Munich massacre - wikipedia Munich massacre This article is about the 1972 massacre. For the 1980 bombing, see Oktoberfest bombing. For the 2016 mass shooting, see 2016 Munich shooting. This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. ( September 2017 ) 1972 Munich Massacre One of the most reproduced photos taken during the siege captured a kidnapper on the balcony attached to Munich Olympic village Building 31, where members of the Israeli Olympic team and delegation were quartered. Munich Location Munich, West Germany Coordinates 48 ° 10 ′ 46.9 '' N 11 ° 32 ′ 57.1 '' E ﻿ / ﻿ 48.179694 ° N 11.549194 ° E ﻿ / 48.179694 ; 11.549194 Coordinates : 48 ° 10 ′ 46.9 '' N 11 ° 32 ′ 57.1 '' E ﻿ / ﻿ 48.179694 ° N 11.549194 ° E ﻿ / 48.179694 ; 11.549194 Date 5 -- 6 September 1972 4 : 31 am -- 12 : 04 am ( UTC + 1 ) Target Israeli Olympic team Attack type Hostage - taking Mass murder Massacre Deaths 17 total ( including perpetrators ) 6 Israeli coaches 5 Israeli athletes 5 Black September members 1 West German police officer Perpetrators Black September Motive Israeli -- Palestinian conflict Palestinian insurgency in South Lebanon Engagements El Al Flight 426 hijacking El Al Flight 253 attack retaliation raid El Al Flight 432 attack TWA Flight 840 hijacking ( 1969 ) Avivim school bus bombing Lod Airport massacre Sabena Flight 571 Kiryat Shmona massacre Ma'alot massacre 1974 Nahariya attack Savoy Hotel attack Kfar Yuval hostage crisis Coastal Road massacre 1978 South Lebanon conflict 1979 Nahariya attack Misgav Am hostage crisis 1982 Lebanon War International incidents Munich massacre Operation Wrath of God 1972 raid 1973 raid Sabena Flight 571 hijacking Attack on the Saudi Embassy in Khartoum 1973 New York City bomb plot TWA Flight 841 ( 1974 ) Pan Am Flight 110 Operation Entebbe The Munich massacre was an attack during the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich, West Germany, at which eleven Israeli Olympic team members were taken hostage and eventually killed, along with a German police officer, by the Palestinian terrorist group Black September. Shortly after the crisis began, they demanded 234 prisoners jailed in Israel and the German - held founders of the Red Army Faction ( Andreas Baader and Ulrike Meinhof ) be released. Black September called the operation `` Iqrit and Biram '', after two Palestinian Christian villages whose inhabitants were expelled by the IDF in 1948. The attack was motivated by secular nationalism, with the commander of the terrorist group, Luttif Afif, having been born to Jewish and Christian parents. German neo-Nazis gave the attackers logistical assistance. Police officers killed five of the eight Black September members during a failed rescue attempt. A German policeman was killed in the crossfire. They captured the three survivors, whom West Germany released the next month following the hijacking of Lufthansa Flight 615. Mossad responded to the release with the 1973 Israeli raid on Lebanon and Operation Wrath of God, tracking down and killing Palestinians suspected of involvement in the massacre. On 3 August 2016, two days prior to the start of the 2016 Summer Olympics, the International Olympic Committee officially honored the eleven Israelis killed for the first time. Contents 1 Prelude 1.1 Accusation of German foreknowledge of the attack 2 Hostage - taking 3 International reaction 4 Negotiations 5 Failed rescue 5.1 Ambush plan 5.2 Failure 5.3 Massacre 5.4 Outcome 5.5 Criticism 6 Aftermath 6.1 Effect on the Games 6.2 Israeli response 6.3 Alleged German cover - up 7 Surviving Black September members 7.1 Abu Daoud 8 List of fatalities 9 Memorials gallery 10 Media 11 See also 12 References 13 Further reading 14 External links Prelude At the time of the hostage - taking, the 1972 Summer Olympics was in their second week. The West German Olympic Organizing Committee had hoped to discard the military image of Germany. The Committee was wary of the image portrayed by the 1936 Summer Olympics, which Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler used for his benefit. Security personnel known as Olys were inconspicuous and only prepared to deal with ticket fraud and drunkenness. The documentary film One Day in September claims that security in the athletes ' village was unfit for the Games and that athletes could come and go as they pleased. Athletes could sneak past security, and go to other countries ' rooms, by going over the fencing that encompassed the village. The absence of armed personnel had worried Israeli delegation head Shmuel Lalkin even before his team arrived in Munich. In later interviews with journalists Serge Groussard and Aaron Klein, Lalkin said that he had also expressed concern with the relevant authorities about his team 's lodgings. The team was housed in a relatively isolated part of the Olympic Village, on the ground floor of a small building close to a gate, which Lalkin felt made his team particularly vulnerable to an outside assault. The West German authorities apparently assured Lalkin that extra security would be provided to look after the Israeli team, but Lalkin doubts that these additional measures were ever taken. Olympic organizers asked West German forensic psychologist Georg Sieber to create 26 terrorism scenarios to aid the organizers in planning security. His `` Situation 21 '' accurately forecast armed Palestinians invading the Israeli delegation 's quarters, killing and taking hostages, and demanding Israel 's release of prisoners and a plane to leave West Germany. Organizers balked against preparing for Situation 21 and the other scenarios, since guarding the Games against them would have gone against the goal of `` Carefree Games '' without heavy security. Accusation of German foreknowledge of the attack The German weekly news magazine Der Spiegel wrote in a cover story in 2012 that the West German authorities had a tip - off from a Palestinian informant in Beirut three weeks before the massacre. The informant told West Germany that Palestinians were planning an `` incident '' at the Olympic Games, and the Foreign Ministry in Bonn viewed the tip - off seriously enough to pass it on to the secret service in Munich and urge that `` all possible security measures '' be taken. However, according to Der Spiegel, the authorities failed to act on the tip, and have never acknowledged it in the following 40 years. The magazine further adds that this is only part of a 40 - year cover - up by the German authorities of the mishandling its response to the massacre. Hostage - taking This section needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. ( February 2012 ) The site where the hostages were taken is almost unchanged today. The window of Apartment 1 is to the left of and below the balcony. On Monday evening, 4 September, the Israeli athletes enjoyed a night out, watching a performance of Fiddler on the Roof and dining with the play 's star, Israeli actor Shmuel Rodensky, before returning to the Olympic Village. On the return trip in the team bus, Lalkin denied his 13 - year - old son, who had befriended weightlifter Yossef Romano and wrestler Eliezer Halfin, permission to spend the night in their apartment at Connollystraße 31 -- which saved the boy 's life. At 4 : 30 am local time on 5 September, as the athletes slept, eight tracksuit - clad members of the Black September faction of the Palestine Liberation Organization, carrying duffel bags loaded with AKM assault rifles, Tokarev pistols, and grenades, scaled a 2 - metre ( 6 ⁄ ft ) chain - link fence with the assistance of unsuspecting athletes who were also sneaking into the Olympic Village. The athletes were originally identified as Americans, but were claimed to be Canadians decades later. Once inside, the Black September members used stolen keys to enter two apartments being used by the Israeli team at Connollystraße 31. Yossef Gutfreund, a wrestling referee, was awakened by a faint scratching noise at the door of Apartment 1, which housed the Israeli coaches and officials. When he investigated, he saw the door begin to open and masked men with guns on the other side. He shouted a warning to his sleeping roommates and threw his 135 kg ( 300 lbs ) weight against the door in a futile attempt to stop the intruders from forcing their way in. Gutfreund 's actions gave his roommate, weightlifting coach Tuvia Sokolovsky, enough time to smash a window and escape. Wrestling coach Moshe Weinberg fought the intruders, who shot him through his cheek and then forced him to help them find more hostages. Leading the intruders past Apartment 2, Weinberg lied by telling them that the residents of the apartment were not Israelis. Instead, Weinberg led them to Apartment 3 ; there, the gunmen corralled six wrestlers and weightlifters as additional hostages. It is possible that Weinberg had hoped that the stronger men would have a better chance of fighting off the attackers than those in Apartment 2, but they were all surprised in their sleep. As the athletes from Apartment 3 were marched back to the coaches ' apartment, the wounded Weinberg again attacked the gunmen, allowing one of his wrestlers, Gad Tsobari, to escape via the underground parking garage. Weinberg knocked one of the intruders unconscious and slashed at another with a fruit knife but failed to draw blood before being shot to death. Weightlifter Yossef Romano, a veteran of the Six - Day War, also attacked and wounded one of the intruders before being shot and killed. In its publication of 1 December 2015, the New York Times reported that Romano was castrated after he was shot. The gunmen were left with nine hostages. They were, in addition to Gutfreund, sharpshooting coach Kehat Shorr, track and field coach Amitzur Shapira, fencing master Andre Spitzer, weightlifting judge