This week marks the 50-year anniversary of the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich, West Germany which turned into a politically motivated massacre of eleven olympic athletes from Israel by Palestinians from the terrorist group Black September Organization. (BSO previously assassinated on November 28, 1971 then-Jordan prime minister Wasfi Tal.)
The 1972 Summer Olympics were from August 26 to September 11. This was an olympics which included the successes of swimmer Mark Spitz; gymnast Olga Korbut; and, three years before his death at age 24, long-distance runner Steve Prefontaine. It was also terrorism.
On September 5, 1972, Palestinians broke into the quarters of the Israelis and murdered wrestling coach Moshe Weinberg, 32, and weightlifter Yossef Romano, 32. They took the remaining nine as hostages and, on September 6, 1972, murdered them at the airport with use of guns and grenades. According to Wikipedia (not the greatest source but good enough for this), four were murdered by bullets and/or grenade: gymnast and weightlifter Ze'ev Friedman, 28; weightlifter David Berger, 28; weightlifting judge Yakov Springer, 51; and wrestler Eliezer Halfin, 24. The remaining five were murdered by bullets: wrestling referee Yossef Gutfreund, 40; shooting coach Kehat Shorr, 53; wrestler Mark Slavin, 18; fencing coach Andre Spitzer, 27; and track coach Amitzur Shapira, 40.
Below are videos—each years old—which cover much of what played out. One such video includes the late Jim McKay (1921–2008) of ABC’s Wide World of Sports, the U.S. network which broadcast the 1972 Summer Olympics, who delivered the grim news to the viewers. Another such video includes then-Israel prime minister Golda Meir’s (1898–1978) decision to launch Operation “Wrath of God” which authorized Mossad, the national intelligence agency of Israel, to assassinate those responsible for the Munich massacre of the Israeli athletes. (Here is a direct link to that video, titled “Revenge Of The 1972 Munich Olympics,” and marked here by YouTube as “age-restricted and only available on YouTube”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iNoeVkot_28&list=PLNB2irY4spE2CuCwSM0LjhvLeOvUl4FFu&index=3 .)
Recommended reading:
• Olympics attack victims’ families to boycott Germany ceremony
• Israeli athletes stunned by Palestinian terrorists who rocked the 1972 Munich olympics…
• How the 1972 Munich Massacre unfolded, through the eyes of athletes in the Olympic village
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