Munich massacre

The Munich massacre occurred at the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich, Germany, when members of the Israeli Olympic team were taken hostage by the Palestinian terrorist organization Black September, now known to be an operational cover for Yasser Arafat's Fatah. The attack led directly to the deaths of 11 Israeli athletes, five of the eight kidnappers, and one German police officer, and was followed by a series of Israeli revenge assassinations of the principal planners.

The hostage-taking

According to news sources, the Israeli athletes had enjoyed a night out on September 4, 1972, watching a performance of Fiddler on the Roof before returning to the Olympic Village. At 04:30 on September 5, as the athletes slept, eight members of the Palestinian group Black September, clad in tracksuits and carrying guns and grenades in duffel bags, scaled a two-metre chain-link fence with the help of unsuspecting American athletes who too, were sneaking in the compound to enter two apartments being used by the Israeli team at 31 Connollystrasse.

Related Topics:
September 4 - 1972 - Fiddler on the Roof - September 5 - Black September

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Israeli wrestling referee Yossef Gutfreund heard a faint scratching noise at the door of the first apartment. When he investigated, he saw the door begin to open. He shouted "Hevre tistalku!" (Hebrew ???? ??????? — Guys, try to escape!) and threw his nearly 300-lb. (135-kg) weight against the door to try to stop the Palestinians from forcing their way in. In the confusion, two athletes escaped and another eight managed to hide. According to the CBC, http://archives.cbc.ca/IDC-1-41-1289-7332/sports/olympics_cbc/clip5 weightlifter Yossef Romano (top row left below) grabbed an intruder's gun but was shot and killed, as was wrestling coach Moshe Weinberg (top row right below), who was shot repeatedly when he tried to attack one of the kidnappers with a fruit knife as the hostages were being moved from one apartment to another.

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The kidnappers were left with nine living hostages:

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(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.

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(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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It was suggested in a Time magazine article that Gutfreund and Springer, in addition to their athletic duties, may have been Mossad (Israeli Secret Service) agents assigned by officials worried about the lax security in the Munich Olympic Village, but this has never been confirmed.{{fact}}-->

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The kidnappers were subsequently reported to be members of the Palestinian fedayeen from refugee camps in Lebanon, Syria, and Jordan. They were: the leader, Luttif Afif ("Issa") (three of Issa's brothers were also reportedly members of Black September, two of them in Israeli jails), Yasuf Nazzal ("Tony"), Afif Ahmed Hamid, Khalid Jawad, Ahmed Chic Thaa, Mohammed Safady, Adnan Al-Gashey, and his cousin Jamal Al-Gashey. According to Reeve, Afif, Nazzal and one of their confederates all worked in various capacities in the Olympic Village, and had spent a couple of weeks scouting out their potential target. A member of the Uruguayan Olympic delegation, which shared housing with the Israelis, claims that he found Nazzal actually inside 31 Connollystrasse less than 24 hours before the attack, but since he was recognized as a worker in the Village, nothing was thought of it at the time. The other members of the hostage-taking group entered Munich via train and plane in the days before the attack. All of the members of the Uruguay and Hong Kong Olympic teams, which also shared the building with the Israelis, were released unharmed during the crisis.

Related Topics:
Fedayeen - Lebanon - Syria - Jordan - Issa

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