Sports Event Flashback : The 1972 Munich Olympic Massacre

The Munich Olympic Massacre

One of the treasured dictums of Olympic Games says: the most important thing is not to win but to take part.' To eight militant Black September terrorists, the most important thing for them four years ago was to transform one day of the otherwise wholesome two-week sports competitions in the XXth Olympics in Munich into a day of infamy. Their insidious infiltration into the Olympic Village that black September day ended in the massacre of 11 hapless Israeli sportsmen five competitors and six officials. The Munich Police macabre scoreboard listed the following as having been eliminated for keeps by the treacherous terrorists: 1. Joseph Romano, weightlifter; 2. Zeev Friedman, weightlifter; 3. David Berger, weightlifter; 4. Eliezer Halfin, wrestler; 5. Mark Slavin, wrestler; 6. Yacov Springer, weightlifting referee; 7. Yousef Gutfreund, wrestling referee, wrestling referee; 8. Moshe Wein-borg, wrestling coach; 9. Andre Spitzer, fencing coach; 19. Kehat Shorr, shooting coach; and 11. Amitzur Shapira, athletic coach.

On terrorists' side, five were slain by police snipers when they were about to board a Boeing 727 Lufthansa jetliner for Cairo. The Munich police department also lost one man. So, all in all 17 lives were needlessly snuffed to mar the Olympic Games.

Except for coach Tuvia Sokolsky, the entire Israeli weightlifting team was wiped out. The KI weightlifting group in Munich was apparently more involved than our nine other teams because all the Israeli strength athletes were in Manila as their guests less than a year earlier. Members of both teams became fast friends.

The writer clearly remembers having met for the first time Jewish sports star Joseph Romano in Warsaw during the 23rd world weightlifting championships held at the historic Polish capital in 1969 The writer met the Israeli team once more in October 1971 in Manila when the Philippine Weightlifting Association organized at the FEU auditorium the 1st Asian championships. In that tourney, bantam Zeev Friedman who was born in the Soviet Union won three medals in the individual lift events and a trophy for placing third in the over-all standings.

David Berger, a light-heavyweight, won the gold medals in the press and snatch events and a silver in the jerk lift to bring home to Tel Avir the trophy for over-all runner-up honors in his category.

Romano, Roman the orts tely attempts and was eliminated Strangely enough, the first group of weightlifters the writer saw at the training hall in Munich before the start of the 21st Olympic Games was the Israeli team. Acquaintances were renewed once more and for the last time. Who would ever know then that only a few days later they would figure very prominently in an unprecedented massacre and make sports heroes out of them - not for winning gold medals or breaking Olympic records but for becoming history's first Olympic martyrs?

David Berger, a lawyer by profession, was born and grew up in Shaker Heights, Ohio in 1946. He became a standout light heavyweight lifter in the U.S. for some time. But he emigrated to Israel barely a year before the Munich games when he realized that he had more chances of lifting in the Olympics as a member of the Israeli team rather than with the American squad. Romano was born in Libya. Mark Slavin, only 18 and the youngest in the delegation emigrated from the

USSR only three months earlier. Russian was his only language and he must have had a hard time communicating with his captors, Getfreund came from Rumania. This will give an idea of the Israeli delegation's international composition. TV newscasters and later on the newspapers reported how the raiders sneaked into the Olympic Village an hour before daybreak disguised as athletes. The seemingly harmless looking athletic bags they carried were filled with items that had nothing to do with sports. It actually concealed disassembled instruments of death mini submachineguns and grenades. Upon scaling the six-feet-six-inches metal fence, they stealthily proceeded to Building No. 31 on Connollystrasse (Connolly Street). Obviously, they were quite familiar with the village layout because they knew the Israeli delegation was lodged in that building.

With their paraphernalia reassembled and itching for action, the ominous octet deftly intruded into the second floor and rapped at the door of wrestling coach Moshe Weinberg. The 33-year-old father of three young kids was met with a sudden spurt of gunfire from an automatic weapon.

As he collapsed and died, weightlifter Romano who was in the same room sprung into action and pushed back against the door with all his might and braced himself to prevent the attackers' forcible entry and at the same time shout ing a warning to his compatriots.

