The Olympic Games, which opened on 26 August 1972, will not be remembered for its spectacular events and joyful atmosphere. On the contrary, it was deeply marked in human history by a terrible tragedy - the 'Munich Tragedy'.
Anticipation in the Federal Republic of Germany and the start of the Olympic Games
The 20th Munich Olympic Games in 1972 had a special significance for the host country, the Federal Republic of Germany. From top to bottom, the German government harboured a strong desire to erase the dark shadow cast over the world by the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin. The Games were held in the shadow of Hitler's Nazi wave, which was an affront to the Olympic spirit. On this occasion, the Federal Republic of Germany was eager to prove to the world that today's Germany is a civilised, rich, strong, peaceful and tranquil nation.
The Munich Olympics did indeed present a grand spectacle; it was the largest and most expensive Olympics in history. More countries and more athletes participated than in any previous edition. Of these, Israel's participation was particularly notable. Inspired by the Olympic spirit, Israel sent an unprecedented delegation of athletes, despite the indelible scars inflicted on the nation by the Nazis.
However, there were some potential problems with the Games. A great deal of money was invested in the construction of facilities and equipment for the venues, which somewhat undermined the security budget. Regardless of this, the events are well underway in the first week of the Games, and all indications are that a 'joyous, peaceful and successful event' seems to be becoming a reality. But this rosy picture was ruthlessly shattered in the early hours of 5 September.
Terrorists infiltrate the Olympic Village
At 4:00 a.m. on 5 September 1972, eight masked men dressed in track and field uniforms crept up to the fence next to Gate 25A of the Olympic Village. The fence was about 2 metres high, but for the young athletes competing in the Olympic Games, it was an easy obstacle to cross. After the evening's entertainment, the athletes often return to the Olympic Village over the fence without being stopped by the security guards, who want to create a relaxed and free atmosphere in which the athletes of the different countries can escape from the fear that they felt at the Olympic Games in Berlin. The security guards don't even have guns, and there are no barricades, probes or detectors in the Olympic Village, which has a 'happy and peaceful' atmosphere. Such lax security measures have not caused any problems in the history of the Olympic Games.
However, these eight men were no ordinary athletes, and a nightmare began when they scaled the fence and quickly pulled assault rifles and grenades from their bags. The eight men were from Black September, a secret Palestinian terrorist organisation, and they had clearly come prepared for this infiltration of the Olympic Village.
Attack and resistance at the Israeli athletes' dormitory
After scaling the fence, the terrorists swooped down on building 31, the Israeli athletes' dormitory. At 4:25 a.m., they arrived at the door of Room 1 in Building 31 and pulled out a master key they had prepared in advance.
Inside the room, wrestling referee Yosef Gutfreund was the first to notice something strange. At first he thought it was his roommate who had gone out, but when he heard a conversation in Arabic outside the door, he instantly realised the danger. Weighing 124 kilograms, Yosef didn't hesitate to put his torso against the door and shouted in Hebrew to the house, 'Danger!' Although the terrorists eventually broke down the door, Yosef's heroic act bought his companion a precious opportunity to escape, and another weightlifting coach was able to break through the window, becoming the first Israeli to do so.
Wrestling coach Moshe Weinberg also put up a fierce fight, punching one of the terrorists but then being shot in the cheek by another, and the door to Room 3 was then broken down by the terrorists, allowing the six Israeli athletes inside to be taken out. At this critical moment, lightweight wrestler Jad Zubari decided to take his chances, and while the terrorists were off guard, he suddenly powered his way out of the room. The terrorists fired several shots that failed to hit him, and Judd was lucky to be the second Israeli to escape.
Moshe, whose cheek was bleeding profusely, did not give up his resistance, and while Judd was escaping, he took advantage of the terrorists' distraction and violently shattered one of them in the jaw, but then was shot several times in the chest. Even so, he attempted to pick up a kitchen knife to continue his resistance, yet was shot in the head again, and Moshe tragically became the first Israeli to die. The weightlifter Roumanoux, also undaunted, grabbed another kitchen knife and slashed at one of the terrorists, but was then hit by sub-machine-gun fire and nearly cut in two, becoming the second Israeli to die.
