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Detroiter at Olympic Games Recalls Three Israelis With a Zest for Life
By CARLOTTE DUBIN
The tragedy of Munich, as
keenly as it was felt by Jews
here, took on a deeply per-
sonal note for a Detroiter
who was at the Olympic
Games during those fateful
days.
Attorney Gilbert Frimet
met two of the terrorists'
victims —and was going to
meet a third on the morning
of Tuesday, Sept. 5. That
meeting never took place.
Frimet, accompanied by
four friends from Chelsea,
Mich., carried with him to
Munich the name of Mark
Slavin, a cousin of one of
Frimet's acquaintances in
Detroit. Slavin, IS, a wres-
tler, had emigrated from the
Soviet Union to Israel only
last June.
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10—Friday, Sept. 15, 1972
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Frimet reached Munich on
Saturday night, Sept. 2, and
by chance met Israeli wres-
tling coach Moshe Weinberg.
When he asked Weinberg if
he knew Slavin, Weinberg re.
plied that Mark was on his
team.
The coach invited Frimet
and his friends to tour the
Olympic Village and the
Israelis' quarters. There Fri-
"set could meet Slavin.
The five Michigan men
were very impressed with
Weinberg, a man who, Fri-
met recalls, "had the rare
ability to command your
affection. He was a fine.
gentle person with a sense
of humor. There was never
a moment's hesitation tha'
he wanted to get Mark and
me together, and he would
do whatever he could to bring
about a meeting.
"Weinberg knew the limita-
tions of the Israeli team, but
was there to do a job." A
sabra, Weinberg, 32, "had
a wonderful sense of Jewish-
ness and was happy that we
had met as Jews in Germ-
any. He said to me, in Yid-
dish, 'Everywhere you go,
you meet Jews!'
(Weinberg is credited with
having saved lives at the
cost of his own. It was he
who held the door against the
Arab attackers, enabling
many Israelis to escape be-
fore he was shot and killed.
He leaves a wife and 3-
month-old son.)
Frimet and his friends, ar-
riving at the Israeli com-
pound in the Olympic Village,
met another wrestling team
member, referee Joseph Gut-
freund. Frimet recalls "an
enormous 'bear of a man,"
who jokingly introduced him-
self as "Good Friend." He
tried to find Slavin for the
visitors, calling out the
youth's Russian name, "Mar-
kya! Markya!" Slavin wasn't
around, but Gutfreund talked
about the boy, of whom he
was obviously fond.
(Slavin, at 18 the youngest
victim, was considered to
have a promising future as a
wrestler. He looked upon
Israel as the beginning of a
new life, as did three sisters
and his parents. A fourth
sister remains in Russia.)
That evening of Sept. 4, in
a phone conversation, Wein-
berg told Frimet that be had
arranged a meeting with
Slavin for the following
morning at 9:30. As the
world knows, Slavin and Gut-
freund died that day at the
hands of guerrillas at a Luft-
waffe air base.
Frimet saw the events take
place on a television set up
in an Olympic Games office.
The crowds made it impos-
sible for him to reach the
main stadium.
Among his observations,
Frimet carries away the im-
pression that the lack of
security was "deplorable,"
although he doesn't blame
the Germans for that fact.
"I want to put across the
idea that the comments of
(German President Gustav)
Heinemann reflected the at-
titude of anger and' frustra-
tion and concern of the
German people as I observed
them. I was most impressed
by the sincerity of their feel-
ings, and Heinemann cap-
tured that feeling.
If your earning capacity is
'the capacity to earn the pub-
lic confidence you can go
about your business like free
men. —Woodrow Wilson.
1`3N510 Pita
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WHO
311p2ren
JOSEPH GOTFREUND
MARK SLAY'LN
10SHE WEINBERG
"Many of the younger
Germans didn't want to con-
tinue the Games. I personal-
ly felt that the Olympics
should continue. I told a
German friend that to allow
the terrorists to break up the
games would be to yield to
them.
"Besides, the people of
Munich had spent five years
building a subway system
and facilities for the Games.
They had invested so much
of themselves emotionally,
that not to allow that feeling
to be discharged would have
been a mistake.
"A lot of people won't
agre with me," be said, "but
my own feeling is that it's
wrong not to go to Germany.
We should go. To isolate
Germany and to isolate this
generation of Germans is a
great mistake. They are
basically democratic and
need a relationship with the
rest of the world. Otherwise,
we will repeating some of the
mistakes made in the 1920s.
I think Israel understands
this."
One of the best reflections
o bowl Germany reacted to
th t gedy is the headline
o a ewspaper that Frimet
br ght home with him:
"The World Grieves; Munich
Cries."
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