1972+Munich+Olympics+Massacre

//Overview of 1972 Olympic Games //

In 1972, The International Olympic Committee chose Munich as the location for the 1972 Olympics. The other candidates were Detroit (USA), Madrid (ESP) and Montreal (CAN). The whole point of the 1972 Olympics was to promote the idea of peace. The 1972 Games were also the first to have a named mascot: Waldi the dachshund. 121 atheletes attended the Olympics, and played sports such as basketball and football(soccer), but by the end of the Olympics only 110 were left. The number of participants was reduced by 11, because on the 11th day of the Olympics, September 5, 8 Palestinian terrorist caused a huge fiasco. They invaded the Olympic Village, went to where the Israeli atheletes were staying, killed two of them, and took the other nine hostage. The nine taken hostage ended up being killed as well as 5 of the 8 terrorists and one policeman. The Olympics were suspended for 34 hours and a memorial service was held in the main stadium.



//The Terrorists Inphlitration of The Olympic Village//

On September 5, at 4:20 in the morning, eight not yet to be known as Palestinian Terrorists, entered the 1972 Olympic Village in Munich. They came in two differant entrances. Five of the terrorists, dressed as track runners, entered by climbing over the fence to the Village and they had their weapons in their athletic bags. The three others came into the village legally, using credentials. The Palestinians used stolen keys to get inside of the Israeli apartment buildings. They went first to the apartment building where Israeli officials and coaches were staying. They knocked on the door of Yossef Gutfreund, who didnt know what was happening until he saw the masked faces of the Terrorists.

//The Attack//

Gutfreund threw a 300 lb. weight at the door to block the terrorists from entering the room. Tuvia Sokolsky, a weightlifter, escaped the building before the terrorists could catch him. Moshe Weinberg, an Israeli wrestling coach, as an attempt to protect the athletes, threw himself in front of the Terrorists and started to attack them. He knocked one of the terrorist unconscious and stabbed another with a fruit knife. Yossi Romano, a weightlifter, also attacked one of the Terrorists, before he was injured. Later, around 4:50 a.m., Romano, Weinberg, and a man named Gad Tsabari tried to escape, but Tsabari was the only one who escaped, while the other two were killed.



//The Alarm Sounds and the Negotiations//

At 4:30 a.m., the intruders announced that they were Palestinian Terrorist working for a group known as Black September. Finally, at 4:55 a.m., the police were notified and they dashed to the Village. The Terrorists demanded that 200 named Arabs were to be released from Israeli jails as well as the Germans Ulrike Meinhof and Andreas Baader who were members of the Red Army Faction being held in Stammheim prison by 9:00 a.m., or else all of the hostages would be killed. The Israeli government refused to work with the Terrorists. More police arrived at the scene, and after hours of failed negotion, a deal was finally struck. The Palestinians, Luttif Afif (“Issa”), his deputy Yusuf Nazzal (“Tony”), and junior members Afif Ahmed Hamid (“Paolo”), Khalid Jawad (“Salah”), Ahmed Chic Thaa (“Abu Halla”), Mohammed Safady (“Badran”), Adnan Al-Gashey (“Denawi”), and his cousin Jamal Al-Gashey (“Samir”) decided with the Israeli government that the terrorist and the hostages would be provided safe transportation through buses and helicopters to the NATO airfield in Firstenfeldbruck where a plane would be waiting for them to fly the hostages to Cairo.

//Firstenfeldbruck// The terrorist and hostages arrived at the NATO airbase safely, but what they didnt know was that the police had a suprise for them. After the Palestinians arrived at 10:30 p.m., they went to inspect the plane, and suddenly the police opened fire on them. It was a bloody gunfight that lasted many hours. The police were only able to kill 3 of the 8 Terrorists. Another problem that was encountered was that the government only thought there were 5 terrorists, but there were 8. The helipcopter landed in a differant spot making it hard for the snipers. Plus, all of the reinforcement was stuck in traffic at the beginning of the gunfight. When the reinforcements finally arrived, the terrorist became scared and worried that they would have to give up, but suddenly they threw one grenade at one of the helipcopters, and then they suddeny started shooting at the other helipcotper. The Israeli hostages were tied to their seats in the helicopter, thus they died because they were unable to escape. At 1:32 a.m., the last bullet was fired, and 9 hostages, 5 of the 8 Terrorist, and 1 police offer were dead.

Hostages killed at the airport (middle row, L-R) wrestling referee Yossef Gutfreund, age 40; American-born weightlifter David Berger, 28; wrestler Mark Slavin, 18; and weightlifting judge Yacov Springer, 51. (bottom row, L-R) weightlifter Ze'ev Friedman, 28; track coach Amitzur Shapira, 40; wrestler Eliezer Halfin, 24; shooting coach Kehat Shorr, 53; and fencing coach Andre Spitzer, 27.

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//Misinformation of the Press// __

When the attack at the NATO airbase happened, the radio lines went down and their was miscommunication throughout Europe. Governments announced at 11:30 p.m. that all the hostages were free, so people were celabrating and had extreme joy, but when they saw the newspapers the next morning, they found out it was a miscommunication and all of the hostages had been killed.

 //Aftermath// When the whole situation was over, everything was chaotic. The German government saw themselves as a failure, and the Israeli government was upset and distraught. There was a memorial service in the main stadium and the Olympic games were suspended for 34 hours. At the funeral, it was declared that the Olympics would no longer be known as the "Happy Games", but the games must go on. Thus, the games continued  on September 7, and the Israeli team departed the game with the caskets of there fellow Olympic athletes, coaches, and refrees.

The German government created an Interior minestry in charge of proteceting Germany from future terror attacks. They were known as the GSG 9. The German government took the other 3 terrorists who were not dead into custody. They were only in custody for 53 days because on October 29, 1972, a Palestinian terrorist boarded a German plane in Beirut and demanded that the Munich terrorists be released. The German government gave into the requests.

After the German government released the terrorists, the Israeli government was furious. Golda Meir wanted the Palestinian terrorists, who wanted to  destroy Israel and set up a homeland in Israel as promised by Lawrence of Arabia, to be hunted down and killed. This operation was known    as "Operation Wrath of God", and the Israeli secret service, Massad, was in charge of s   tarting a special forces unit that would be in charge of destroying the Pales   tinian terrorist organization. Mossad officer Michael ‘Mike’ Harari was head of the 'Caesarea' special unit. They were succesful in killing the terrorists, but they made some mistakes. Many people find the response of the Isreli government as being very harsh and cruel, but in the end, it all helped and there are some peace treaties betweene the PLO and Israel.

Take Me Home 

__Sources__ http://www.olympic.org/uk/games/past/index_uk.asp?OLGT=1&OLGY=1972 http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Terrorism/munich.html http://www.palestinefacts.org/pf_1967to1991_munich.php http://www.infoplease.com/spot/summer-olympics-munich-massacre.html http://www.discoverychannelasia.com/munich/the_attack/index.shtml