Yakov Springer, wrestlers Eliezer Halfin and Mark Slavin, and weightlifters David Berger and Ze'ev Friedman. Berger was an expatriate American with dual citizenship ; Slavin, at 18 the youngest of the hostages, had only arrived in Israel from the Soviet Union four months before the Olympic Games began. Gutfreund, physically the largest of the hostages, was bound to a chair ( Groussard describes him as being tied up like a mummy ) ; the rest were lined up four apiece on the two beds in Springer and Shapira 's room, and bound at the wrists and ankles and then to each other. Romano 's bullet - riddled corpse was left at his bound comrades ' feet as a warning. Several of the hostages were beaten during the stand - off, with some suffering broken bones as a result. Of the other members of Israel 's team, racewalker Shaul Ladany had been jolted awake in Apartment 2 by Gutfreund 's screams. He jumped from the second - story balcony of his room and fled to the American dormitory, awakening U.S. track coach Bill Bowerman and informing him of the attack. Ladany, a survivor of the Nazi Bergen - Belsen concentration camp, was the first person to spread the alert as to the attack. The other four residents of Apartment 2 ( sharpshooters Henry Hershkowitz and Zelig Shtroch, and fencers Dan Alon and Yehuda Weisenstein ), plus chef de mission Shmuel Lalkin and the two team doctors, managed to hide and later fled the besieged building. The two female members of Israel 's Olympic team, sprinter and hurdler Esther Shahamorov and swimmer Shlomit Nir, were housed in a separate part of the Olympic Village. Three more members of Israel 's Olympic team, two sailors and their manager, were housed in Kiel, 900 kilometres ( 600 mi ) from Munich. The attackers were subsequently reported to be part of the Palestinian terrorists from refugee camps in Lebanon, Syria, and Jordan. They were identified as Luttif Afif ( using the codename Issa ), the leader ( three of Issa 's brothers were also reportedly members of Black September, two of them in Israeli jails ), his deputy Yusuf Nazzal ( `` Tony '' ), and junior members Afif Ahmed Hamid ( `` Paolo '' ), Khalid Jawad ( `` Salah '' ), Ahmed Chic Thaa ( `` Abu Halla '' ), Mohammed Safady ( `` Badran '' ), Adnan Al - Gashey ( `` Denawi '' ), and Al - Gashey 's cousin, Jamal Al - Gashey ( `` Samir '' ). According to author Simon Reeve, Afif ( the son of a Jewish mother and Christian father ), Nazzal, and one of their confederates, had all worked in various capacities in the Olympic Village, and had spent a couple of weeks scouting out their potential target. A member of the Uruguayan Olympic delegation, which shared housing with the Israelis, claimed that he found Nazzal actually inside 31 Connollystraße less than 24 hours before the attack, but since he was recognized as a worker in the Village, nothing was thought of it at the time. The other members of the group entered Munich via train and plane in the days before the attack. All of the members of the Uruguay and Hong Kong Olympic teams, which also shared the building with the Israelis, were released unharmed during the crisis. International reaction On 5 September, Golda Meir, then Prime Minister of Israel, appealed to other countries to `` save our citizens and condemn the unspeakable criminal acts committed. '' She also stated that `` if we ( Israel ) should give in, then no Israeli anywhere in the world shall feel that his life is safe... it 's blackmail of the worst kind. '' King Hussein of Jordan, the only leader of an Arab country to denounce the attack publicly, called it a `` savage crime against civilization... perpetrated by sick minds. '' U.S. President Richard Nixon privately discussed a number of possible American responses, such as declaring a national day of mourning ( favored by Secretary of State William P. Rogers ), or having Nixon fly to the athletes ' funerals. Nixon and Henry Kissinger decided instead to press the United Nations to take steps against international terrorism. Negotiations The hostage - takers demanded the release of 234 Palestinians and non-Arabs jailed in Israel, along with two German insurgents held by the German penitentiary system, Andreas Baader and Ulrike Meinhof, who were founders of the German Red Army Faction. The hostage - takers threw the body of Weinberg out the front door of the residence to demonstrate their resolve. Israel 's response was immediate and absolute : there would be no negotiation. Israel 's official policy at the time was to refuse to negotiate with terrorists under any circumstances, as according to the Israeli government such negotiations would give an incentive to future attacks. It has been claimed that the German authorities, under the leadership of Chancellor Willy Brandt and Minister for the Interior Hans - Dietrich Genscher, rejected Israel 's offer to send an Israeli special forces unit to Germany. The Bavarian interior minister Bruno Merk, who headed the crisis centre jointly with Genscher and Munich 's police chief Manfred Schreiber, denies that such an Israeli offer ever existed. According to journalist John K. Cooley, the hostage situation presented an extremely difficult political situation for the Germans because the hostages were Jewish. Cooley reported that the Germans offered the Palestinians an unlimited amount of money for the release of the athletes, as well as the substitution by high - ranking Germans. However, the kidnappers refused both offers. Munich police chief Manfred Schreiber, and Bruno Merk, interior minister of Bavaria, negotiated directly with the kidnappers, repeating the offer of an unlimited amount of money. According to Cooley, the reply was that `` money means nothing to us ; our lives mean nothing to us. '' Magdi Gohary and Mohammad Khadif, both Egyptian advisers to the Arab League, and A.D. Touny, an Egyptian member of the International Olympic Committee ( IOC ) also helped try to win concessions from the kidnappers, but to no avail. However, the negotiators apparently were able to convince the terrorists that their demands were being considered, as `` Issa '' granted a total of five deadline extensions. Elsewhere in the village, athletes carried on as normal, seemingly oblivious of the events unfolding nearby. The Games continued until mounting pressure on the IOC forced a suspension some 12 hours after the first athlete had been murdered. United States marathon runner Frank Shorter, observing the unfolding events from the balcony of his nearby lodging, was quoted as saying, `` Imagine those poor guys over there. Every five minutes a psycho with a machine gun says, ' Let 's kill ' em now, ' and someone else says, ' No, let 's wait a while. ' How long could you stand that ? '' Israeli hostages Kehat Shorr ( left ) and Andre Spitzer ( right ) talk to German officials during the hostage crisis. At 4 : 30 pm, a squad of 38 German police was dispatched to the Olympic Village. Dressed in Olympic sweatsuits ( some also wearing Stahlhelme and carrying Walther MP sub-machine guns ), they were members of the German border - police, although according to former Munich policeman Heinz Hohensinn they were regular Munich police officers, with no experience in combat or hostage rescue. Their plan was to crawl down from the ventilation shafts and kill the terrorists. The police took up positions awaiting the codeword `` Sunshine '', which upon hearing, they were to begin the assault. In the meantime, camera crews filmed the actions of the officers from the German apartments, and broadcast the images live on television. Thus, the terrorists were able to watch the police prepare to attack. Footage shows one of the kidnappers peering from the balcony door while one of the police officers stood on the roof less than 20 ft ( 6 m ) from him. In the end, after `` Issa '' threatened to kill two of the hostages, the police retreated from the premises. At one point during the crisis, the negotiators demanded direct contact with the hostages to satisfy themselves the Israelis were still alive. Fencing coach Andre Spitzer, who spoke fluent German, and shooting coach Kehat Shorr, the senior member of the Israeli delegation, had a brief conversation with German officials while standing at the second - floor window of the besieged building, with two kidnappers holding guns on them. When Spitzer attempted to answer a question, he was clubbed with the butt of an AK - 47 in full view of international television cameras and pulled away from the window. A few minutes later, Hans - Dietrich Genscher and Walter Tröger, the mayor of the Olympic Village, were briefly allowed into the apartments to speak with the hostages. Tröger spoke of being very moved by the dignity with which the Israelis held themselves, and that they seemed resigned to their fate. Tröger noticed that several of the hostages, especially Gutfreund, showed signs of having suffered physical abuse at the hands of the kidnappers, and that David Berger had been shot in his left shoulder. While being debriefed by the crisis team, Genscher and Tröger told them that they had seen `` four or five '' attackers inside the apartment. Fatefully, these numbers were accepted as definitive. While Genscher and Tröger were talking with the hostages, Kehat Shorr had told the Germans that the Israelis would not object to being flown to an Arab country, provided that strict guarantees for their safety were made by the Germans and whichever nation they landed in. At 6 pm Munich time, the Palestinians issued a new dictate, demanding transportation to Cairo. Failed rescue This section needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. ( February 2012 ) Ambush plan The authorities feigned agreement to the Cairo demand ( although Egyptian Prime Minister Aziz Sedki had already