'72+Olympics

The 1972 Olympics

As soon as Ilana Romano heard about what had happened in Munich, she just knew that things couldn't be good. “I knew who he was. He would not sit quietly. He was not the type. I knew it would end badly.” She knew her husband, Yossef Romano, would not take this sitting down. On September 5, 1997 in Munich, West Germany, 8 Arab terrorists, (known as Black September), wearing track sweat suits, climbed the six-foot six-inch fence surrounding the Olympic Village.  The eight tourist were Luttif Afif (Issa), Yusuf Nazzal (Tony), Afif Ahmed Hamid (Paolo), Khalid Jawad (Salah), Ahmed Chic Thaa (Abu Halla), Mohammed Safady (Badran), Adnan Al-Gashey (Denawi), and Jamal Al-Gashey (Samir). They later took took hostage members of the Israeli team. No one knew that that would end up becoming on of the most tragic days in history which would be forever know as "The Munich Massacre".  The Israeli team had just taken a trip the theaters for a nice night out where they watched a show called A Fiddler on the Roof and later dined with the plays star, Shmuel Rodensky. Later on the bus ride home, Shmuel Lalkin has a conversation with his son:
 * September 4, 1997**

"Father why cant I go back to the Olympic village with you?" Asked Shmuel's 13 year old son. "Because it might not be safe for you."said Shmuel. "But I want be with you and Yossef, and Eliezer." "Maybe another time."

Samuel did not let his son stay with him in the apartment that night. They had no idea that that next day could very much be the end of their lives as they knew it. This decision undoubtedly saved the son's life.

 Israeli wrestling referee, Yossef Gutfreund, got up to investigate a strange noise coming from the Apartment 1 some of the players were staying in next door. He went to investigate, to find 8 masked Palestinian men with duffle bags loaded with AK-47 assault rifles, Tokarev pistols, and grenades. He knew something wasn't right.
 * September 5, 1997, 4:30 am**

"Hevre tistalku!" "Get out of here you guys!" yells Yossef. He throws a 300 pound wait at the door to try to stop the Palestinians from getting in. He didn't know what was going on, but he know it wasn't good. In confusion, one of his room mate, coach Tuvia Sokolovsky, managed to escape. Wrestling coach, Moshe Weinberg, fought back against the intruders. In his attempt, he was shot through the cheek and was forced to help the tourists find more hostages. Weinberg led the Palestinians to Apartment 3. He lied to the Palestinians saying that the people in Apartment 2 were not Israeli's. Weinberg probably thought that the stronger men would have a better chance of fighting off the intruders, but they were all surprised in their sleep. <span style="color: rgb(60, 129, 231);"> <span style="color: rgb(78, 112, 162);">The Palestinians took six wrestlers and weightlifters from Apartment 3 as additional hostages. <span style="color: rgb(205, 205, 60);">While the tourists rounded up the team members from Apartment 3, Weinberg attacked them again. He knocked on of the kidnappers unconscious and stabbed another with a fruit knife. <span style="color: rgb(5, 48, 113);">This allowed wrestler, Gab Trobari enough time to escape. <span style="color: rgb(205, 205, 60);">Weinberg was quickly shot to death. <span style="color: rgb(205, 71, 205);">Yossef Romano also attacked and wounded one of the Palestinians before being shot to death. <span style="color: rgb(145, 103, 213);">The kidnappers tied up the the hostages by their wrists and their ankle and then to each other. Yossef's body was left at the hostages feet as a warning. Meanwhile in Apartment 2, <span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 255);">racewalker Shaul Ladany, who had beed sleeping, was awakened by the screams of Yossef Gutfreund who was being tied up in Apartment 1. Ladany escaped by jumping off a balcony and running through the rear garden of the building. <span style="color: rgb(128, 128, 128);">Marksmen Henry Hershkowitz and Zelig Stroch along with fencers Dan Alon and Moshe Yehuda Weinstain who were all in Apartment 2, managed to hide with Samuel Lalkin and two team doctors. They later fled the building. <span style="color: rgb(74, 20, 138);">The 8 terrorists announced to the public that they were Palestinians, and demanded that Israel release 200 Arab prisoners. They also demanded that the terrorists and their hostages be given safe passage out of Germany. <span style="color: rgb(107, 167, 255);">The authorities offered a plan where the Black September group would be taken to the NATO airbase in Firstenfeldbruck by helicopter. <span style="color: rgb(255, 255, 0);">The authorities were planing an assault when they got to the airport, <span style="color: rgb(107, 167, 255);"> but the Palestinians thought they were going to be given an airplane to fly them to Cairo in Egypt. <span style="color: rgb(125, 36, 229);">The Israelis and Palestinians were taken by bus to the helicopters and flow to the airfield; <span style="color: rgb(192, 192, 192);"> during this time the German police realized they had not assigned enough marksmen to take down the eight tourists! They had only assigned five. The helicopters landed in the NATO airbase. So many things went wrong and only the marksmen were there to actually cary the plan out. The gun battle started almost immediately after the helicopters landed. <span style="color: rgb(0, 255, 0);">The German sharpshooters attempted to kill the Palestinians but only ended up killing five. The five who were killed were Issa, Tony, Paolo, Salah and Abu Halla. <span style="color: rgb(4, 93, 93);"> The Israeli media was falsely informed that the hostages had been saved and the tourists captured. <span style="color: rgb(255, 143, 0);"> In the end, after hours of shooting, the fire fight had come to an end 11 olympic athletes, five Palestinian kidnappers, and one German policemen were killed. The tree remaining tourists, Badran, Denawi, and Samir, were captured. Moshe Weinberg, wrestling coach, and Yossef Romano, weightlifter, were killed during the break in. Ze'ev Friedman and David Berger, who were weightlifters were shot and blown up by grenade along with wrestler Eliezer Halfin and weightlifting judge Yokov Springer in one of the helicopters. Yossef Gutfreund,who was a wrestling referee, Mark Slavin, who was a wrestler, Kehat Shorr, who was a shooting coach, Andre Spitzer, who was a fencing coach, and Amitzur Shapira, who was a track coach, were all shot in the second helicopter. Anton Feigerbauer, who was a German police officer, was also shot on the airstrip.
 * September 5, 1972 9:30 pm**
 * September 5, 1972 10:30 pm**
 * September 5, 1997 11:00 pm**

