by Ted Sherman

Created on: April 26, 2008   Last Updated: August 07, 2008

By any standard of outrage and horror, the worst moments of Olympics history started in the pre-dawn hours of September 5, 1972 in the midst of the Munich Summer Olympics. A gang of five Muslim terrorists scaled a fence of the Olympic Village, and were joined by three more who had already come in with false credentials. Because they were dressed in warm-up suits and carried athletic bags, no legitimate athletes nor inept German security guards did anything to stop them. What onlookers didn't realize was that the invaders had their weapons in the bags.

The terrorists, members of a Palestinian Liberation Organization unit called Black September, knew exactly where they were going. They put on masks, and with stolen keys, opened the doors to two apartments housing Israeli Olympic athletes. Several of the athletes escaped, but two who resisted were murdered. Nine Israelis were captured at gunpoint, and the live drama became public on TV screens throughout the world.

The terrorists' first demand to German authorities was that Israel free 200 imprisoned terrorists who had been convicted of murder of Israeli citizens. Israel immediately refused the demand, and urged Germany to stand up to the Palestinians. This happened less than three decades after the end of World War II, and Germany's holocaust killing of six million Jews. The German government of 1972, knowing the world was looking on, was in a panic of indecision. The murderous gang also demanded they be given safe air passage to Cairo. The terrorists said if their demands were met, they wouldn't harm the surviving hostages and would set them free in Egypt.

The Germans provided buses for the captors and their hostages to the Munich airport. Fearing the Palestinians would kill the hostages, German snipers were set up at the airport to shoot the terrorists before they could escape in two helicopters. However, the nervous Germans started opened fire before they were properly in place, and all hell broke loose. The terrorists blew up one of the helicopters and shot the hostages in the other one, killing all nine Israelis. A German policeman was killed, along with five of the terrorists. Three were captured and jailed on murder charges.

Was that the end of it? Did the criminals deservedly get hanged or spend the rest of their lives in jail? Of course not. Another shame was earned by Germany when it decided, despite the murders of the Israeli athletes and strong protests by Israel and other governments, the remainer of the Olympics would continue. An odd addendum to the 1972 games is that, before the terrorist attack, Jewish-American Mark Spitz made Olympics history when he won seven gold medals in swimming. He refused to participate in the closing ceremonies out of respect for the murdered athletes.

Germany's shame took another terrible turn, when just a few weeks after the murders, another gang of Palestinian terrorists captured a Lufthansa jet. They threatened to kill passengers one by one until the three Munich terrorists were set free. Once again, despite pleas from Israel and the United States, Germany caved in and the jailed terrorists were flown to Syria with their jubilant companions.

If there can be any kind of justice involved in this Olympic outrage, all three of the surviving terrorists and six of their leaders who were involved in planning the Munich attack were tracked down and killed by Israeli intelligence agents.

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