• 1972 – Munich massacre: A Palestinian terrorist group called "Black September" attacks and takes hostage 11 Israeli athletes at the Munich Olympic Games. Two die in the attack and nine are murdered the following day.

RETROPOLIS

50 years after Munich Olympics attack, victims’ families are compensated

By Diane Bernard
September 5, 2022 at 8:00 a.m. EDT

Fifty years ago Monday, on Sept. 5, 1972, Palestinian extremists infiltrated athletes’ dorms at the Munich Summer Olympics, an attack that resulted in the murder of 11 Israeli athletes and coaches and a German police officer and set off an international crisis. ... It also led to five decades of complaints from the athletes’ families that German authorities had botched the response to the attack and concealed key details from them. ... Now, after years of legal wrangling, Germany has agreed to give 28 million euros to the families of the murdered Israeli athletes, the Israeli and German governments announced on Wednesday.

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Portraits of five of the Israelis held hostage by Palestinian terrorists at the Olympic Village in Munich on Sept. 5, 1972. In the top row, from left, are Joseph Romano, weightlifter; Amitzur Shapira, athletics coach; and David Berger, weightlifter. In bottom row, from left, are Andre Spitzer, fencing coach; and Kehat Shorr, marksmanship coach. (AP)

Billed as “the Happy Olympics,” the 1972 Munich games were the first to be broadcast internationally on television. Looking to shed its Nazi past, West Germany aimed to project a harmonious image to the world, to erase memories of the 1936 games in Berlin that were used as a platform for Hitler’s propaganda. ... Swimmer Mark Spitz won a record-breaking seven gold medals, a feat that remained unsurpassed until Michael Phelps won eight in the 2008 Beijing Olympics. The USSR’s Olga Korbut, dubbed “the sparrow from Minsk,” became an international celebrity after stunning performances on the balance beam, floor exercises and uneven bars.

But in the early morning on Sept. 5, the image of unity was shattered when Palestinian militants with submachine guns stormed the apartment where 11 Israeli athletes were housed. The activists were members of the Black September group, which sought to bring attention to the Palestinian cause. ... Black September leaders thought the Olympics, with an international TV audience, would put their politics on the map.

The eight guerrillas immediately killed two athletes, and nine others were taken hostage, handcuffed and beaten. The Palestinians demanded Israel, West Germany and other nations release more than 200 political prisoners. If the demands weren’t met by a certain time, the terrorists would kill one hostage per hour until all the prisoners were released.

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By Diane Bernard
Diane Bernard is a contributor to Retropolis and a former multiplatform editor for The Washington Post.

• 1972 – The three surviving perpetrators of the Munich massacre are released from prison in exchange for the hostages of the hijacked Lufthansa Flight 615.