MovieChat Forums > One Day in September (2001) Discussion > Ankie Spitzer's life after Munich

Ankie Spitzer's life after Munich


Does anyone know how she managed to carry on after the events of Munich? Her ordeal seems especially agonizing. For one, if not for her insistence that her husband rush to catch another train to Munich, he might still be with her today. She must have felt tremendous guilt and regret over that. Second, she was barely a newly wed when she became a widow. And not only had she lost her soul mate, she also had an infant daughter to raise in his absence. Third, she must have gone through extreme turmoil when she was informed that the athletes were all rescued alive, only to later learn that this news was cruelly inaccurate.

I don't know how one person was able to survive so much tragedy that came about so suddenly and so shockingly. Yet somehow, she was able to relate her story in a sober fashion without breaking down and crying (at least not in public and not in front of the camera). Does anyone know what she did and how she lived her life after Munich? Did it take her a long time to cope emotionally?

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She's here in the Netherlands still sometimes on tv. She's a correspondent in Israƫl for some news programmes. I was suprised to see her in this movie (about 6 months ago), didn't know she was involved with this historic event. Her name is now Ankie Rechess (or Reggers, don't know exactly).

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lots of people lose their husband or wife.... her situation is no different.

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Few people lose their spouses to terrorist murderers.

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[deleted]

She probably underwent A LOT of therapy in order to cope with (like you say) the huge feelings of GUILT that ANYONE would feel by insisting (needlessly, in my opinion) for her husband to catch a train and go back to Munich ... She's AMAZINGLY guilt-free when she talks about it in the film (- i thought he would get in trouble if he was late ... ).

The whole thing is a bit weird though : She has a rare chance to see her husband, she tells him their daughter is sick so he rushes over, he then misses his train and happily says : - Well, I can have another day here with you and our daughter and SHE TELLS HIM HE SHOULD RACE TO CATCH THE TRAIN AT THE NEXT STATION !!???? Like WTF ???!! Which young woman in love acts like this ??

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To add some perspective, though, how many chances does one get to compete in the Olympics? She thought he would have the rest of his life to share with her and their daughter; but the Olympics only come around once every four years, and who knows if he'd qualify four years later?

Also, he didn't insist on staying home when she suggested catching the other train. He did get on that train, so maybe he too was a little worried about jeopardizing his once-in-a-lifetime opportunity in the Olympics. Perhaps she saw his anxiety and wanted to assure him that she was O.K. with his wanting to leave. Maybe she felt guilty about calling him away in the first place.

I don't know if an event in which he was competing was scheduled for that day or the next day. If it was, it makes her insistence that he get there more understandable.

Still, I'm sure she was devastated whenever she thought back on that fateful day...

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