The 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich

The 1972 Summer Olympics were an international multi-sport event. Another name for that Olympic Game was the 1972 Olympics Massacre. It was the 20th Olympic Games. It was held in Munich, Germany from August 26, 1972 to September 11, 1972.The 1972 Olympics were the second Olympics to be held in Germany. The first Olympic Games that were held in Germany occur in 1936 in Berlin, which occurred during the Nazi regime. The Olympic Committee in West Germany was hoping to get rid of the military image of Germany. They were tired of the image that was portrayed by the 1936 Berlin Olympics, which Hitler used for his own benefit. Also, tensions were high due to the fact that the last games occurred during the Nazi regime. The Israeli athletes and trainers were nervous. Many of their family members were murdered during the Holocaust or they were survivors of the Holocaust. The first few days of the game happen to go smoothly because there were no problem. When the hostage was taken, the games were in their second week. During the evening of September 4, 1972, the Israeli team went to watch the play, Fiddler on the Roof. On the bus ride back, Shmuel Lakin, Israeli delegation head, didn’t give permission to his thirteen year old to spend the night in the apartment of a friend of his son. The refusal that might have saved the boy’s life. Then, they went back to the Olympic Village to sleep. At around 4am on September 5, while the athletes slept eight tracksuit-clad members of the Palestinian terrorist organization, Black September, jumped over the six-foot high fence that encircled the Olympic Village. They were carrying duffel bags loaded with AKM assault rifles, Tokarev pistols, and grenades. They used stolen keys to ender two apartments used...

... middle of paper ...

... the control tower was killed by gunfire. A stalemate was developed. During the time of a deadlock, the Germans requested armored cars and had to wait for a while for them to arrive. When the cars finally arrive around midnight, the terrorist began to notice that their operation failure. They began to fire their guns at the hostages. After everything, Tony escaped the scene. Police had to track him down for about 40 minutes, until he found him in an airbase parking lot. Tony was shot to death in a brief gunfight. At 1:30 am, the battle was over. Three terrorists survived and was taken into custody. About two months after the incident, the surviving terrorists were released. The reason behind it was that due to the fact that two other Black September members hijacked a plane and plan to blow up the place the terrorists was being held, unless the three were released.