Another burst of gunfire and the muscled athlete lay mortally wounded. Romano is foidly remembered by his friends in Manila for capsizing in his banca at the man-made lake in the Nayong Pilipino during a sightseeing tour immediately after the Asian weightlifting meet in October 1971. He was soaked all over at the Nayong pond but he enjoyed the mirthful mishap considerably. The situation in Munich was exactly different for that time he found himself soaked in his own oozing blood. As the Black September terrorists barged into the room they started herding all the Israeli sportsmen in the vicinity. Dimi nutive weightlifting coach Tuvia Sokolsky instinctively headed for the window in a flash. When he couldn't open it, he used his musdes to break it and jumped out.

It was easy for him to lose himself in the dark but he found it difficult later on to recover his sanity which he almost lost for good. For quite sometime after the incident, Sokolsky became a Loko-sky. The shock was too much for him. Spectators at the let Asian weightlifting meet at the FEU auditorium the year before remember with relish how the be-moustached Russian born coach would howl in protest each time-one of his boys would receive an unfavorable decision. His high-pitched voice always drew harmless laughter from the amused audience. Yousef Gutfreund the family name means good friend in Ger-man) became the first hostage. Then eight others were rounded up. They were tied together with ropes around their waists and their hands bound behind their backs. With this done, written

demands were made and ultimatums issued by the terrorists. At one time, two hostages were displayed briefly at the window while a big crowd of law enforcement agents looked up helplessly from a distance. All in all a total of 300 heavily armed policemen ringed the building after occupants from other countries were evacuated. Some were strategically positioned on roof tops and windows of neighboring edifices fronting the scene. The whole village was staled off and this writer along with countless curiosity seekers were barred from getting any closer to where the action was. Heavily armed policemen were strewn all over as motorized units stood by ready for any eventuality. Even ambulances were on hand. Overhead, Helicopters continued to hover to hover in a frenzy as if not knowing what to do.

Meanwhile, the International Olympic Committee top brass and local organizers met with the Federal German government's highest ranking officials as communication hot lines were established between Munich and Tel Aviv and to some Arab capitals such as Cairo. Negotiations went full blast while everybody else in Munich waited in agony. Among the demands of the captors were the immediate release of 290 Palestinian prisoners in Israel and providing them (the terrorists) safe passage to the Arab world aboard a German national airlines jet.

Premier Golda Meir's government in an emergency meeting was reported to have flatly rebuffed the demand to release the Palestinians. With this development, the raiders allowed the noontime deadline to elapse without carrying out their diabolical threat to execute their remaining nine Olympic hostages one at a time.

While the deadly drama un-reeled, the highly efficient and resourceful German TV network provided their viewers with a steady coverage including tele photo’d dialogues between the athletic-looking masked leader of the terrorists on one hand and the mediators on the other. Apparently, the most animated one was an

Arab speaking policewoman with a walkie talkie. Mr. Fabian A. Bucoy of Zamboanga City who was in Munich as an official delegate to the world weightlifting congress held in conjunction with the Olympic Games and the writer spent considerable time with their eyes glued to the TV set on a German private house in the suburbs of the Bavarian capital where they were lodged for over two weeks. They kept on phoning the members of the Philippine weightlifting delegation in the village who were billeted in a building located roughly half a kilometer from Number 31.

As the hours dragged on, various versions of what was actually taking place was reported by the news media, At one point, it was announced that all the hostages were able to elude their captors who were all shot. A celebration was called in Jerusalem only to be junked when the real story was released — a tale of tragedy of Olympic proportions.

Unmindful of the bargaining going on for the lives of the nine Israeli hostages whose two companions lay silently sprawled in same midst, spirited volleyball

Poland and Russian in a venue not more than a hundred meters away from the scene of terror.

It indeed provided a bizarre backdrop for the grim tragedy. Canoeing and boxing competitions went on without any visible interruption. Then came the curt announcement from the Olympic officials to suspend the remaining games except the events which were then in progress. A clamor arose to cancel the Olympics completely. But more thought that calling off the Games would be to magnify the impact of the terrorists' efforts and thereby play into their bloody hands.

The mournful Munich sun set that afternoon with the negotiators still unable to reach any satisfactory solution. With darkness enveloping the village, everybody became more apprehensive of the fate of the nine innocent persons whose lives might be snuffed any moment. Then the TV screen showed a new development at about 10 p.m. when a special olive-drab bus parked beside Building 31 and the terrorists shoved their hostages in it. A few suspenseful minutes later the bus moved out of range of the probing TV cameras and then silence. Within a few minutes the picture tube came back to life with the sight of two helicopters taking off and hopping over the abandoned main stadium for an unknown destination.