told the German authorities that the Egyptians did not wish to become involved in the hostage crisis ). Two Bell UH - 1 military helicopters were to transport the terrorists and hostages to nearby Fürstenfeldbruck, a NATO airbase. Initially, the perpetrators ' plan was to go to Riem, which was the international airport near Munich at the time, but the negotiators convinced them that Fürstenfeldbruck would be more practical. The authorities, who preceded the Black Septemberists and hostages in a third helicopter, had an ulterior motive : they planned an armed assault at the airport. Realizing that the Palestinians and Israelis had to walk 200 metres through the underground garages to reach the helicopters, the German police saw another opportunity to ambush the perpetrators, and placed sharpshooters there. But `` Issa '' insisted on checking the route first. He and some other Palestinians walked pointing their AK - 47s at Schreiber, Tröger and Genscher. At that time, the gunmen of the police were lying behind cars in the sidestreets, and when they approached the latter crawled away, making noise in the process. Thus the terrorists were immediately alerted of the dangerous presence, and they decided to use a bus instead of walking. The bus arrived at 10 : 00 pm and drove the contingent to the helicopters. `` Issa '' checked them with a flashlight before boarding in groups. Five German policemen were deployed around the airport in sniper roles -- three on the roof of the control tower, one hidden behind a service truck and one behind a small signal tower at ground level. However, none of them had any special sniper training, nor any special weapon ( being equipped with the H&K G3, the ordinary assault rifle of the German Armed Forces without optics or night vision devices ). The soldiers were selected because they shot competitively on weekends. During a subsequent German investigation, an officer identified as `` Sniper No. 2 '' stated : `` I am of the opinion that I am not a sharpshooter. '' The members of the crisis team -- Schreiber, Genscher, Merk and Schreiber 's deputy Georg Wolf -- supervised and observed the attempted rescue from the airport control tower. Cooley, Reeve and Groussard all place Mossad chief Zvi Zamir and Victor Cohen, one of Zamir 's senior assistants, at the scene as well, but as observers only. Zamir has stated repeatedly in interviews over the years that he was never consulted by the Germans at any time during the rescue attempt and thought that his presence actually made the Germans uncomfortable. A Boeing 727 jet was positioned on the tarmac with sixteen German police inside dressed as flight crew. It was agreed that `` Issa '' and `` Tony '' would inspect the plane. The plan was that the Germans would overpower them as they boarded, giving the snipers a chance to kill the remaining terrorists at the helicopters. These were believed to number no more than two or three, according to what Genscher and Tröger had seen inside 31 Connollystraße. However, during the transfer from the bus to the helicopters, the crisis team discovered that there were actually eight of them. Failure At the last minute, as the helicopters were arriving at Fürstenfeldbruck, the German police aboard the airplane voted to abandon their mission, without consulting the central command. This left only the five sharpshooters to try to overpower a larger and more heavily armed group. At that point, Colonel Ulrich Wegener, Genscher 's senior aide and later the founder of the elite German counter-terrorist unit GSG 9, said `` I 'm sure this will blow the whole affair ! ''. The helicopters landed just after 10 : 30 pm and the four pilots and six of the kidnappers emerged. While four of the Black September members held the pilots at gunpoint ( breaking an earlier promise that they would not take any Germans hostage ), Issa and Tony walked over to inspect the jet, only to find it empty. Realizing they had been lured into a trap, they sprinted back toward the helicopters. As they ran past the control tower, Sniper 3 took one last opportunity to eliminate `` Issa '', which would have left the group leaderless. However, due to the poor lighting, he struggled to see his target and missed, hitting `` Tony '' in the thigh instead, which could have proved fatal had the femural artery been severed, which did not occur. Meanwhile, the German authorities gave the order for snipers positioned nearby to open fire, which occurred around 11 : 00 pm. In the ensuing chaos, Ahmed Chic Thaa and Afif Ahmed Hamid, the two kidnappers holding the helicopter pilots, were killed while the remaining gunmen -- some possibly already wounded -- scrambled to safety, returning fire from behind and beneath the helicopters, out of the snipers ' line of sight, shooting out many of the airport lights. A German policeman in the control tower, Anton Fliegerbauer, was killed by the gunfire. The helicopter pilots fled ; the hostages, tied up inside the craft, could not. During the gun battle, the hostages secretly worked on loosening their bonds and teethmarks were found on some of the ropes after the gunfire had ended. Massacre The Germans had not arranged for armored personnel carriers ahead of time and only at this point were they called in to break the deadlock. Since the roads to the airport had not been cleared, the carriers became stuck in traffic and finally arrived around midnight. With their appearance, the kidnappers felt the shift in the status quo, and possibly panicked at the thought of the failure of their operation. At four minutes past midnight of 6 September, one of them ( likely Issa ) turned on the hostages in the eastern helicopter and fired at them with a Kalashnikov assault rifle from point - blank range. Springer, Halfin and Friedman were killed instantly ; Berger, shot twice in the leg, is believed to have survived the initial onslaught ( as his autopsy later found that he had died of smoke inhalation ). The attacker then pulled the pin on a hand grenade and tossed it into the cockpit ; the ensuing explosion destroyed the helicopter and incinerated the bound Israelis inside. Issa then dashed across the tarmac and began firing at the police, who killed him with return fire. Another, Khalid Jawad, attempted to escape and was gunned down by one of the snipers. What happened to the remaining hostages is still a matter of dispute. A German police investigation indicated that one of their snipers and a few of the hostages may have been shot inadvertently by the police. However, a Time Magazine reconstruction of the long - suppressed Bavarian prosecutor 's report indicates that a third kidnapper ( Reeve identifies Adnan Al - Gashey ) stood at the door of the western helicopter and raked the remaining five hostages with machine gun fire ; Gutfreund, Shorr, Slavin, Spitzer and Shapira were shot an average of four times each. Of the four hostages in the eastern helicopter, only Ze'ev Friedman 's body was relatively intact ; he had been blown clear of the helicopter by the explosion. In some cases, the exact cause of death for the hostages in the eastern helicopter was difficult to establish because the rest of the corpses were burned almost beyond recognition in the explosion and subsequent fire. Three of the remaining men lay on the ground, one of them feigning death, and were captured by police. Jamal Al - Gashey had been shot through his right wrist, and Mohammed Safady had sustained a flesh wound to his leg. Adnan Al - Gashey had escaped injury completely. Tony escaped the scene, but was tracked down with police dogs 40 minutes later in an airbase parking lot. Cornered and bombarded with tear gas, he was shot dead after a brief gunfight. By around 1 : 30 am on 6 September, the battle was over. Outcome Initial news reports, published all over the world, indicated that all the hostages were alive, and that all the attackers had been killed. Only later did a representative for the International Olympic Committee ( IOC ) suggest that `` initial reports were overly optimistic. '' Jim McKay, who was covering the Olympics that year for the American Broadcasting Company ( ABC ), had taken on the job of reporting the events as Roone Arledge fed them into his earpiece. At 3 : 24 am, McKay received the official confirmation : We just got the final word... you know, when I was a kid, my father used to say `` Our greatest hopes and our worst fears are seldom realized. '' Our worst fears have been realized tonight. They 've now said that there were eleven hostages. Two were killed in their rooms yesterday morning, nine were killed at the airport tonight. They 're all gone. Several sources listed Ladany as having been killed. Ladany recalled later : The impact did not hit me at the time, when we were in Munich. It was when we arrived back in Israel. At the airport in Lod there was a huge crowd -- maybe 20,000, people -- and each one of us, the survivors, stood by one of the coffins on the runway. Some friends came up to me and tried to kiss me and hug me as if I was almost a ghost that came back alive. It was then that I really grasped what had happened and the emotion hit me. Criticism Author Simon Reeve, among others, writes that the shootout with the well - trained Black September members showed an egregious lack of preparation on the part of the German authorities. They were not prepared to deal with this sort of situation. This costly lesson led directly to the founding, less than two months later, of police counter-terrorism branch GSG 9. German authorities made a number of mistakes. First, because of restrictions in the post-war West German constitution, the army could not participate in the attempted rescue, as the German armed forces are not allowed to operate inside Germany during peacetime. The