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The Munich Massacre occurred at the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich, Germany, when 11 members of the Israeli wrestling team were taken hostage by Palestinian terrorists. A failed liberation attempt led to the deaths of all the athletes, five terrorists, and one policeman.
The Attack
At 04:30 on September 5, nine terrorists of the Palestinian organization Black September (with links to the PLO, the PFLP and the DFLP, although the PLO ultimately declared war on Black September) scaled a short chain-link fence surrounding the Munich Olympic village to enter Israeli quarters, converging with three more along the way. Cloaked in masks and armed with heavy assault rifles, they quickly overcame what little resistance the sleeping Israelis could offer and took eleven hostages: David Berger, Ze'ev Friedman, Joseph Gottfreund, Eliezer Halfin, Joseph Romano, Andrei Schpitzer, Amitsur Shapira, Kahat Shor, Mark Slavin, Yaakov Springer, and Moshe Weinberg. Weinberg received a gunshot wound in the initial struggle, and Romano soon thereafter. Both would later die.
Over the ensuing 19 hours the world witnessed a display of incompetence by West German police so stunning and embarrassing that it ultimately provided the direct impetus for the creation of GSG-9, Germany's counter-terrorism unit.
The German authorities, under the leadership from Chancellor Willy Brandt and Minister for the Interior Hans-Dietrich Genscher rejected the offer from the Israeli Government to send a military group of special forces. The Germans apparently believed they had the means to solve the situation alone. As the events unfolded, it became clear that they hadn't. The German police who took part in the operation had no special training for this sort of situation.
The terrorists demanded the release and safe emigration of 232 Arab radicals in Israeli control, and an additional two in German prisons. Israel's response was immediate and absolute: there would be no negotiation.
Execution deadlines shifted first by three hours, and then by five more as German authorities attempted to negotiate. The terrorists demanded transportation to Cairo. The authorities pretended agreement, and two helicopters transported both the terrorists and their hostages to nearby Fürstenfeldbruck airbase, where a Boeing 727 aircraft was waiting for them.
The authorities planned an assault to the terrorists in the airport. It was probably one of the worst planned acts in the history of military special operations. There were only five snipers placed in the airport. The authorities were surprised to find out that the number of terrorists was nine; they had believed that there were fewer. There were no tanks in the location. During the shooting, which took place over 2 hours, one of the policemen had the belated idea of calling for tanks. The tanks were called, but it took them more than half an hour to arrive, as there was a lot of traffic in the area.
Two terrorists were to check the suitability of the plane, and then return to the helicopters. As they walked back across the tarmac to release the German helicopter pilots, five German snipers positioned nearby opened fire. It was now 23:00.
The five German snipers did not even have radio contact, and did not fire with coordination.
The result was chaotic and calamitous. Two kidnappers near the pilots fell immediately, and a third as he fled. Three more began to return fire from the shadows of the helicopters, beyond the visual range of the snipers. A German policeman quickly succumbed to wild assault rifle salvos. The battle then turned into a protracted 45 minute struggle, until a unit of German armoured cars encroached on the terrorists' position.
Threatened, a terrorist opened fire on hostages from within the first helicopter, prompting two more to emerge from the shadows. He then leapt from the aircraft, leaving a grenade in his place. All three Arabs fell to sniper fire, and the subsequent explosion killed the hostages inside. A fourth terrorist killed the remaining five hostages in the second helicopter immediately thereafter.
Aftermath
In the aftermath, German authorities captured and imprisoned the three surviving terrorists. This limited success was overshadowed two months later when, on October 29, a Lufthansa jet was hijacked and demands made for the release of the Munich three — and they were released, without consultation with Israel. Speculation persists that the hijacking was a set-up intended to ease Germany's humiliating failure at Fürstenfeldbruck. This was later confirmed in a U.S. documentary by a Palestinian guerrilla involved in the massacre. At the time, he was the only one not yet assassinated by Mossad.
Shortly after the massacre a German counter-terrorism unit, GSG 9, was formed to prevent such events in the future.
In the twenty years after 1972, Israel's intelligence agency and paramilitary group Mossad has "enacted terminal reprisal on" (that is to say, killed) at least eight of the 11 Palestinians implicated in the attack, and one accidental assassination in what became the Lillehammer affair. All 11 are now dead. Only Mohammed Daoud Oudeh (Abu Daoud), the man who thought up the attack, remains alive in Amman, Jordan. He has claimed that funds for the massacre were provided by Mahmoud Abbas. [1] (http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=32292) [2] (http://www.israellawcenter.org/press.shtml?1700528700#april29) [3] (http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/si_online/news/2002/08/20/sb2/)
Impact on the Games
IOC president Avery Brundage allowed the Games to continue after a brief remembrance service in the Olympic Stadium. The decision was criticized by many. However, despite extensive press coverage of the Massacre, only a small number of athletes left the Games after the attack. As Brundage said, "the Games must go on".
See also
External Links
el:Σφαγή του Μόναχου
it:Massacro di Monaco
ca:Massacre de Munich
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