50 years ago, a deadly hostage crisis rocked the Munich Olympics

(Paris) September 5, 1972, Munich. A Palestinian commando enters the Olympic village: it is the beginning of a hostage-taking which will make 11 victims among Israeli sportsmen, and of which AFP will announce to the world the fatal outcome.

“Games of Joy”

This Tuesday is the 11^e day of the Olympic Games in Munich, these “Games of Joy”, if we are to believe their motto, supposed to make people forget those organized in Berlin in 1936, under the Nazi regime.

At dawn, eight men dressed in tracksuits and carrying sports bags scaled the fence around the Olympic Village and made their way to 31 Connolly Street, where the Israeli delegation resided. Those who come across them take them for athletes returning from a nocturnal “trip” to town.

Masked with black scarves and weapons in hand, the men burst into the homes of the Israelis. Trainer Moshe Weinberg and weightlifter Yossef Romano are killed in the attack. Some manage to escape but nine athletes are held on the spot, their hands tied behind their backs.

Two nearby housekeepers raise the alarm after hearing gunshots.

“It was between 4 and 5 a.m. […]. When I opened my door, I saw in the stairwell a man in civilian clothes wearing a cap and brandishing a submachine gun,” a first witness told AFP, living in the same building as the Israelis.

“Black September”

“Shortly after 7 a.m. GMT (8 a.m. local time), nearly 3,000 police officers were stationed in and around the Olympic Village. Snipers have arrived and are surrounding the building,” AFP journalists wrote.

In the morning, the operation is claimed by the Palestinian organization “Black September”, which has already committed several spectacular actions. The commando demands the release of more than 200 prisoners held in Israel – which the government of Golda Meir refuses, failing which it will execute its hostages.

This ultimatum is postponed several times throughout the day, during negotiations between the West German authorities and the fedayeen.

During this time, a crowd of several thousand people gathered around the Olympic Village.

The events have been taking place normally since the beginning of the morning and it is only at 3.50 p.m. local time that the organizers announce the suspension of the Olympic Games, until the end of a ceremony of homage to the two victims of the attack expected the next morning.

Shooting at the airport

Shortly after 10 p.m., the fedayeen and their nine hostages were transported by bus to two helicopters, which took off for the Fürstenfeldbruck military airport, near Munich. German officials boarded a third helicopter.

The negotiators indeed convinced the hostage takers to join this place, to leave for Cairo on board a plane placed at their disposal. In fact, a police intervention is planned at the airport, where five snipers are positioned, to neutralize the commando and free the hostages.

The gunfight erupts quickly. The exchanges of fire continue, a fedayeen throws a grenade into a helicopter which explodes and catches fire.

Around midnight, the federal government spokesman, Conrad Ahlers, declared that “the recovery operation was crowned with success”. According to the police, “all the hostages are safe and sound”.

However, journalists on the spot can see at the same time that “the battle is raging”. “Bursts of machine guns are heard from time to time, isolated shots too, probably those of snipers,” writes AFP.

“All Dead”

While the police announced a press conference in Munich, one of the AFP reporters present at the airport, Charles Biétry, suspecting a diversion, decided to stay on site with two colleagues from the French written press.

He sees going out in the night “a man in a suit and tie, his face ravaged by tears”, he will say later. “Everything was missed, all the hostages are dead,” said this man, the mayor of Munich Georg Kronawitter, in German.

Charles Biétry finds a couple to take him by car to a telephone booth from where he can call the agency. “The most terrible thing was to hear on the radio the songs of joy that came from Israel”, where the hostages were believed to have been saved.

At 2:16 a.m. local time, AFP announces to its customers around the world that “all the hostages have been killed”. The German authorities will not confirm this scoop until 56 minutes later.

Eleven Israelis are therefore dead, the nine hostages as well as the two members of the team killed at the start of the attack. A West German policeman was also a victim of the shooting. Five members of the commando were killed, the other three arrested.

While the controversy over the fiasco of the police operation is already raging, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) announces on the morning of September 6 that “the Games continue”.

“We cannot allow a handful of terrorists to destroy this core of international collaboration and goodwill that is the Olympic Games,” said its president, Avery Brundage.