responsibility was entirely in the hands of the Munich police and the Bavarian authorities. It was known a half - hour before the hostages and kidnappers had even arrived at Fürstenfeldbruck that the number of the latter was larger than first believed. Despite this new information, Schreiber decided to continue with the rescue operation as originally planned and the new information could not reach the snipers since they had no radios. It is a basic tenet of sniping operations that there are enough snipers ( at least two for each known target, or in this case a minimum of ten ) deployed to neutralize as many of the attackers as possible with the first volley of shots. The 2006 National Geographic Channel 's Seconds From Disaster profile on the massacre stated that the helicopters were supposed to land sideways and to the west of the control tower, a maneuver which would have allowed the snipers clear shots into them as the kidnappers threw open the helicopter doors. Instead, the helicopters were landed facing the control tower and at the centre of the airstrip. This not only gave them a place to hide after the gunfight began, but put Snipers 1 and 2 in the line of fire of the other three snipers on the control tower. The snipers were denied valuable shooting opportunities as a result of the positioning of the helicopters, stacking the odds against what were effectively three snipers versus eight heavily armed gunmen. According to the same program, the crisis committee delegated to make decisions on how to deal with the incident consisted of Bruno Merk ( the Bavarian interior minister ), Hans - Dietrich Genscher ( the West German interior minister ) and Manfred Schreiber ( Munich 's Chief of Police ) ; in other words, two politicians and one tactician. The program mentioned that a year before the Games, Schreiber had participated in another hostage crisis ( a failed bank robbery ) in which he ordered a marksman to shoot one of the perpetrators, managing only to wound the robber. As a result, the robbers shot an innocent woman dead. Schreiber was consequently charged with involuntary manslaughter. An investigation ultimately cleared him of any wrongdoing, but the program suggested that the prior incident affected his judgment in the subsequent Olympic hostage crisis. As mentioned earlier, the five German snipers at Fürstenfeldbruck did not have radio contact with one another ( nor with the German authorities conducting the rescue operation ) and therefore were unable to coordinate their fire. The only contact the snipers had with the operational leadership was with Georg Wolf, who was lying next to the three snipers on the control tower giving orders directly to them. The two snipers at ground level had been given vague instructions to shoot when the other snipers began shooting, and were basically left to fend for themselves. In addition, the snipers did not have the proper equipment for this hostage rescue operation. The Heckler & Koch G3 battle rifles used were considered by several experts to be inadequate for the distance at which the snipers were trying to shoot. The G3, the standard service rifle of the Bundeswehr at that time, had a 18 - inch ( 460 mm ) barrel ; at the distances the snipers were required to shoot, a 27 - inch ( 690 mm ) barrel would have ensured far greater accuracy. None of the rifles were equipped with telescopic or infrared sights. Additionally, none of the snipers were equipped with a steel helmet or bullet - proof vest. No armored vehicles were at the scene at Fürstenfeldbruck, and were only called in after the gunfight was well underway. There were also numerous tactical errors. As mentioned earlier, `` Sniper 2 '', who was stationed behind the signal tower, wound up directly in the line of fire of his fellow snipers on the control tower, without any protective gear and without any other police being aware of his location. Because of this, `` Sniper 2 '' did n't fire a single shot until late in the gunfight, when hostage - taker Khalid Jawad attempted to escape on foot and ran right at the exposed sniper. `` Sniper 2 '' killed the fleeing perpetrator but was in turn badly wounded by a fellow police officer, who was unaware that he was shooting at one of his own men. One of the helicopter pilots, Gunnar Ebel, was lying near `` Sniper 2 '' and was also wounded by friendly fire. Both Ebel and the sniper recovered from their injuries. Many of the errors made by the Germans during the rescue attempt were ultimately detailed by Heinz Hohensinn, who had participated in Operation Sunshine earlier that day. He stated in One Day in September that he had been selected to pose as a crew member. He and his fellow policemen understood that it was a suicide mission, so the group unanimously voted to flee the plane. None of them were reprimanded for that desertion. Aftermath The bodies of the five Palestinian attackers -- Afif, Nazzal, Chic Thaa, Hamid and Jamal -- killed during the Fürstenfeldbruck gun battle were delivered to Libya, where they received heroes ' funerals and were buried with full military honours. On 8 September, Israeli planes bombed ten PLO bases in Syria and Lebanon in response to the massacre. Up to 200 people were killed. The three surviving Black September gunmen had been arrested after the Fürstenfeldbruck gunfight, and were being held in a Munich prison for trial. On 29 October, Lufthansa Flight 615 was hijacked and threatened to be blown up if the Munich attackers were not released. Safady and the Al - Gasheys were immediately released by West Germany, receiving a tumultuous welcome when they touched down in Libya and ( as seen in One Day in September ) giving their own firsthand account of their operation at a press conference broadcast worldwide. Cite error : A < ref > tag is missing the closing < / ref > ( see the help page ). Further international investigations into the Lufthansa Flight 615 incident have produced theories of a secret agreement between the German government and Black September - release of the surviving terrorists in exchange for assurances of no further attacks on Germany. Effect on the Games In the wake of the hostage - taking, competition was eventually suspended for the first time in modern Olympic history, after public criticism of the Olympic Committee 's decision to continue the games. On 6 September, a memorial service attended by 80,000 spectators and 3,000 athletes was held in the Olympic Stadium. IOC President Avery Brundage made little reference to the murdered athletes during a speech praising the strength of the Olympic movement and equating the attack on the Israeli sportsmen with the recent arguments about encroaching professionalism and disallowing Rhodesia 's participation in the Games, which outraged many listeners. The victims ' families were represented by Andre Spitzer 's widow Ankie, Moshe Weinberg 's mother, and a cousin of Weinberg, Carmel Eliash. During the memorial service, Eliash collapsed and died of a heart attack. Many of the 80,000 people who filled the Olympic Stadium for West Germany 's football match with Hungary carried noisemakers and waved flags, but when several spectators unfurled a banner reading `` 17 dead, already forgotten ? '' security officers removed the sign and expelled those responsible from the grounds. During the memorial service, the Olympic Flag was flown at half - staff, along with the flags of most of the other competing nations at the request of Willy Brandt. Ten Arab nations objected to their flags being lowered to honor murdered Israelis ; their flags were restored to the tops of their flagpoles almost immediately. Willi Daume, president of the Munich organizing committee, initially sought to cancel the remainder of the Games, but in the afternoon Brundage and others who wished to continue the Games prevailed, stating that they could not let the incident halt the Games. Brundage stated `` The Games must go on, and we must... and we must continue our efforts to keep them clean, pure and honest. '' The decision was endorsed by the Israeli government and Israeli Olympic team chef de mission Shmuel Lalkin. On 6 September, after the memorial service, the remaining members of the Israeli team withdrew from the Games and left Munich. All Jewish sportsmen were placed under guard. Mark Spitz, the American swimming star who had already completed his competitions, left Munich during the hostage crisis ( it was feared that as a prominent Jew, Spitz might now be a kidnapping target ). The Egyptian team left the Games on 7 September, stating they feared reprisals. The Philippine and Algerian teams also left the Games, as did some members of the Dutch and Norwegian teams. American marathon runner Kenny Moore, who wrote about the incident for Sports Illustrated, quoted Dutch distance runner Jos Hermens as saying `` It 's quite simple. We were invited to a party, and if someone comes to the party and shoots people, how can you stay ? '' Many athletes, dazed by the tragedy, similarly felt that their desire to compete had been destroyed, although they stayed at the Games. Four years later at the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal, the Israeli team commemorated the massacre : when they entered the stadium at the Opening Ceremony, their national flag was adorned with a black ribbon. The families of some victims have asked the IOC to establish a permanent memorial to the athletes. The IOC has declined, saying that to introduce a specific reference to the victims could `` alienate other members of the Olympic community, '' according to the BBC. Alex Gilady, an Israeli IOC official, told the BBC : `` We must consider what this could do to other members of the delegations that are hostile to Israel. '' The IOC rejected an international campaign in support