<span style="color: rgb(165, 100, 13);"> Golda Meir, who was at the time the Prime Minister of Israel, appealed to other countries to "save our citizens and condemn the unspeakable criminal acts committed." <span style="color: rgb(112, 52, 10);"> King Hussein of Jordan, was the only leader of an Arab country to publicly denounce the Olympic attack. He called it a "savage crime against civilization… perpetrated by sick minds." Unfortunetally, the lives lost during "The Munich Massacre", can never be replaced. There were a lot of great athletes and brave souls that were lost that day. Our hearts will forever be with the families who lost loved ones.
 * Aftermath**
 * September 5, 1997**



<span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">
 * NOTES:**

<span style="color: rgb(49, 18, 99);">-Ilana Romano Yossef Romano's wife. “I knew who he was. He would not sit quietly. He was not the type. I knew it would end badly.” <span style="color: rgb(46, 46, 220);">-Occurred during 1972 September 5, in Munich, West Germany 4:30am. <span style="color: rgb(60, 129, 231);"> -Members of the Israel Olympic team were taken hostage. <span style="color: rgb(128, 0, 128);">-They were murdered by 8 Arab terrorists wearing track sweat suits. The group, called Black September, that had ties Yasser Arafat and Fatah. <span style="color: rgb(226, 106, 226);">-The tourists climbed the six-foot six-inch fence surrounding the Olympic Village. <span style="color: rgb(85, 7, 213);">-Tourist names: Luttif Afif (Issa), Yusuf Nazzal (Tony), Afif Ahmed Hamid (Paolo), Khalid Jawad (Salah), Ahmed Chic Thaa (Abu Halla), Mohammed Safady (Badran), Adnan Al-Gashey (Denawi), and Jamal Al-Gashey (Samir). <span style="color: rgb(150, 13, 13);"> -The night before the murders, Shmuel Lalkin did not let his 13 year old son stay with him at the apartment for the night. This probably saved his life. <span style="color: rgb(209, 123, 123);"> -The night before the murders,the team took a trip to the theaters where they watched a performance of Fiddler on the Roof and dined with the play's star, Israeli actor Shmuel Rodensky, before returning to the Olympic village <span style="color: rgb(190, 35, 35);">. <span style="color: rgb(128, 128, 0);"> -Isreali referee, Yossef Gutfreund herd a nosie at the first apartment. They were saying at three apartments. When he went to investigate he saw men with masks on the other side. <span style="color: rgb(27, 100, 27);"> -Yossef threw a (nearly) 300 pound weight against the door to try to stop the Panestinians from getting in. Tucia Sokolovsky managed to escape during this time. <span style="color: rgb(38, 186, 38);"> -Moshe Weinberg fought back against the intruders. He was shot through his cheek and then was forced to help them find more hostages. <span style="color: rgb(4, 93, 93);"> -Weinberg lied to the Palestinians telling them the the people in Apartment 2 were not Israelis. He lead them to the Apartment 3. <span style="color: rgb(78, 112, 162);">-They Palestinians took six wrestlers and weightlifters as additional hostages from Apartment 3. <span style="color: rgb(42, 203, 203);"> -Weinberg probably though that the stronger men would have a better chance of fighting off the tourists, but the were very surprised in their sleep. <span style="color: rgb(205, 205, 60);">-Weinberg attacked the Palestinians again and knocked one of the kidnappers unconscious and stabbed another with a fruit knife before being shot to death. <span style="color: rgb(5, 48, 113);">-This allowed wrestler Gab Trobari to escape. -Weightlifter Yossef Romano attacked and wounded one of the Palestinians as well before being shot to death. <span style="color: rgb(145, 103, 213);"> -The hostages were tied up at their wrists and ankles and then to each other. Romano's body was left at the feet of the hostages as a warning. <span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 255);"> -Racewalker, Shaul Ladany of Apartment 2, woke up to the screams of Yossef Gutfreund's and escaped