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David Berger's brother
and sister made the trip to Munich to watch their brother compete in the
Olympics. They visited
David and his Israeli teammates in the Olympic Village. David did
not expect to would win a medal, and he did not.
He simply
wanted to participate in the Olympics representing Israel in an environment where peace superseded all else.
David Berger
competed as a weightlifter in the Lightheavy Division for Israeli on September 2, 1972. His Olympic dream
was realized.
Early on September 5,
1972, at about 4:30 am, terrorists entered the Olympic Village grounds at
Munich and took Israeli
Olympic team
members hostage. David attempted to stop
the intruders, urging his teammates in Hebrew to jump the
terrorists together, because they had nothing to lose. David was
one of the athletes who died.
David’s
brother and sister were backpacking through Europe. The U.S. government
placed a special radio alert to locate
the Berger siblings, who
were flown back to Cleveland aboard a military plane in time for the
funeral and to be reunited
with their parents.
U.S. president Richard
Nixon telephoned the Berger family to ask what he could do to help. On
request from his father,
David’s body was returned to Ohio,
aboard an Air Force jet personally ordered by the president.
A
United States Air Force C-141A StarLifter jet was dispatched to bring his
body home for burial before the Shabbat, as
required by Jewish
Orthodox law. During the funeral procession, the
streets were lined with people paying tribute, many
with their
hats off, many crying. Rabbi Lelyveld presided at the funeral, which took
place Friday morning. He praised the
Berger family for “setting an example of restraint for all of
us.” All Ohio state
flags were at half-staff for a week, in
honor of David's
memory.
President Richard
Nixon, in a telegram to the IOC, asked that the remainder of the Olympic Games be
called off. The
International Olympic Committee (IOC) responded
by declaring a half-day halt to the games, and held a memorial
service in
the Munich stadium.
David’s father never
viewed the tragedy as an end - either of his son's memory or of the
Olympic Games - but as what
he hoped was a beginning of peace and
understanding. For Dr. Berger, there is one consolation:
“He [David] considered
competing in the Olympics as a weightlifter the absolute ultimate that he
could achieve.…if David knew, that things
would end the same
way, he would have followed the same path.”
David’s niece, speaking
at the rededication of the David Berger National Memorial, said her uncle
believed that sports
are more about peace and camaraderie than
about beating the other guy. Sports are "where people
come together to
find a common playing field and break down
social barriers. That's why David went to Munich.”
The
International Olympic Committee
(the IOC) still has not publicly recognized
the slain athletes, and Dr. Berger
continues to write them every
year, asking simply for a moment of
commemorative silence.
"I'd
like to see them
[the IOC] acknowledge
that this occurred," said Dr. Berger. "There should be a moment of silence,
not just for those athletes, but for all victims of terrorism."
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