of a minute of silence at the Opening Ceremony of the 2012 London Olympics in honour of the Israeli victims on the 40th anniversary of the massacre. Jacques Rogge, the IOC President, said it would be `` inappropriate, '' although the opening ceremony included a memorium for the victims of the 7 July 2005 London bombings. Speaking of the decision, Olympian Shaul Ladany, who survived the attack, commented : `` I do not understand. I do not understand, and I do not accept it. '' In 2014 the International Olympic Committee agreed to contribute $250,000 towards a memorial to the murdered Israeli athletes. After 44 years, the IOC commemorated the victims of the Munich massacre for the first time in the Rio 2016 Olympic Village on 4 August 2016. There is a memorial outside the Olympic stadium in Munich in the form of a stone tablet at the bridge linking the stadium to the former Olympic village. There is a memorial tablet to the slain Israelis outside the front door of their former lodging at 31 Connollystraße. On 15 October 1999 ( almost a year before the Sydney 2000 Games ), a memorial plaque was unveiled in one of the large light towers ( Tower 14 ) outside the Sydney Olympic Stadium. Israeli response Main articles : Operation Wrath of God and 1973 Israeli raid on Lebanon Golda Meir and the Israeli Defense Committee secretly authorized the Mossad to track down and kill those allegedly responsible for the Munich massacre. The accusation that this was motivated by a desire for vengeance was disputed by Zvi Zamir, who described the mission as `` putting an end to the type of terror that was perpetrated '' ( in Europe ). To this end the Mossad set up a number of special teams to locate and kill these fedayeen, aided by the agency 's stations in Europe. In a February 2006 interview, former Mossad chief Zvi Zamir answered direct questions : Was there no element of vengeance in the decision to take action against the terrorists ? `` No. We were not engaged in vengeance. We are accused of having been guided by a desire for vengeance. That is nonsense. What we did was to concretely prevent in the future. We acted against those who thought that they would continue to perpetrate acts of terror. I am not saying that those who were involved in Munich were not marked for death. They definitely deserved to die. But we were not dealing with the past ; we concentrated on the future. '' Did you not receive a directive from Golda Meir along the lines of ' take revenge on those responsible for Munich ? `` Golda abhorred the necessity that was imposed on us to carry out the operations. Golda never told me to ' take revenge on those who were responsible for Munich. ' No one told me that. '' The Israeli mission later became known as Operation Wrath of God or Mivtza Za'am Ha'El. Reeve quotes General Aharon Yariv -- who, he writes, was the general overseer of the operation -- as stating that after Munich the Israeli government felt it had no alternative but to exact justice. We had no choice. We had to make them stop, and there was no other way... we are not very proud about it. But it was a question of sheer necessity. We went back to the old biblical rule of an eye for an eye... I approach these problems not from a moral point of view, but, hard as it may sound, from a cost - benefit point of view. If I 'm very hard - headed, I can say, what is the political benefit in killing this person ? Will it bring us nearer to peace ? Will it bring us nearer to an understanding with the Palestinians or not ? In most cases I do n't think it will. But in the case of Black September we had no other choice and it worked. Is it morally acceptable ? One can debate that question. Is it politically vital ? It was. Benny Morris writes that a target list was created using information from `` turned '' PLO personnel and friendly European intelligence services. Once completed, a wave of assassinations of suspected Black September operatives began across Europe. On 9 April 1973, Israel launched Operation `` Spring of Youth '', a joint Mossad - IDF operation in Beirut. The targets were Mohammad Yusuf al - Najjar ( Abu Yusuf ), head of Fatah 's intelligence arm, which ran Black September, according to Morris ; Kamal Adwan, who headed the PLO 's so - called Western Sector, which controlled PLO action inside Israel ; and Kamal Nassir, the PLO spokesman. A group of Sayeret commandos were taken in nine missile boats and a small fleet of patrol boats to a deserted Lebanese beach, before driving in two cars to downtown Beirut, where they killed Najjar, Adwan and Nassir. Two further detachments of commandos blew up the PFLP 's headquarters in Beirut and a Fatah explosives plant. The leader of the commando team that conducted the operations was Ehud Barak. On 21 July 1973, in the so - called Lillehammer affair, a team of Mossad agents mistakenly killed Ahmed Bouchiki, a Moroccan man unrelated to the Munich attack, in Lillehammer, Norway, after an informant mistakenly said Bouchiki was Ali Hassan Salameh, the head of Force 17 and a Black September operative. Five Mossad agents, including two women, were captured by the Norwegian authorities, while others managed to slip away. The five were convicted of the killing and imprisoned, but were released and returned to Israel in 1975. The Mossad later found Ali Hassan Salameh in Beirut and killed him on 22 January 1979 with a remote - controlled car bomb. The attack killed four passersby and injured 18 others. According to CIA officer Duane `` Dewey '' Claridge, chief of operations of the CIA Near East Division from 1975 to 1978, in mid-1976, Salameh offered Americans assistance and protection with Arafat 's blessings during the American embassy pull - out from Beirut during the down - spiraling chaos of the Lebanese Civil War. There was a general feeling that Americans could be trusted. However, the scene of cooperation came to an end abruptly after the assassination of Salameh. Americans were generally blamed as Israel 's principal benefactors. Simon Reeve writes that the Israeli operations continued for more than twenty years. He details the assassination in Paris in 1992 of Atef Bseiso, the PLO 's head of intelligence, and says that an Israeli general confirmed there was a link back to Munich. Reeve also writes that while Israeli officials have stated Operation Wrath of God was intended to exact vengeance for the families of the athletes killed in Munich, `` few relatives wanted such a violent reckoning with the Palestinians. '' Reeve states the families were instead desperate to know the truth of the events surrounding the Munich massacre. Reeve outlines what he sees as a lengthy cover - up by German authorities to hide the truth. After a lengthy court fight, in 2004 the families of the Munich victims reached a settlement of € 3 million with the German government. Alleged German cover - up An article in 2012 in a front - page story of the German news magazine Der Spiegel reported that much of the information pertaining to the mishandling of the massacre was covered up by the German authorities. For twenty years, Germany refused to release any information about the attack and did not accept responsibility for the results. The magazine reported that the government had been hiding 3,808 files, which contained tens of thousands of documents. Der Spiegel said it obtained secret reports by authorities, embassy cables, and minutes of cabinet meetings that demonstrate the lack of professionalism of the German officials in handling the massacre. The newspaper also wrote that the German authorities were told that Palestinians were planning an `` incident '' at the Olympics three weeks before the massacre, but failed to take the necessary security measures, and these facts are missing from the official documentation of the German government. In August 2012, Der Spiegel reported that following the massacre, Germany began secret meetings with Black September, at the behest of the West German government, due to the fear that Black September would carry out other terrorist attacks in Germany. The government proposed a clandestine meeting between German Foreign Minister Walter Scheel and a member of Black September to create a `` new basis of trust. '' In return for an exchange of the political status of the Palestine Liberation Organization, the PLO would stop terrorist attacks on German soil. When French police arrested Abu Daoud, one of the chief organizers of the Munich massacre, and inquired about extraditing him to Germany, Bavaria 's justice secretary Alfred Seidl ( de ) recommended that Germany should not take any action, causing the French to release Abu Daoud and the Assad regime to shelter him until he died at a Damascus hospital in 2010. Surviving Black September members Two of the three surviving gunmen, Mohammed Safady and Adnan Al - Gashey, were allegedly killed by Mossad as part of Operation Wrath of God. Al - Gashey was allegedly located after making contact with a cousin in a Gulf State, and Safady was found by remaining in touch with family in Lebanon. This account was challenged in a book by Aaron Klein, who claims that Al - Gashey died of heart failure in the 1970s, and that Safady was killed by Christian Phalangists in Lebanon in the early 1980s. However, in July 2005, PLO veteran Tawfiq Tirawi told Klein that Safady, whom Tirawi claimed as a close friend, was `` as alive as you are. '' The third surviving gunman, Jamal Al - Gashey, was known to be alive as of 1999, hiding in North Africa or in Syria, claiming to still fear retribution from Israel. He is the only one of the surviving terrorists to consent to interviews since 1972, having granted an interview in 1992 to a Palestinian newspaper, and having briefly emerged from hiding in 1999 to participate in an interview