Review: THE TRAGEDY OF THE MUNICH GAMES

Eight armed Palestinians affiliated with the Black September Organization snuck into the Olympic Village in Munich. They made their way to 31 Connolly strasse, where the Israeli delegation was housed, this type of attack was new and strange in 1972; it has never happened before.

They took hostages and demanded their needs to be met before they leave the hostages. Minutes into the video, it was seen that the Germans sent German negotiators to negotiate with the terrorist, but it proved unsuccessful. They kept voicing out the threat to kill every hostage if their needs where not met.

The negotiators had to beg the leader of the terrorist group to give them more time to reach their needs before the five o’clock deadline giving by the terrorist. In an attempt to know maybe the hostages were still alive, they ask the terrorist leader to provide them with access to see the hostages, and he accepted.

On getting into the building, they find the hostages and they were desperate. Nine were alive, but two were killed and amongst them was a man in a pool of blood. They also got the chance to know the amount of terrorist altogether.  After the German negotiator returned from checking the hostages, they said they had seen only 4 or maybe five terrorists, with this information the German decided to make a move on the terrorist.

They then took position all around 31 Connolly Strasse, and they were ready to invade the building when they heard the code word “sunshine,” – The volunteers were 38 in number.

The plan was to climb down the ventilation shaft with guns to get to the terrorist and free the hostages. Some military personnel then came to meet Geoff Mason in the control room and said all the plans they made was foul because they were a cameras on the top the Olympic tower can see the buildings and all that was planned is visible to the terrorist, right there, they canceled all plans out of disappointment.

They went straight back to negotiation, and after numerous fruitless efforts, ISA wanted out, and he said he wants terrorist and hostages to be giving a plane so that they can fly to an Arab country where the crisis can be resolved, and the Germans agreed.

A bus was then provided to drive the terrorist to where two choppers where waiting for them. The helicopter would fly them 20 miles to an airbase where a plane would be waiting. General Ullrich Wegener said that was a wrong decision to change the location; he said that it would have been better if they took the decisive action in the Olympic college.

The hostages and terrorists took the buses and went to where the chopper was waiting for them. On getting to where the helicopters were, four hostages took off in one chopper, and five hostages were in the other.

After getting to the airport, a report was obtained from the airport with a quote “All hell has broken has broken loose out there,” they were shooting, and a chopper is on fire.

According to Marvis Bader report, he said that a guy named Otto kench told him that all hostages were killed by the terrorist. It was then officially reported by Jim Mckay that all the Israeli athletes are dead and at that moment, the world just grew cold as a result of this news, hopes shattered and burnt to the ground.

The next day the Olympic stadium was filled with mourners and Avery Brundage president of the IOC scheduled the memorial service for the slain athletes. He then announced that the games must go on.

This did not sit well with a lot of people, but after a while, people then reasoned that this was what the terrorist would have wanted or planned, for the game to be discontinued. A lot of people then agreed that the game should go on. They delay the game to have the memorial service, and after the memorial, the game continued.

 References

Macdonald, K. (2018). The Tragedy of the Munich Games. Hollywood.