Embedded Files
The history of a terror attack by the Palestinian terrorists on the 10th day of celebration in the Olympic Camp in Munich. Eleven Israeli Olympic Team members were taken hostage and eventually killed.
By CBS NEWS September 6, 2016, 2:00 AM
September 6, 1972
September 6, 1972
World learns of Munich Olympics Massacre
World learns of Munich Olympics Massacre
The 1972 Olympic Games in Munich were billed as “The Peaceful Games,” since it was the Germany’s first time hosting since the end of World War II.
But on September 5, Palestinian terrorists broke into the Olympic Village and killed two members of the Israeli delegation and abducted nine more.
The next day, the world learned that the hostages had been killed. Correspondent Morton Dean shared the sad news in a CBS News Special Report.
Early in the morning on September 5, 1972, five members of a Palestinian faction called Black September, wearing track suits, scaled the walls around the mens housing complex. There, they killed an Israeli wrestler and a coach. Nine other Israelis were taken as hostages.
After hours of negotiations, “the Arab guerillas had been promised that they would be able to make their way by a German plane to Tunisia, and that all of their demands would be met,” Dean reported.
Among those demands was the release of more than 200 Arab prisoners being held by the Israeli government.
German authorities transported the terrorists and hostages by bus, and then helicopter, to a military airport roughly 25 miles from Munich. A Lufthansa jet was waiting for them there.
After the helicopters landed, two terrorists exited the helicopters to inspect the plane. When they emerged, German military sharpshooters started firing.
An operation to free the hostages had been set up at the airport, and a large gun battle ensued. An explosion went off during the chaos, as one of the terrorists detonated a grenade.
All five terrorists and nine hostages were killed in the gunfight. A German police officer was also killed.
“The news that all hostages were killed came as a terrible surprise. It had been reported by some authorities in Munich earlier this evening that 8 had survived, a report that had given some of the Israelis’ relatives a few moments of joyous expression,” Dean reported.
The massacre lead to security changes at subsequent Olympics, as the threat of terrorism has only increased.
A member of the Palestinian terrorist group which seized members of the Israeli Olympic team, left, and the 11 Israeli athletes and coaches who were killed, right
PBS - Munich '72 and Beyond Documentary 2017
During the second week of the 1972 Summer Olympic Games in Munich, fear and worry had already been expressed by some over the safety of Israeli competitors. Then, on September 5th, eight members of the Palestine Liberation Organization’s Black September faction scaled the fence into the Olympic Village with assault rifles, pistols and grenades in-tow. Munich ’72 and Beyond tells the story of the Munich Massacre where eleven Israeli Olympic team members were taken hostage and subsequently executed. This striking documentary retells the story with personal interviews from those related to the murdered athletes and documents the building of a memorial 44 years later.
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