for the film One Day in September, during which he was disguised and his face shown only in blurry shadow. Abu Daoud Of those believed to have planned the massacre, only Abu Daoud, the man who claims that the attack was his idea, is known to have died of natural causes. Historical documents released to Der Spiegel by the German secret service show that Dortmund police had been aware of collaboration between Abu Daoud and neo-Nazi Willi Pohl ( de ) ( aka E.W. Pless and, since 1979, officially named Willi Voss ) seven weeks before the attack. In January 1977, Abu Daoud was intercepted by French police in Paris while traveling from Beirut under an assumed name. Under protest from the PLO, Iraq, and Libya, who claimed that because Abu Daoud was traveling to a PLO comrade 's funeral he should receive diplomatic immunity, the French government refused a West German extradition request on grounds that forms had not been filled in properly, and put him on a plane to Algeria before Germany could submit another request. On 27 July 1981, he was shot 5 times from a distance of around two meters in a Warsaw Victoria ( now Sofitel ) hotel coffee shop, but survived the attack, chasing his would - be assassin down to the coffee shop 's front entrance before collapsing. Abu Daoud was allowed safe passage through Israel in 1996 so he could attend a PLO meeting convened in the Gaza Strip for the purpose of rescinding an article in its charter that called for Israel 's eradication. In his autobiography, From Jerusalem to Munich, first published in France in 1999, and later in a written interview with Sports Illustrated, Abu Daoud wrote that funds for Munich were provided by Mahmoud Abbas, Chairman of the PLO since 11 November 2004 and President of the Palestinian National Authority since 15 January 2005. Though he claims he did n't know what the money was being spent for, longtime Fatah official Mahmoud Abbas, aka Abu Mazen, was responsible for the financing of the Munich attack. Abu Daoud believes that if the Israelis knew that Mahmoud Abbas was the financier of the operation, the 1993 Oslo Accords would not have been achieved, during which Mahmoud Abbas was seen in photo ops at the White House. Abu Daoud, who lived with his wife on a pension provided by the Palestinian Authority, said that `` the Munich operation had the endorsement of Arafat, '' although Arafat was not involved in conceiving or implementing the attack. '' In his autobiography, Abu Daoud writes that Arafat saw the team off on the mission with the words `` God protect you. '' Ankie Spitzer, widow of fencing coach Andre, declined several offers to meet with Abu Daoud, saying that the only place she wants to meet him is in a courtroom. According to Spitzer, `` He ( Abu Daoud ) did n't pay the price for what he did. '' In 2006, during the release of Steven Spielberg 's film, Munich, Der Spiegel interviewed Abu Daoud regarding the Munich massacre. He was quoted as saying : `` I regret nothing. You can only dream that I would apologize. '' Daoud died of kidney failure aged 73 on 3 July 2010 in Damascus, Syria. List of fatalities Shot during the initial break - in Moshe Weinberg, wrestling coach Yossef Romano, weightlifter Shot and killed by grenade in eastern - side helicopter D - HAQO According to the order in which they were seated, from left to right : Ze'ev Friedman, weightlifter David Berger, weightlifter ( survived grenade but died of smoke inhalation ) Yakov Springer, weightlifting judge Eliezer Halfin, wrestler Shot in western - side helicopter D - HAQU According to the order in which they were seated, from left to right : Yossef Gutfreund, wrestling referee Kehat Shorr, shooting coach Mark Slavin, wrestler Andre Spitzer, fencing coach Amitzur Shapira, track coach Shot on airstrip Anton Fliegerbauer, German police officer Palestinian terrorists shot dead by German police Luttif Afif ( `` Issa '' ) Yusuf Nazzal ( `` Tony '' ) Afif Ahmed Hamid ( `` Paolo '' ) Khalid Jawad ( `` Salah '' ) Ahmed Chic Thaa ( `` Abu Halla '' ) Memorials gallery Memorial plaque in front of the Israeli athletes ' quarters. The inscription, in German and Hebrew, translates as : `` The team of the State of Israel stayed in this building during the 20th Olympic Summer Games from 21 August to 5 September 1972. On 5 September, ( list of victims ) died a violent death. Honor to their memory. '' Memorial panel for the victims of the attack on the site of the Munich Olympic Park Memorial for the dead athletes in front of the airport in Fürstenfeldbruck. The names of the victims are engraved. Place of memory in Ben Shemen forest in Israel Graves of five victims of the Munich massacre at the Kiryat Shaul Cemetery, Tel Aviv, Israel. From left to right : André Spitzer, Mark Slavin, Eliezer Halfin, Kehat Shorr and Amitzur Schapira. Media Munich Massacre by Mark Podwal, published in The New York Times in 1972 1972, by Sarah Morris 21 Hours at Munich Munich, a 2005 American - Canadian historical drama Munich : Mossad 's Revenge One Day in September, 1999 documentary by Kevin Macdonald ; winner of the Academy Award for Best Documentary National Geographic Seconds From Disaster episodes Sword of Gideon Visions of Eight Munich 1972 & Beyond, 2016 documentary film by Steven Ungerleider See also Munich portal Israel portal Terrorism portal Palestine portal Olympics portal 1970s portal Israeli casualties of war Lod Airport massacre One minute of silence Palestinian political violence References Jump up ^ Breznican, Anthony ( 22 December 2005 ). `` Messages from ' Munich ' ''. USAToday. Gannett Co. Retrieved 17 April 2009. Jump up ^ Karon, Tony. `` Revisiting the Olympics ' Darkest Day ''. Time. Retrieved 13 May 2010. Jump up ^ Juan Sanchez ( 7 August 2007 ). Terrorism & Its Effects. Global Media. p. 144. 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Jump up ^ `` Simon Reeve 's article in 2000 : Munich massacre 's echoes heard amid Sydney 's jubilee ''. Jewishsf. Retrieved 7 June 2010. ^ Jump up to : Morris. ^ Jump up to : Melman. Jump up ^ `` Munich : Mossad breaks cover '' by Ewen MacAskill and Ian Black, The Guardian, 26 January 2006. Jump up ^ Shalev, Noam ' The hunt for Black September '. BBC. Retrieved 4 March 2012. Jump up ^ `` MIDDLE EAST : Death of a Terrorist ''. Time. 5 February 1979. Jump up ^ Posner, Gerald ( 2004 ). Why America slept : the failure to prevent 9 / 11. Random House Inc. p. 13. ISBN 0 - 8129 - 6623 - 6. Jump up ^ `` Officials Ignored Warnings of Terrorist Attack ''. Der Spiegel. 23 July 2012. Retrieved 23 July 2012. Jump up ^ Aderet, Oferet ( 22 July 2012 ). `` Germany was warned one month before Munich massacre, claims Der Spiege ''. Ha'aretz. Retrieved 23 July 2012. Jump up ^ `` Der Spiegel : Germany had warning of Munich attack ''. 22 July 2012. Retrieved 23 July 2012. Jump up ^ Weinthal, Benjamin ( 26 August 2012 ). `` ' Germany met with Munich terrorists after attack ' ''. The Jerusalem Post. Archived from the original on 26 August 2012. Retrieved 26 August 2012. Jump up ^ Reeve, p. 188. Jump up ^ Klein, Aaron ( 2007 ). Striking back : The 1972 Munich Olympics Massacre and Israel 's deadly response. New York : Random House Trade Paperbacks. ISBN 9780812974638. Jump up ^ `` One Day in September ''. NY Times. Retrieved 22 November 2008. Jump up ^ Neo-Nazi ' aided Munich Olympics massacre ', The Local 17 June 2012 ^ Jump up to : Frum, David ( 2000 ). How We Got Here : The ' 70s. New York City : Basic Books. p. 319. ISBN 0 - 465 - 04195 - 7. ^ Jump up to : Wolff, Alexander ( 26 August 2002 ). `` The Mastermind ''. Sports Illustrated. Sports Illustrated. Archived from the original on 4 October 2002. Retrieved 7 June 2010. Jump up ^ `` Israel Law Center on Abu Mazen ''. Israel law center. Archived from the original on 31 March 2012. Retrieved 3 October 2011. Jump up ^ Abu Daoud. Jump up ^ Goodenough, Patrick ( 5 May 1999 ). `` Munich Olympics Massacre Said to Be PLO Operation ''. CNSNews.com. Archived from the original on 4 April 2004. Retrieved 1 August 2013. Jump up ^ `` Her husband 's killer ''. New York Daily News. 25 December 2005. Jump up ^ `` Suspected Munich massacre mastermind dead, report says ''. CNN. 3 July 2010. Jump up ^ `` Mastermind behind Munich Olympics attacks dies ''. BBC News. 3 July 2010. Further reading Blumenau, Bernhard ( Basingstoke 2014 ), The United Nations and Terrorism. Germany, Multilateralism, and Antiterrorism Efforts in the 1970s Palgrave Macmillan, ch. 2. ISBN 978 - 1 - 137 - 39196 - 4. Calahan, A.B. `` The Israeli Response to the 1972 Munich Olympic Massacre and the Development of Independent Covert Action Teams '' ( 1995 thesis ) Cooley, John K. ( London 1973 ), Green March Black September : The Story of the Palestinian Arabs ISBN 0 - 7146 - 2987 - 1 Dahlke, Matthias ( Munich 2006 ), Der Anschlag auf Olympia ' 72. Die politischen Reaktionen auf den internationalen in Deutschland Martin Meidenbauer ISBN 3 - 89975 - 583 - 9 ( German text ) Daoud, Abu, ( New York, 2002 ), Palestine : a history of the resistance movement by the sole survivor of Black September ISBN 1 - 55970 - 429 - 2 Groussard, Serge ( New York, 1975 ), The Blood of Israel : the massacre of the Israeli athletes, the Olympics, 1972 ISBN 0 - 688 - 02910 - 8 Jonas, George. ( New York, 2005 ), Vengeance : The True Story of an Israeli Team., Simon & Schuster Khalaf, Salah ( Abu Iyad ) ( Tel Aviv, 1983 ) Without a Homeland : Conversations with Eric Rouleau Klein, A.J. ( New York, 2005 ), Striking Back : The 1972 Munich Olympics Massacre and Israel 's Deadly Response, Random House ISBN 1 - 920769 - 80 - 3 Large, David Clay ( Lanham, MD, 2012 ), Munich 1972, Rowman & Littlefield ISBN 978 - 0 - 7425 - 6739 - 9 Morris, Benny. ( New York, 1999 and 2001 ), Righteous Victims : A History of the Zionist -- Arab conflict, 1881 -- 2000, Vintage