed.

The new $2.3 million memorial for victims of the 1972 Munich Massacre will join a more modest one that is already on Connolystrasse, where the incident took place ©WikipediaThe new $2.3 million memorial for victims of the 1972 Munich Massacre will join a more modest one that is already on Connolystrasse, where the incident took place ©Wikipedia

It followed Palestinian terrorists attacking the Israeli team headquarters on Munich's Connolystrasse in the Olympic Village.

They shot two team members and took another nine hostage.

The group, calling themselves Black September, demanded the release of hundreds of Palestinians in Israeli jails, and of two high-profile members of the German Red Army Faction terror group.

A rescue attempt the day after the hostage-taking failed, all nine remaining hostages and a German police officer died, along with five of the eight terrorists.

Bavarian State Premier Horst Seehofer announced plans for the memorial in 2012, to go alongside two more modest tributes, one of them on Connolystrasse itself.

The memorial is due to be in the centre of a site to be built between the Olympic Village and the Olympic Stadium in Munich.

The Federal German Government has pledged €350,000 (£284,000/$476,000) of the projected total cost, with further donations from Bavaria, Munich, and DOSB.

Details of the victims' lives are set to be the main theme of the memorial site, which is due to open in 2016. 

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