"I knew who he was. He would not sit quietly. He was not the type," she recalled. "I knew it would end badly."

She was right. Yossi Romano made his move in the dormitory thast day 25 years ago, trying to overpower his well-armed Black September captors with a kitchen knife. They shot the weightlifter four times and left him to die slowly on the floor.

Ankie Spitzer saw her husband, Andre, for the last time on TV, when he appeared at the window of that dormitory room, acting as a go-between for negotiators and the terrorists.

Hands bound behind his back, the fencing coach reported in German that all the hostages were fine except for one -- and was promptly hit on the head with a rifle butt and whisked from sight.

He, too, died, when the 20-hour standoff on Sept. 5, 1972, ended in a botched rescue effort at the airport. In all, 11 Israeli athletes, five of the Palestinians and a German policeman were killed.

A quarter century later, the Munich massacre is still fresh in the minds of many Israelis -- a memory of a morally simpler time, when Israelis generally saw themselves as

"I owe it to Andre to get accountability for these fatal mistakes," said Mrs. Spitzer, who remarried and has three children in addition to the daughter she had with Andre.

Ilana Romano was widowed at 26 with three daughters, the youngest of whom was just five months old at the time.

Five years ago, after she appeared on German TV, she received a phone call from an anonymous German citizen who claimed he had access to such documentation. A week later, the source provided 80 pages of stolen reports, and German officials were forced to reveal additional information.

Spitzer's target today is the German government, which the 11 families are accusing of negligence and suing for $25 million.

The terrorists, from the Palestinian terrorist organization Black September, took over the Israeli team's apartments, and the sportsmen and their coaches were imprisoned and tied up in one of the delegate's rooms. They were guarded by eight terrorists who were armed with sub-machine guns, pistols and grenades. Two Israelis, Moshe Weinberg and Joseph Romano, were murdered in the struggle.

Some common words found in the essay are:
German TV, Ilana Romano, Ankie Spitzer, Israel Arab, Andre TV, Spitzer Romano, Gottfreund Gottfreund, Olympic Committee, Palestinians German, Yarin Kimor, rescue effort, german officials, israeli sportsmen, arab country, ankie spitzer, ilana romano, black september, israeli athletes,
Approximate Word count = 989
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)