Books edition ISBN 0 - 679 - 74475 - 4 Reeve, Simon. ( New York, 2001 ), One Day in September : the full story of the 1972 Munich Olympic massacre and Israeli revenge operation `` Wrath of God '' ISBN 1 - 55970 - 547 - 7 Tinnin, David B. & Dag Christensen. ( 1976 ), The Hit Team ISBN 0 - 440 - 13644 - X Yossi Melman, ( 17 February 2006 ), Interview with former Head of Mossad, Zvi Zamir `` '' Preventive measures `` ''. Archived from the original on 1 October 2007. Retrieved 2012 - 02 - 03., Haaretz Mohammad Daoud Odeh ( August 2008 ), interview with NOX magazine, `` Rings Of Fire '' Kramer, Ferdinand : Das Attentat von München. In : Alois Schmid, Katharina Weigand : Bayern nach Jahr und Tag. 24 Tage aus der Bayerischen Geschichte. C.H. Beck Verlag, München 2007, ISBN 978 - 3 - 406 - 56320 - 1. p. 400 -- 414. Wolfgang Kraushaar : `` Wann endlich beginnt bei Euch der Kampf gegen die heilige Kuh Israel ? `` München 1970 : über die antisemitischen Wurzeln des deutschen Terrorismus. Rowohlt, Reinbek 2013, ISBN 978 - 3 - 49803411 - 5, p. 496 -- 573. External links Wikimedia Commons has media related to Munich massacre. The Israeli Response to the 1972 Munich Massacre -- Includes an extensive overview of the Munich massacre A Tribute to the 1972 Israeli Olympic Athletes -- Includes biographies and photographs for each of the 11 Israeli athletes killed Time Magazine, 4 December 2005 Special Publication of Israel State Archives : The Fortieth Anniversary of the Massacre of the Israeli Athletes in Munich Links to related articles Israel at the Olympics Summer Olympic Games 1952 1956 1960 1964 1968 1972 1976 1980 1984 1988 2000 2008 2012 2016 Winter Olympic Games 1994 1998 2002 2006 2014 2018 Israel did not participate in 1980 due to the boycott. Prominent terrorist attacks against Israelis in the history of the Arab -- Israeli conflict -- the 1970s 1970 Swissair Flight 330 attack ( February 21 ) Avivim school bus massacre ( May 22 ) 1971 Murder of the Aroyo children ( January 2 ) 1972 Sabena Flight 571 ( May 8 ) Lod Airport massacre ( May 30 ) Munich massacre ( 5 -- 6 September ) Israeli Bangkok Embassy hostage crisis ( December 28 ) 1973 Assassination of the Israeli attache in Washington ( July 1 ) Kiryat Shmona massacre ( April 11 ) Ma'alot massacre ( May 15 ) Nahariya attack ( 24 -- 25 June ) TWA Flight 841 bombing ( September 8 ) Beit She'an attack ( November 19 ) Savoy Hotel Attack ( March 6 ) Kfar Yuval hostage crisis ( June 15 ) Zion Square refrigerator bombing ( July 4 ) 1976 Hijacking of Air France Flight 139 ( June 27 ) 1978 Coastal Road massacre ( March 11 ) ‡ 1979 Nahariya massacre ( April 22 ) Attacks launched from the West Bank Attacks launched from the Gaza Strip Attacks launched from Lebanon Attacks launched from Jordan ‡ indicates the terrorist attack which caused the greatest amount of Israeli casualties during the 1970s Full list of Lebanese rocket attacks on Israel 1960s 1980s Prominent Palestinian militancy attacks in the 1970s Within Israel Avivim school bus massacre ( May 22, 1970 ) Lod Airport massacre ( May 30, 1972 ) Kiryat Shmona massacre ( April 11, 1974 ) Ma'alot massacre ( May 15, 1974 ) Nahariya attack ( June 24 -- 25, 1974 ) Beit She'an attack ( November 19, 1974 ) Savoy Hotel Attack ( March 6, 1975 ) Kfar Yuval hostage crisis ( June 15, 1975 ) Zion Square refrigerator bombing ( July 4, 1975 ) Coastal Road massacre ( March 11, 1978 ) Nahariya massacre ( April 22, 1979 ) Within the Gaza Strip Murder of the Aroyo children ( January 2, 1971 ) Aircraft attacks and hijackings Swissair Flight 330 ( February 21, 1970 ) Lufthansa Flight 649 ( February 22 -- 23, 1972 ) Sabena Flight 571 ( May 8, 1972 ) Lufthansa Flight 615 ( October 29, 1972 ) 1973 Rome airport attacks and hijacking ( December 17 -- 18, 1973 ) TWA Flight 841 ( September 8, 1974 ) Air France Flight 139 ( June 27, 1976 ) Worldwide Munich massacre ( September 5 -- 6, 1972 ) Israeli Bangkok embassy hostage crisis ( December 28, 1972 ) Assassination of the Israeli attache in Washington ( July 1, 1973 ) Attacks launched from Lebanon 1960s 1980s Israeli -- Palestinian conflict Participants Israel Israel Defense Forces Israel Police Mossad Shabak ( Shin Bet ) Palestinians Principals Palestinian National Authority Palestine Liberation Organization ( PLO ) Fatah Hamas Other groups al - Aqsa Brigades DFLP PLF PIJ PPSF PFLP PFLP - GC PRC Third - party groups Arab League Hezbollah Individuals Israelis Moshe Arens Ami Ayalon Ehud Barak Menachem Begin Meir Dagan Moshe Dayan Avi Dichter Yuval Diskin David Ben - Gurion Efraim Halevy Dan Halutz Tzipi Livni Golda Meir Shaul Mofaz Yitzhak Mordechai Benjamin Netanyahu Ehud Olmert Shimon Peres Yaakov Peri Yitzhak Rabin Amnon Lipkin - Shahak Yitzhak Shamir Ariel Sharon Shabtai Shavit Moshe Ya'alon Danny Yatom Zvi Zamir Palestinians Abu Abbas Mahmoud Abbas Moussa Arafat Yasser Arafat Yahya Ayyash Marwan Barghouti Mohammed Dahlan Mohammed Deif George Habash Wadie Haddad Ismail Haniyeh Nayef Hawatmeh Amin al - Husayni Ghazi Jabali Ahmed Jibril Abu Jihad Salah Khalaf Leila Khaled Sheikh Khalil Khaled Mashal Zuheir Mohsen Abu Ali Mustafa Abu Nidal Izz ad - Din al - Qassam Jibril Rajoub Abdel Aziz al - Rantisi Ali Hassan Salameh Salah Shehade Ramadan Shalah Fathi Shaqaqi Ahlam Tamimi Ahmed Yassin Timeline Background 1920 -- 1948 Mandatory Palestine ( intercommunal conflict ) 1920 Nebi Musa riots 1921 Jaffa riots 1929 Palestine riots Hebron massacre 1936 -- 39 Arab revolt 1944 -- 47 Jewish insurgency 1947 -- 48 Civil War 1948 -- 1970 1948 Arab -- Israeli War massacres 1948 -- present Fedayeen insurgency 1951 -- 1967 Attacks against Israeli civilians 1950s -- 1960s IDF reprisal operations 1953 Qibya massacre 1956 Kafr Qasim / Khan Yunis / Rafah massacres 1967 Six - Day War 1967 -- 70 War of Attrition 1968 Battle of Karameh Palestinian insurgency 1968 -- 1982 1970 Avivim school bus massacre 1972 Sabena Flight 571 / Munich massacre / Operation `` Wrath of God '' ( 1973 Lillehammer affair ) 1974 Kiryat Shmona massacre / Ma'alot massacre 1975 Savoy Hotel attack 1976 Operation `` Entebbe '' 1978 Coastal Road massacre / South Lebanon conflict 1980 Misgav Am hostage crisis 1973 -- 1987 1973 Yom Kippur War 1975 Zion Square bombing 1982 Lebanon War Siege of Beirut 1984 Bus 300 affair 1985 Achille Lauro hijacking / Operation `` Wooden Leg '' 1987 Night of the Gliders First Intifada 1987 -- 1991 1988 Tunis Raid 1989 Bus 405 attack 1990 Temple Mount riots 1990s Palestinian suicide attacks 1994 Cave of the Patriarchs massacre Second Intifada 2000 -- 2005 Palestinian rocket attacks list Palestinian suicide attacks Israeli assassinations 2000 October events 2001 Santorini 2002 Karine A / Operation `` Defensive Shield '' / Battle of Jenin / Battle of Nablus / Operation `` Determined Path '' 2003 Abu Hasan / Ain es Saheb airstrike 2004 Operation `` Rainbow '' / Beit Hanoun raid / Operation `` Days of Penitence '' 2006 -- present 2006 Operation `` Bringing Home the Goods '' 2008 Mercaz HaRav / Jerusalem bulldozer attack 2009 Temple Mount riots 2010 Palestinian militancy campaign 2015 Israeli -- Palestinian conflict ( 2015 -- 2016 ) 2017 Temple Mount crisis Gaza -- Israel conflict 2006 -- present 2006 Gaza beach explosion / Gaza cross-border raid / Operation `` Summer Rains '' / Operation `` Autumn Clouds '' / Beit Hanoun shelling 2008 Gaza -- Egypt border breach / Operation `` Hot Winter '' 2008 -- 09 Gaza War 2010 Gaza flotilla raid 2012 Operation `` Returning Echo '' / Operation `` Pillar of Defense '' 2014 Operation `` Protective Edge '' 2015 Freedom Flotilla III Diplomacy Timeline 1948 -- 1991 1948 Palestinian exodus depopulated Arab settlements 1949 Lausanne Conference 1967 -- present Israeli settlement settler violence international law 1990s 1991 Madrid Conference 1993 / 95 Oslo Accords 1994 Protocol on Economic Relations ( Paris Protocol ) 1994 Gaza -- Jericho Agreement 1994 -- present US security assistance to PNA 1997 Hebron Agreement 1998 Wye River Memorandum 1999 Sharm el - Sheikh Memorandum 2000s 2000 Camp David Summit / Clinton Parameters 2001 Taba Summit 2002 Quartet established 2003 Road Map 2005 Israeli disengagement from Gaza 2005 Agreement on Movement and Access 2006 Valley of Peace initiative 2007 Annapolis Conference 2009 Aftonbladet Israel controversy 2010s 2010 -- 11 Israeli -- Palestinian peace talks 2011 Palestine Papers 2013 -- 14 Israeli -- Palestinian peace talks United Nations 1947 UN Resolution 181 1948 UN Resolution 194 1967 UN Resolution 242 Arab -- Israeli conflict Countries Authorities Organizations Primary countries and authorities All - Palestine Egypt Hamas Gaza Iraq Kuwait Israel Jordan Lebanon Palestinian National Authority Saudi Arabia Syria Organizations Active Abu Nidal Organization Amal al - Aqsa Martyrs ' Brigades Syrian Social Nationalist Party Arab League Arab Liberation Front Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine Fatah Guardians of the Cedars Hamas Hezbollah Jaish al - Islam Kataeb Lebanese Forces al - Mourabitoun Muslim Brotherhood Palestinian Islamic Jihad Palestine Liberation Front Palestine Liberation Organization Palestinian Popular Struggle Front Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine -- General Command Popular Resistance Committees as - Sa'iqa Inactive or former Arab Higher Committee Arab Liberation Army Black Hand Black September Haganah Holy War Army Irgun ( Etzel ) Japanese Red Army Lehi Palmach Revolutionary Cells South Lebanon Army Other countries Algeria China Cuba France Iran Kuwait Libya Morocco North Korea Norway Pakistan Russia Sudan Tunisia Turkey Uganda United Arab Emirates United Kingdom United States Venezuela Yemen Transnational European Union United Nations Former states Mandatory Palestine Soviet Union United Arab Republic People Lester B. Pearson Abd al - Hakim Amer Hosni