Actually, three choppers were involved according to the papers the following day. Two carried the terrorists and their prisoners while a third one had German and Israeli officials aboard. In several instances during the negotiations, German officials offered to take the place of the captive sports-men. Unlimited money was also offered by the hosts. But the terrorists refused both offers.

Furstenfeldbruck Air Base located some 24 kilometers from the Olympic Village was the destination of the three hesitant helicopters. Awaiting them was a Lufthansa 727 jetliner which was ready to fly the terrorists and their hostages to Cairo. Unknown to the main characters of the dra-ma, the German police had a trap set in the military base, supposedly with the sanction of the Tel Aviv government. The rescue was elaborately prepared. Up to that moment, it was believed that only four or five terrorists were in-volved. But it turned out that there were actually eight and only five police sharpshooters were deployed in fien spont nell broke loose in the well-lighted plane parking area. The police snipers succeeded in knocking down the supposed five members composing the entire raiding team. But the three unaccounted other members went into action and riddled the two helicopters with gunfire.

Grenades were even used to blast one chopper. The German police-man's miscalculation was more than made up when they nabbed with consumate efficiency the surviving terrorists. However, in the process they lost one of their own man.

Not one of the nine Israeli hostages was spared. The very amiable Shmuel Lalkin, the delegation's chef d'mission and general secretary of their national sports federation visited Manila a few months later and related in detail to this writer his morbid duty of identifying his slain comrades through their dental features, rings and watches. Some were burned beyond recognition. A few were literally cut in half by the light but very efficient high-powered automatic weapons used with deadly skill by the terrorists. The three captured murderers were later identified as Mohammed Abdullah, Ibrahim Badran and Abdes Kadir el Dnawy.

A one-day mourning period was declared by the International Olympic Committee, the games' all-powerful controlling body. Necrological services were held at the jampacked main stadium the following day while all competition came to a stop. The flags of the 123 participating countries with

'aplomb then sadly lowered at half-mast position to denote grief over the fallen Israeli sportsmen. Eleven empty chairs were neatly located at the focal point of the ceremonies to symbolize the departed brothers in sports. Heart rend-in mournful music filled the radio and TV spectrum. It was a sad day not only for Israel and Germany but obviously for the entire world.

After the ceremony the surviving Israeli sports delegates took off on a special El Al national airline jet bringing with them the remains of ten of their perished chums.

The martyred lawyer-weightlifter David Berger was flown separately on a U.S. air force plane to the States for internment in his native Ohio. The solemnity of the funeral rites in Tel Aviv was punctuated with cries for revenge. And true enough, the following day Israeli jet fighters blasted into smithereens 10 Arab commando bases in both Syria and Lebanon. The lightning aerial attacks was said to have taken more than 60 lives.

How many more lives were lost on the Arab side after the Munich massacre nobody knows perhaps except Allah.

Legend has it that in the Ancient Olympics wars were suspended whenever the Olympiads unfolded and resumed right after the games. Whether there is any truth to that belief or not couldn't be precisely determined. But what is easy to prove is that the whole world including the Arab hemisphere lamented what took place in Munich. Several Arab organizations even condemned the barbaric act. The Black September terrorists were wide off their mark, if not wholly out of their wits to think of introducing organized terrorism in a sports battlefield. It was a grotesque contradiction of the Olympic spirit of bringing peoples of the world together to play regardless of their rache world was first shocked by the Black September band in 1971 when four of its fanatical members assassinated Prime Minister Wasti Tal of Jordan in front of the Cairo Sheraton Hotel. And then before the horrified eyes of say on oker, they condied the victim's blood. It was a ghastly reminiscent of Count Dracula's adventures during the dark ages.

Munich's insidious infiltrators actually became a traitor to their cause. They should have received worldwide favorable attention and accolade had they wholesomely channeled their sharpshooting skills and won gold medals in the shooting events. Theirs was a skill that was misdirected and utilized to kill — at the expense of the 11 Israeli sportsmen who are now enshrined as world sports heroes because of the infamous Munich Olympic massacre.

— S.A.A.