By this time, two of the 13 Israelis had escaped and two had died, leaving nine under the control of eight terrorists. The terrorists attempted to force them, through beatings, to reveal where the other Israeli athletes were hiding, but the nine brave Israelis clenched their teeth and none of them said a word.
Police Involvement and Developments
The fight to the death, which took place in the early hours of the morning, lasted for about half an hour, during which shots were fired, but security guards were used to it in the 'happy' Olympic Village, where nightly revelry, the sound of broken bottles and firecrackers are commonplace. The police received a few calls from passers-by, but thought they were just athletes playing around and didn't take them seriously.
It was only when the two Israeli athletes who escaped called the police at the South Korean and Italian delegations' lodgings that the police learnt of the seriousness of the situation. However, one of the athletes, Judd, was so nervous that he mistakenly reported that there were only five terrorists, a misinformation that posed a risk to the rescue operation.
At 5 a.m. on 5 September, the Munich police chief, Fred Schreiber, was awakened from his sleep by the ringing of his telephone and immediately realised that something was wrong. 5.30 a.m. Fred received a demand from the terrorists to release the 234 Palestinians held by the Israeli government and the members of the 'Baader-Meinhof Gang' imprisoned by the German government, and to send three aeroplanes to the city of Munich before 9 a.m. on 5 September. ' and to send three planes to transport all of them, including them, to a safe destination where they would release the Israeli athletes or else 'execute the hostages simultaneously or one by one.'
The Parties' Response and Negotiation Process
By 9:00 p.m., when the terrorists qualified, IOC President Rakinin and Chairman of the Organising Committee of the Games, Dauer, announced that all competitions at the Munich Games would be suspended as of the afternoon of 5 September. At the same time, two ministers of the Federal Republic of Germany, the mayor of the Olympic village and police chief Fred offered to enter the building in exchange for the hostages, but the terrorists refused. The terrorists only agreed to a delay until 12 o'clock and lowered their terms: they would simply fly them and the hostages to Cairo, Egypt, and then release the others they demanded.
In the meantime, Federal German Chancellor Willy Brandt had a 10-minute telephone consultation with Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir. Meir, known as the 'Iron Lady' (a title she earned before Margaret Thatcher), reiterated Israel's firm position that it will not compromise on terrorism, no matter what the circumstances.
On the other hand, on the side of the Olympic Village, in order to rescue the hostages, the Federal German government, ostensibly willing to agree to the terrorists' demands, tried to stall for time by negotiating further details. At 6.35 p.m., the German Minister of the Interior, the Mayor of the Olympic Village and Chief Constable Fred entered Building 31 as negotiators, but they came out with the disappointing news that the terrorists were so frantic and determined that they had cancelled their original plan to storm the building and rescue the hostages.
Then, surrounded by 12,000 Bundeswehr police officers, two helicopters took off, carrying eight terrorists and nine Israeli athletes to the Fürstenfeldbroek military airport. The airport became the last hope for rescuing the hostages.
The tragedy of the airport rescue operation
At 10.35 p.m., two helicopters carrying the terrorists and Israeli hostages landed next to a Boeing-727 jetliner. The terrorists forced the pilot of the helicopter to stand in front of them, and then sent four of their members out of the helicopter to inspect the airliner. At this point, German snipers were positioned around the airport, but the shadows created by the airport lights severely hampered the snipers' judgement. To make matters worse, due to Judd's earlier misinformation, the police had only arranged for five snipers.
With time running out, the snipers open fire as the terrorists walk from the helicopter to the airliner. Although two terrorists were hit at the beginning, five snipers could not kill eight terrorists instantly. At the sound of the gunfire, the helicopter pilots, as they had agreed to do beforehand, ran for their lives, two of them escaping safely and two of them seriously wounded. The Israeli hostages, who were tied up in the helicopter, were blindfolded and unable to move.
