On September 1972 the Olympic Games, which take place every four years, were held in the City of Munich, in the South of Germany. Hundreds of sportsmen and women from different nations participated. With six days left in the Games, eight Arab commandos slipped into the Olympic Village, killed two Israeli team members and seized nine others as hostages. Early the next morning, all nine were killed in a shootout between the terrorists and West German police at a military airport.

Prior to the hostage-taking, the 1972 Munich Olympic Games were well into their second week and there was a joyous mood. The fact that there were no armed security guards had worried Shmuel Lalkin, the head of the Israeli delegation, even before his team had arrived in Munich. The German authorities apparently assured Lalkin that extra security would look after the Israeli team, but Lalkin doubts that these additional measures were ever taken.

On the evening of September 4, the Israeli athletes enjoyed a night out before returning to the Olympic Village. 4:30 A.M. local time on September 5, as the athletes slept, eight tracksuit-clad Black September members carrying duffel bags loaded with Tokarev pistols. Once inside, they used stolen keys to enter two apartments being used by the Israeli team at 31 Connollystrabe. Yossef Gutfreund, a wrestling referee, was awakened by a faint scratching noise at the door of Apartment 1, which housed the Israeli coaches and officials. Then he saw the door begin to open and masked men with guns on the other side. He shouted a warning to his sleeping roommates and threw his nearly 300 lb (135 kg) weight against the door to try to stop the intruders from forcing their way in. Gutfreund's actions gave his roommate, weightlifting coach Tuvia Sokolovsky, enough time to escape. Wrestling coach Moshe Weinberg fought back against the intruders, who shot him through his cheek and then forced him to help them find more hostages. Leading the kidnappers past Apartment 2, Weinberg lied to the kidnappers by telling them that the residents of the apartment were not Israelis. Instead, Weinberg led them to Apartment 3, where the terrorists corralled six wrestlers and weightlifters as additional hostages. As the athletes from Apartment 3 were marched back to the coaches’ apartment, the wounded Weinberg again attacked the kidnappers, allowing one of his wrestlers, Gad Tsobari, to escape via the underground parking garage. The burly Weinberg knocked one of the intruders unconscious and slashed another with a fruit knife before being shot to death. Weightlifter Yossef Romano, a veteran of the Six-Day War also attacked and wounded one of the intruders before being shot and killed. The terrorists were left with nine live hostages.

The Hostage-takers demonstrate their resolve. Israel's response was immediate and absolute: there would be no negotiation. Some claim that the German authorities, rejected Israel’s offer to send an Israeli special forces unit to Germany. Munich police chief Manfred Schreiber and Bruno Merk, interior minister for the Free State of Bavaria, negotiated directly with the kidnappers, repeating the offer of an unlimited amount of money.

Relocation to Fürstenfeldbruck

After more than half a day of intense negotiations, the terrorists demanded transportation to Cairo. The authorities feigned agreement, and at 10:10 p.m. a bus carried the terrorists and their hostages from 31 Connollystrabe to two military helicopters, which were to transport them to nearby Fürstenfeldbruck, a NATO airbase. The authorities, who preceded the Black Septembrists and hostages in a third helicopter, had an ulterior motive: they planned an armed assault on the terrorists at the airport.

Gunfire commences The helicopters landed just after 10:30 p.m., and the four pilots and six of the kidnappers

emerged. While four of the Black September members held the pilots at gunpoint, Issa and Tony walked over to inspect the jet, only to find it empty. Realizing they had been lured into a trap, Issa and Tony sprinted back toward the helicopters. Meanwhile, the German authorities gave the order for snipers positioned nearby to open fire, which occurred around 11:00 PM. In the ensuing chaos, two of the kidnappers holding the helicopter pilots were killed, and the remaining terrorists scrambled to safety, returning fire from behind the helicopters, out of the snipers’ line of sight, and shooting out many of the airport lights. The helicopter pilots fled, but the hostages, who were tied up inside the craft, could not. During the gun battle, the hostages secretly worked on loosening their bonds, and teeth marks were found on some of the ropes after the gunfire had ended.

Murder of hostages

With the appearance of the armoured vehicles, the terrorists felt the shift in the status quo, and

panicked at the thought of the imminent failure of their operation. At four minutes past midnight of September 6, one of the terrorists (likely Issa) turned on the hostages in the eastern helicopter and fired at them from point-blank range, killing Springer, Halfin, and Friedman and wounding Berger in the leg. He then pulled the pin on a hand grenade and tossed it into the helicopter, causing a tremendous explosion which destroyed the helicopter and incinerated the bound Israelis inside.

Aftermath of failed rescue

Three of the remaining terrorists lay on the ground, two of them feigning death, and were

captured by police. Jamal Al-Gashey had been shot through his right wrist, and Mohammed Safady had sustained a flesh wound to his leg. Adnan Al-Gashey had escaped injury completely. Tony, the final terrorist, escaped the scene, but was tracked down with police dogs 40 minutes later in an airbase parking lot. Cornered and bombarded with tear gas, he was shot dead after a brief gunfight. By around 1:30 a.m., the battle was over.

The Olympic competition was suspended on September 5 for one full day. The next day, a memorial service attended by 80,000 spectators and 3,000 athletes was held in the Olympic Stadium. Brundage stated “the Games must go on”, a decision endorsed by the Israeli government and Olympic team’s chief. The families of some victims have asked the IOC (International Olympic Committee) to establish a permanent memorial to the athletes, but the IOC has declined, saying that to introduce a specific reference to the victims could “alienate other members of the Olympic community,” according to the BBC. Alex Gilady, an Israeli IOC official, told the BBC: “We must consider what this could do to other members of the delegations that are hostile to Israel.”

There is, however, a memorial outside the Olympic stadium in Munich, in the form of a stone tablet at the bridge linking the stadium to the former Olympic village. There is also a memorial tablet to the slain Israelis outside the front door of their former lodging.

After investigating this topic I remain very impressed as regards the reaction of the Olympics Games authorities after the kidnapping and killing of the 11 man since, as I already said, the games were only suspended one day. I think this tragedy, which is not widespread yet have to be always in our minds, so that this don’t happen again.