by jumping off a balcony and running through the rear garden of the building. <span style="color: rgb(128, 128, 128);"> -The other four members of Apartment 2 (Henry Hershkowitz, Zelig Stroch, Dan Alon and Moshe Yehuda Weinstain) managed to hide, along with Samuel Lalkin and 2 team doctors. They later left the building. <span style="color: rgb(74, 20, 138);"> -At 9:30, the terrorists announced that they were Palestinians and demanded that Israel release 200 Arab prisoners. They also demanded that the terrorists and their hostages be given safe passage out of Germany. <span style="color: rgb(107, 167, 255);"> -The Black September group agreed to a plan where they would be taken to the NATO airbase in Firstenfeldbruck by helicopter. There they would be given an air plane to fly them and their hostages to Cairo in Egypt. <span style="color: rgb(255, 255, 0);">-The authorities planed an assault when they were to get to the airport. <span style="color: rgb(125, 36, 229);"> -The Israelis and Palestinians were taken by bus to the helicopters and flow to the airfield. <span style="color: rgb(192, 192, 192);"> -During the course of the transfer, the Germans discovered that there were 8 terrorists instead of the five. They realized that they had not assigned enough marksmen (they had only assigned 5) to carry out the plan to kill the terrorists at the airport. <span style="color: rgb(0, 255, 0);"> -When the helicopters landed at the air base around 10:30 p.m., the German sharpshooters //<span style="color: rgb(0, 255, 0);">attempted //<span style="color: rgb(0, 255, 0);"> to kill the tourists, but only killed 5. Issa, Tony, Paolo, Salah, Abu. <span style="color: rgb(4, 93, 93);"> -At 11, the media was falsely informed that the hostages had been saved. <span style="color: rgb(255, 143, 0);"> -11 olympic athletes, five Palestinian kidnappers, and one German policemen were killed. <span style="color: rgb(165, 100, 13);"> - **<span style="color: rgb(165, 100, 13);">Golda Meir, then Prime Minister of Israel, appealed to other countries to "save our citizens and condemn the unspeakable criminal acts committed." <span style="color: rgb(112, 52, 10);"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"> -King Hussein of Jordan - the only leader of an Arab country to publicly denounce the Olympic attack - called it a "savage crime against civilization… perpetrated by sick minds."
 * Summary**
 * Before the hostage taking**
 * During the hostage-taking**
 * Aftermath

[]

The **Munich massacre** occurred during the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich, West Germany, when members of the Israel Olympic team were taken [|hostage] and eventually murdered by [|Black September], a militant group with ties to [|Yasser Arafat]’s [|Fatah] organization.

Gutfreund's actions gave his roommate, weightlifting coach Tuvia Sokolovsky, enough time to smash a window and escape. Wrestling coach [|Moshe Weinberg] fought back against the intruders, who shot him through his cheek and then forced him to help them find more hostages. Leading the kidnappers past Apartment 2, Weinberg lied to the kidnappers by telling them that the residents of the apartment were not Israelis. Instead, Weinberg led them to Apartment 3, where the terrorists corralled six wrestlers and weightlifters as additional hostages. It is possible that Weinberg thought that the stronger men might have a better chance of fighting off the attackers, 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 kidnappers, allowing one of his wrestlers, [|Gad Tsobari], to escape via the underground parking garage.[|[][|8][|]] The burly Weinberg knocked one of the intruders unconscious and slashed another with a fruit knife 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. The terrorists were left with nine living hostages. 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 tied at the wrists and ankles, and then to each other. Romano's bullet-riddled corpse was left at the feet of his bound comrades as a warning.