Mubarak Gamal Abdel Nasser Anwar Sadat Mahmoud Ahmadinejad Ali Khamenei Ruhollah Khomeini Faisal I Saddam Hussein Ehud Barak Menachem Begin David Ben - Gurion Moshe Dayan Levi Eshkol Golda Meir Benjamin Netanyahu Ehud Olmert Shimon Peres Yitzhak Rabin Yitzhak Shamir Ariel Sharon Chaim Weizmann King Abdullah I of Jordan King Abdullah II of Jordan King Hussein of Jordan Émile Lahoud Hassan Nasrallah Fouad Siniora Recep Tayyip Erdoğan Mona Juul Johan Jørgen Holst Terje Rød - Larsen Mahmoud Abbas Yasser Arafat Marwan Barghouti George Habash Ismail Haniyeh Haj Amin al - Husseini Khaled Mashal Abdel Aziz al - Rantisi Ahmad Shukeiri Ahmed Yassin King Ibn Saud of Saudi Arabia King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia King Fahd of Saudi Arabia King Faisal of Saudi Arabia Folke Bernadotte Hafez al - Assad Bashar al - Assad Shukri al - Quwatli Salah Jadid Ernest Bevin Arthur Balfour Tony Blair Richard Crossman Madeleine Albright Ralph Bunche George H.W. Bush George W. Bush Jimmy Carter Bill Clinton Henry Kissinger Ronald Reagan Condoleezza Rice Dennis Ross Ramadan Shalah Harry S. Truman Cyrus Vance Armed engagements Background 1920 Battle of Tel Hai 1936 -- 39 Arab revolt 1944 Operation ATLAS 1947 -- 1950s 1947 -- 48 Civil War in Mandatory Palestine 1948 -- 49 Arab -- Israeli War 1950s Palestinian Fedayeen attacks ( Reprisal operations ) 1956 Suez Crisis 1960s 1966 Operation Shredder 1967 Six - Day War 1967 -- 70 War of Attrition 1968 Battle of Karameh Palestinian insurgency in South Lebanon 1968 Operation Gift 1970s -- 1980 1973 Yom Kippur War Palestinian insurgency in South Lebanon 1972 Operation Isotope / Lod Airport massacre / Munich Olympics massacre 1972 -- 79 Operation Wrath of God ( Airstrike, Spring of Youth ) 1973 Libyan Arab Airlines Flight 114 1974 Ma'alot massacre 1975 Savoy Operation 1976 Operation Entebbe 1978 Coastal Road massacre / Operation Litani 1980 Misgav Am hostage crisis 1980s 1981 Operation Opera 1982 Lebanon War 1982 -- 2000 South Lebanon conflict 1984 Bus 300 affair 1985 Operation Wooden Leg 1987 -- 93 First Intifada 1988 Mothers ' Bus rescue / Tunis raid 1990s 1992 Operation Bramble Bush 1993 -- 2008 Palestinian suicide attacks 1993 Operation Accountability 1996 Operation Grapes of Wrath 2000s 2000 -- 05 Al - Aqsa Intifada ( Second Intifada ) 2000 -- 06 Shebaa Farms conflict 2001 -- present Rocket and mortar attacks on southern Israel 2003 Ain es Saheb airstrike 2006 Operation Bringing Home the Goods / Operation Summer Rains / Operation Autumn Clouds / Lebanon War 2006 -- present Gaza -- Israel conflict 2007 -- 08 Operation Hot Winter 2008 -- 09 Gaza War 2007 Operation Orchard 2007 -- present Lebanese rocket attacks 2010s 2010 Adaisseh skirmish / Palestinian militancy campaign Gaza -- Israel conflict 2011 Southern Israel cross-border attacks 2012 Operation Returning Echo / Operation Pillar of Defense 2014 2014 Israel -- Gaza conflict 2015 Israeli -- Palestinian conflict ( 2015 -- 2016 ) Diplomacy and peace proposals To 1948 1914 Damascus Protocol 1915 McMahon -- Hussein Correspondence 1916 Sykes -- Picot Agreement 1917 Balfour Declaration 1918 Declaration to the Seven / Anglo - French Declaration 1919 Faisal -- Weizmann Agreement 1920 San Remo conference 1922 Churchill White Paper 1937 Peel Commission 1939 White Paper 1947 UN Partition Plan 1948 American trusteeship proposal 1948 -- 91 1948 UN General Assembly ( UNGA ) Resolution 194 1949 Armistice agreements / Lausanne Conference 1950 Tripartite Declaration 1964 Palestinian National Covenant 1967 Khartoum Resolution / UN Security Council ( UNSC ) Resolution 242 1973 UNSC Resolution 338 / UNSC Resolution 339 1974 Israel -- Syria disengagement agreement / UNSC Resolution 350 1978 UNSC Resolution 425 / Camp David Accords 1979 UNSC Resolution 446 / Egypt -- Israel Peace Treaty / UNSC Resolution 452 1980 UNSC Resolution 478 1981 UNSC Resolution 497 1983 Israel -- Lebanon agreement 1991 -- present 1991 Madrid Conference 1993 Oslo Accords 1994 Gaza -- Jericho Agreement / Israel -- Jordan peace treaty 1995 Beilin - Abu Mazen agreement 1998 Wye River Memorandum 1999 Sharm el - Sheikh Memorandum 2000 Camp David Summit / Clinton Parameters 2001 Taba Summit 2002 Beirut Summit and peace initiative / Road map 2003 Geneva Initiative 2004 UNSC Resolution 1559 / UNSC Resolution 1566 2005 UNSC Resolution 1583 / Sharm el - Sheikh Summit / Israeli disengagement from Gaza / Agreement on Movement and Access 2006 UNSC Resolution 1701 2007 Annapolis Conference 2010 Israeli -- Palestinian peace talks 2013 Israeli -- Palestinian peace talks Olympic Games scandals and controversies By year 2008 ( summer ) 2010 ( winter ) 2012 ( summer ) 2014 ( winter ) 2016 ( summer ) 2022 ( winter ) Boycotts 1936 1956 1964 1976 1980 1984 1988 Alternative competitions Intercalated Games ( 1906 ) People 's Olympiad ( 1936 ) Games of the New Emerging Forces ( 1963 ) Liberty Bell Classic ( 1980 ) Friendship Games ( 1984 ) Goodwill Games ( 1986 -- 2001 ) Events Football match between Peru and Austria ( 1936 ) `` Blood in the Water '' water - polo match ( 1956 ) Tlatelolco massacre ( 1968 ) Black Power salute ( 1968 ) Munich massacre ( 1972 ) Basketball gold - medal match controversy ( 1972 ) Kozakiewicz 's gesture ( 1980 ) Centennial Olympic Park bombing ( 1996 ) Winter Olympic bid scandal ( 1998 ) Figure - skating judging scandal ( 2002 ) Underage gymnasts controversy ( 2008 ) Death of Nodar Kumritashvili ( 2010 ) Quadruple jump controversy ( 2010 ) One minute of silence campaign ( 2012 ) LGBT rights protests ( 2014 ) Sochi Ladies ' singles judging controversy ( 2014 ) Ireland Summer Olympics ticket scandal ( 2016 ) Death of Bahman Golbarnezhad ( 2016 ) Lochtegate ( 2016 ) Rule 40 ( 2016 ) List of stripped Olympic medals Doping at the Olympic Games Apartheid - era South Africa and the Olympics GND : 7508433 - 8 Terrorism in Germany Notable attacks Munich massacre German autumn Kidnapping and murder of Hanns - Martin Schleyer Lufthansa Flight 181 Oktoberfest terror attack 1986 Berlin discotheque bombing Mykonos restaurant assassinations 1993 Solingen arson attack 2004 Cologne bombing Murder of Michèle Kiesewetter 2011 Frankfurt airport shooting 2016 Hanover stabbing 2016 Würzburg train attack 2016 Ansbach bombing 2016 Berlin attack 2017 Hamburg attack Notable terrorists In terror groups Black September Organization Abu Daoud Adnan al - Gashey Jamal al - Gashey Red Army Faction Andreas Baader Gudrun Ensslin Jan - Carl Raspe Ulrike Meinhof Brigitte Mohnhaupt Christian Klar Birgit Hogefeld Wolfgang Grams Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine Souhaila Andrawes National Socialist Underground Beate Zschäpe Uwe Böhnhardt Uwe Mundlos Lone perpetrators Gundolf Köhler Arid Uka Mohammad Daleel Anis Amri Terror groups Domestic groups Red Army Faction ( defunct ) National Socialist Underground ( defunct, the case is on trial ) Foreign groups Black September Organization ( defunct ) Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine Mukhabarat el - Jamahiriya ( defunct ) Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant Counter-terrorism units Federal Police units GSG 9 Spezialeinsatzkommando Military unit Kommando Spezialkräfte Retrieved from `` https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Munich_massacre&oldid=799106896 '' Categories : Munich massacre Mass murder in 1972 Black September Organization Olympic Games controversies Palestinian terrorist incidents in Europe Massacres in Germany Terrorist incidents in 1972 Terrorist attacks attributed to Palestinian militant groups Antisemitism in Germany Antisemitism in Egypt Germany -- Israel relations Olympic deaths 1972 crimes in Germany 1972 in Israel 1972 in West Germany Politics and sports Terrorist incidents in Germany Crime in Munich Deaths by firearm in Germany History of Munich History of Israel Hostage taking in Germany Fatah Israel at the Summer Olympics Arab -- Israeli conflict Jewish sports 1970s in Munich Kidnappings in Germany Murder in Bavaria Military operations involving Palestine September 1972 events in Europe Hidden categories : Pages with reference errors Pages with incorrect ref formatting CS1 errors : external links Wikipedia articles needing page number citations from February 2012 Pages with broken reference names CS1 German - language sources ( de ) All articles with dead external links Articles with dead external links from March 2016 Wikipedia articles needing page number citations from October 2012 Wikipedia pages under 30 - 500 editing restriction Use dmy dates from April 2013 Articles needing additional references from September 2017 All articles needing additional references Coordinates on Wikidata All articles with unsourced statements Articles with unsourced statements from September 2017 All accuracy disputes Articles with disputed statements from April 2013 Articles needing additional references from February 2012 Articles with specifically marked weasel - worded phrases from February 2015 Wikipedia articles needing clarification from February 2012 Interlanguage link template link number Wikipedia articles with GND identifiers Talk View source Contents About Wikipedia Български Català Čeština Dansk Deutsch Ελληνικά Español Euskara فارسی Français Galego 한국어 Hrvatski Bahasa Indonesia Íslenska Italiano עברית Latviešu Magyar Македонски മലയാളം Bahasa Melayu Монгол Nederlands 日本 語 Norsk Norsk nynorsk Polski Português Română Русский Simple English Slovenščina Српски / srpski Srpskohrvatski / српскохрватски Suomi Svenska Türkçe Українська Tiếng Việt Walon ייִדיש 粵語 中文 Edit links This page was last edited on 5 September 2017, at 17 : 42. 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Question: where did terrorists strike munich germany in 1972
Answer: 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich, West Germany