The Munich Massacre

The 1972 Summer Olympic games were held in Munich, West Germany. The last games to be held in Germany took place under the Nazi regime, and Germany was eager to show that things had changed since then. They adopted the motto “the Happy Games” to describe the festivities. 

The Israeli team set up in an isolated part of the Olympic village. Shmuel Lalkin, the Israeli delegate at the time, expressed concerns over the lack of security. He was assured at the time that extra guards would be provided for his team. 

It’s unlikely that the request was ever fulfilled. 

It was the evening of September 4^th when the Israeli team set out for a night on the town. They returned sometime before 4:30 AM, when eight men clad in track suits gained entry to their building. They were carrying assault rifles and each held a duffle bag loaded with pistols and grenades.

The standoff was soon underway. The hostage takers demanded the release of 234 various political prisoners in exchange for the 11 hostages they had taken. The dispute ended in a bloodbath. Two hostages were killed almost immediately during the initial attack. A failed rescue attempt ended with the deaths of the other nine. Three of the attackers survived and were put on trial. Two were released during the hijacking of Lufthansa Flight 615.  

The Israeli response to the unprovoked killing of their people was swift. After the killers were released to Libya, where they were given a military procession and granted a press conference, Israel launched two operations to systematically eliminate everyone who was involved in the massacre. One of these operations was dramatized in the film “Munich” by Steven Spielberg.