1972 Munich Olympics: Identifying Racist Violence and Madness

The year is 1972 and people are ready for the summer Olympics. Unfortunately for the eager sports spectators the 1972 Munich Olympics have a much more tragic story line. People don’t talk about any records broken or international competitiveness, instead people remember the Munich Games because of the hostage situation. A Palestinian formed group called the Black September terrorist captured nine Israeli Olympic athletes. Jim McKay one of the Olympic sportscasters at the games says, “The Munich tragedy was the biggest event in my career and the most terrible.” Truly Munich’s is tarnishing the Olympic Games. Even today the impact and repercussions of the game can be felt not only with the heightened security protocol but a lasting social impact as well.

Germany a country forever plagued by the Nazis and their leader Adolf Hitler. Before World War Two Hitler's Germany hosted the Olympic Games in the capital of Berlin. Hitler found the games as a perfect way to show the world that Aryans or white non-Jewish people are superior to all others. Fortunately Jesse Owens an African American athlete proved Hitler's were illogical, because of his performance at the Berlin Olympics’ Owens took home four gold medals.

Soon after the Olympics in Berlin Hitler's craving of power started World War Two. The Nazis marched through much of Europe trashing any country in its wake. The Jewish people felt Hitler's wrath the most though. Over the course of World War Two the Nazis killed six million Jewish men, women, and children; in addition to the death toll Hitler and the Nazis managed to corrupt the world view of the German people.

After the Allies triumphant victory and Hitler's suicide Germany is split into two sections: a communist Russian ruled E...

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...want revenge. I just want the truth" (). Truth is exactly what Spitzer received the court case ended in a settlement, but the truth that Germany was at fault was reviled.

The impact of the hostage crisis during the 1972 summer games are even relevant in today’s world. Atlanta’s Olympics in 2006 was also attacked. A bomb was placed in an open are an exploded. Although the Atlanta games didn’t have as profound of impact on the world it did prove that security had improved. Some would say that the Munich Massacre is the gateway for more security as well as a highly trained security. CNN’s Senior Washington Correspondent Charles Bierbauer says “Munich was a watershed. In great measure, it has been since 1972 that the general public has submitted to security searches in airports, arenas and other public events -- and learned to live with the threat of terrorism” ().