The terrorists immediately took cover and engaged the police in a gun battle. The Bundeswehr police did not dare to open fire with all their might because of the safety of the hostages. After several attempts to persuade the terrorists to surrender, the German police lost patience and decided to launch a forceful attack against all odds. Six armoured vehicles were deployed, followed by commandos. However, the desperate terrorists made a harrowing move - they threw a grenade into the helicopter carrying the five Israeli hostages, which was instantly reduced to a ball of flames. The four Israeli hostages in the other helicopter were also shot outright.
At 1.30 a.m. on 6 September, the police finally killed the last of the terrorists who refused to surrender. An investigation revealed that the terrorists, named Mohammed Mashalhad, were originally architects involved in the construction of the Olympic Village at the Munich Games, which explains their familiarity with the surroundings of the Village.
In the end, five of the eight terrorists were killed and three were captured, but all nine Israeli hostages were tragically killed. Examining the wreckage of the helicopter, it was discovered that the four Israeli hostages, who had been tied up and shot, had teeth marks on the ropes, showing that they had struggled to survive until the very end of their lives.
Mourning and continuity at the Olympic Games
On the morning of 6 September, the main Olympic stadium in Munich was packed, but not for the games. Athletes and officials from all the participating nations gathered here to observe a moment of silence in honour of the 11 lives lost by the Israeli delegation (including the two who died in the hostel). The famous Bavarian Opera Orchestra performed Beethoven's 'Heroic Symphony' live, and the stirring and poignant melody echoed through the stadium, causing many of the athletes present to cry.
The head of the Israeli delegation, Larkin, who had been the number one target of the Black September operation, made a statement: 'And now I'm going back to my country with the remains of my compatriots. But the Olympic spirit will not change. We promise that we will be back four years from now, at the 1976 Olympic Games in Montreal.' On 7 September, competition resumed in full at the Munich Olympics. At the Games, the Soviet Union topped the gold medal table with 50 medals, the United States came second with 33 medals, and Israel returned home with the remains of 11 of its compatriots - a price too heavy to pay.
Follow-up and reflection on revenge
Israel's ordeal at these Olympics did not end there. after the remains of the 11 compatriots were sent home, Israel's iron-fisted female Prime Minister, Meir, openly stated that Israel must take 'an eye for an eye'. She immediately authorised the 'Mossad' (the famous Israeli intelligence agency) to avenge the deaths of the 11 Israeli athletes. Under the careful planning and execution of General Zamir, the leader of the Mossad, a plan for revenge called 'The Wrath of God' was created. 'The Mossad selected 11 leaders and key members of the Black September organisation and hunted them all over the world. They used explosives and assassinations to target those on the revenge list. In the end, only one person managed to escape, while the remaining 10 were successfully assassinated by the Mossad.
This story of bloodshed and vengeance was the subject of a film entitled 'Munich' by the famous director Spielberg (himself a Jew). Before 11 September 2001, Israel was the only country in the world that openly admitted its assassinations. But after 9/11, the United States, once a critic of such behaviour, began to jump on the bandwagon, even going so far as to use drones to launch missiles for 'targeted killings' of targets. at the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens, many were surprised to learn that every time they entered the Olympic Village They had to pass through security gates and undergo body searches under the watchful eyes of loaded military personnel, and even their portable laptops had to be activated once in front of the military. However, after learning about the Munich tragedy, you will understand that these seemingly cumbersome checks are not superfluous. It's just that Spielberg, after directing 'Munich,' once said, 'I like the strong reaction when Israel is seriously threatened. But I don't think fighting 'reaction' with 'reaction' solves anything; it just creates a 'perpetual motion' mechanism of retaliation.' Especially in this day and age with the resurgence of terrorism, everyone is wondering when this vicious cycle of 'grudges against grudges' will come to an end. This series of events warns people that peace is so precious, while hatred and retaliation will only bring more wounds and disasters. We should endeavour to seek wiser and more humane ways to resolve conflicts and maintain harmony and peace in human society.