Of the other members of Israel's team, [|racewalker] Prof. Shaul Ladany had been jolted awake in Apartment 2 by Gutfreund’s screams and escaped by jumping off a balcony and running through the rear garden of the building. The other four residents of Apartment 2 (marksmen Henry Hershkowitz and Zelig Stroch and fencers Dan Alon and Moshe Yehuda Weinstain), plus 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 Shachamarov] and swimmer Shlomit Nir, were housed in a separate part of the Olympic Village inaccessible to the terrorists. Three more members of Israel's Olympic team, two sailors and an official, were housed in [|Kiel], 550 miles (900 km) from Munich.

They were identified as Luttif Afif (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 his cousin Jamal Al-Gashey (Samir).


 * Shot during the initial break-in**
 * [|Moshe Weinberg] (wrestling coach)
 * [|Yossef Romano] (weightlifter)
 * Shot and blown up by grenade in D-HAQO (eastern) helicopter**(according to the order in which they were seated, from left to right)
 * [|Ze'ev Friedman] (weightlifter)
 * [|David Berger] (weightlifter)
 * [|Yakov Springer] (weightlifting judge)
 * [|Eliezer Halfin] (wrestler)
 * Shot in D-HADU (western) helicopter**(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)
 * Terrorists shot dead by German police**
 * [|Luttif Afif] (known as Issa)
 * Yusuf Nazzal (Tony)
 * Afif Ahmed Hamid (Paolo)
 * Khalid Jawad (Salah)
 * Ahmed Chic Thaa (Abu Halla)

[]

It was 4:30 in the morning on Sept. 5, 1972, when five Arab terrorists wearing track sweat suits climbed the six-foot six-inch fence surrounding the Olympic Village. Although they were seen by several people, no one thought anything was unusual since athletes routinely hopped the fence; moreover, the terrorists' weapons were hidden in athletic bags. These five were met by three more men who are presumed to have obtained credentials to enter the village.46

Israeli wrestling referee Yossef Gutfreund heard a faint scratching noise at the door of the first apartment. When he investigated, he saw the door begin to open and masked men with guns on the other side. He shouted “Hevre tistalku!” ([|Hebrew] ???? ??????? — Guys, get out of here!) and threw his nearly 300-lb. (135-kg) weight against the door to try to stop the Palestinians from forcing their way in.

At 9:30, the terrorists announced that they were Palestinians and demanded that Israel release 200 Arab prisoners and that the terrorists be given safe passage out of Germany. The Palestinians were led by Luttif Afif (“Issa”), 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 his cousin Jamal Al-Gashey (“Samir”).

After hours of tense negotiations, the Palestinians, who it was later learned belonged to a [|PLO] faction called Black September, agreed to a plan whereby they were to be taken by helicopter to the NATO air base at Firstenfeldbruck where they would be given an airplane to fly them and their hostages to Cairo. The Israelis were then taken by bus to the helicopters and flown to the airfield. In the course of the transfer, the Germans discovered that there were eight terrorists instead of the five they expected and realized that they had not assigned enough marksmen to carry out the plan to kill the terrorists at the airport.

After the helicopters landed at the air base around 10:30 p.m., the German sharpshooters attempted to kill the terrorists and a bloody firefight ensued. At 11, the media was mistakenly informed that the hostages had been saved and the news was announced to a relieved Israeli public. Almost an hour later, however, new fighting broke out and one of the helicopters holding the Israelis was blown up by a terrorist grenade. The remaining nine hostages in the second helicopter were shot to death by one of the surviving terrorists.

[]

Ilana Romana heard about the situation in Munich, she expected the worst: “I knew who he was. He would not sit quietly. He was not the type. I knew it would end badly.” She spoke of her husband, and, unfortunately, her prediction was correct.

http://reference.findtarget.com/search/Munich%20massacre/

On the evening of 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 - an innocent refusal that undoubtedly saved the boy's life.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Munich_massacre

Wrestling coach [|Moshe Weinberg] fought back against the intruders, who shot him through his cheek and then forced him to help them find more hostages.

At 4:30 A.M. local time on 5 September, as the athletes slept, eight tracksuit-clad Black September members carrying [|duffel bags] loaded with[|AK-47] assault rifles, [|Tokarev pistols], and grenades scaled a two-meter chain-link fence with the assistance of unsuspecting American athletes who were also sneaking into the Olympic Village. Once inside, they used stolen keys to enter two apartments being used by the Israeli team at 31 Connollystraße.