Inside Olympic bloodbath that saw terrorists hurl victim off balcony as TV cameras rolled…& how blunders led to massacre
IT was dubbed the 'Games of Joy' and was intended to promote peace and unity in post-war Germany.
But the 1972 Munich Olympics descended into horror and bloodshed after Israeli competitors were held hostage at gun point.
The stand-off between Palestinian captors and the German negotiators had the world holding its breath, with 900 million viewers tuning in to see if the Israelis would be set free.
A terror outfit named Black September had stormed the Olympic village and were threatening to kill one hostage every hour.
One of the Israeli weightlifters had already been murdered and another was lying bleeding to death after courageously trying to fend off the heavily armed attackers.
Now, the story of the first terror attack to be broadcast live has been told in a movie titled September 5, starring British actor Ben Chaplin and Peter Sarsgaard.
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They play two of the ABC TV channel producers who have to decide whether to air the shocking events real time - with the risk that viewers might witness Israeli athletes being executed.
What the journalists didn’t appreciate was that the kidnappers could watch their coverage on television.
And that meant there was a chance they were watching German snipers approach during a raid on the terrorists.
As a result the rescue attempt had to be aborted.
The second plan to bring the Israeli sportsmen to safety was a bungled and bloody disaster which meant none of the 11 captives survived.
That loss still haunts Geoffrey Mason, 83, the ABC TV producer portrayed by Orange Is the New Black’s John Magaro in the film.
He said: “Over the years, we've all spoken often with each other about that day. It's never far away from us."
Easy prey
The Israeli delegation had expressed fears about lax security ahead of the 1972 Games, which did not allow military uniformed personnel in the Olympic village in case it brought back memories of Nazi Germany.
And the 6ft 7in high fence to the athletes’ living area was easy to scale.
Israel’s occupation of the Gaza Strip and the West Bank in 1967 meant there was a known threat to their citizens from armed Palestinian groups.
Weightlifter Yossi Romano’s wife Ilana told him she was afraid for his safety but he replied “Ilana, you are crazy. If Germany prepares something, they do it 100 percent.”
It's never far away from us
Geoffrey Mason
In the early hours of September 5, eight terrorists climbed over the fence dressed in tracksuits and walked into the unlocked two-storey modern building on Connollystrasse.
They had a copied keys for the locks to the Israeli apartments, but wrestling referee Yossef Gutfreund heard them struggling to get in and threw his considerable weight against the door.
Fight for life
That gave enough time for one coach Tuvia Sokolovsky to escape and another, Moshe Weinberg, to attempt to tackle the machine gun wielding intruders.
Moshe was shot through the cheek but still did his best to save his colleagues.
When asked to show the terrorists where the rest of the Jewish athletes were sleeping he skipped one room and took them to where he hoped his fellow weightlifters and wrestlers could put up a fight.
Moshe was killed after flooring one attacker but did give Gad Tsobari the chance to flee down a stairwell with bullets flying.
Yossi also tried to defend the team, slashing a terrorist with a kitchen knife before being shot.
The assailants cruelly threw Moshe’s body over the balcony window and reportedly tortured Yossi in front of the other hostages.
Gad reached the press rooms to raise the alarm, with many people on the campus already alerted to the gunshots.
Palestinian extremists Black September demanded 234 prisoners be released by noon, otherwise they would start executing a hostage every hour.
Going live
The closest TV crew to the unfolding horror were from ABC, who were able to wheel a large studio camera out to the hill that overlooked Connollystrasse.
They were sports journalists but did have assistance from one news reporter on the ground.
It was to be the beginning of a 22-hour shift for Geoffrey.
Negotiators went in and the deadline was put back to 5pm.
But it was only at 4pm, almost 12 hours into the terror attack, that the Olympic committee agreed to pause the Games.
Half an hour later the Bavarian police launched a plan to storm the apartment.
I’m now watching people crawl across a roof getting ready to stage a military assault on terrorists.
Geoffrey Mason
Geoff said: “I remember thinking, good Lord - we’re supposed to be watching Mark Spitz go for seven gold medals and Olga Korbut - the new face of Russian gymnastics - and I’m now watching people crawl across a roof getting ready to stage a military assault on terrorists.”
ABC were recording the plain clothed officers with assault rifles get into position.
The problem was that this American channel was available in the Israeli rooms.
The journalists were told to cut their live feed and the operation was called off.
By listening to police radio, the reporters learned that the terrorists and their hostages were to be flown by helicopter to the nearby Fürstenfeldbruck military air base.
Botched rescue
The Palestinians were told they would be flown to Cairo in Egypt with the hostages, when in fact the German police were plotting to ambush them.
Israel’s government had made it clear they would not give in to the kidnappers' demands.
Reporters watched gun fire at the airbase and were told that the police operation had been successful.
This false good news was reported by ABC until the truth came out.
Conspiracy theory
Eerie coincidence
WHEN September 5 premiered at the Venice film festival last August conspiracy theorists reckoned it was made in response to the conflict in Gaza.
The events depicted in the film have an uncanny resemblance to Hamas's bloody attack on Israel on October 7 2023.
In both cases Jews were taken hostage by Palestinian terrorists who demanded the release of hundreds of prisoners in return.
As in Munich in 1972, there was anger that security had been so lax and a refusal by Israel's Prime Minister to do deals.
Some of the hostages who were taken to Gaza following the brutal assault on October 7 also died in rescue attempts.
And the consequence for the Palestinians back in 1972 was the same - Israel launched devastating air strikes on them.
But anyone who knows anything about movie making knows that such a big budget, complex film couldn't be turned round in less than a year.
It isn't a piece of Israeli propganda made to deflect attention from Gaza.
The film's star Peter Sarsgaard said: “The truth is that we made this well before that happened.”
Tragically, the local force did not have the trained snipers nor the night vision goggles needed for such a rescue in the dark.
All remaining nine Israelis were shot dead, along with five of the terrorists.
Geoffrey was tearful at the terrible news and remembered thinking: “This is all so unfair. These young people were just trying to represent their country and to pursue excellence in front of the world, and they were deprived of that opportunity.”
The Games were only paused for 34 hours, but some athletes boycotted the events when it resumed.
Survivor Alon Howard, who would have been taken hostage if it wasn’t for a decision to stay with another friend in the Olympic village, said in 2012: “You heal, but you can never forget what happened in Munich - it's something you take with you to your grave, all they wanted to do was wrestle and compete.
You heal, but you can never forget what happened in Munich
Alon Howard
"It's so, so unfair what happened to them.
"The Olympics are about peace and competition. It wasn't political. I was very angry over what happened.”
To add insult to injury, the German authorities freed the remaining three Black September members after Lufthansa Flight 615 was hijacked on October 29 that year.
The terrorists were exchanged for the safe release of the plane’s passengers.
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But Israel was determined to get its revenge, assassinating many extremists linked to the Munich massage in a covert operation codenamed Wrath of God.
September 5 is in cinemas today