Avi Melamed (2nd from left), a surviving member of the 1972 Israeli Olympic team, walks past a poster after he joined Jewish and New York community members in a moment of silence in 2012 in New York to honour the 11 Israeli athletes killed in the Munich Massacre[/caption]
The terrorists were part of a group known as Black September.
Here is how history-com recorded the tragic sequence 49 years ago in the West German city.
In return for the release of the hostages, they demanded that Israel release over 230 Arab prisoners being held in Israeli jails and two German terrorists.
In an ensuing shootout at the Munich airport, the nine Israeli hostages were killed along with five terrorists and one West German policeman.
Olympic competition was suspended for 24 hours to hold memorial services for the slain athletes.
Ten days after the Games began
The Munich Olympics opened on 26 August, 1972, with 195 events and 7,173 athletes representing 121 countries.
On the morning of 5 September, Palestinian terrorists in ski masks ambushed the Israeli team. After negotiations to free the nine Israelis broke down, the terrorists took the hostages to the Munich airport.
Once there, German police opened fire from rooftops and killed three of the terrorists. A gun battle erupted and left the hostages, two more Palestinians, and a policeman dead.
Mark Spitz shines in troubled Games
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The mother of an Israeli athlete slain at the 1972 Munich Massacre grieves for her son at his funeral. It was the first year the modern state of Israel had sent athletes to the Olympics[/caption]
After a memorial service was held for the athletes at the main Olympic stadium, International Olympic Committee (IOC) President Avery Brundage ordered that the games continue, to show that the terrorists hadn’t won.
Although the tragedy deeply marred the games, there were numerous moments of spectacular athletic achievement, including American swimmer Mark Spitz’s seven gold medals and teenage Russian gymnast Olga Korbut’s two dramatic gold-medal victories.
Remembered at the Tokyo opening
In the aftermath of the murders at the ’72 Olympics, the Israeli government, headed by Golda Meir, hired a group of Mossad agents to track down and kill the Black September assassins.
The 2005 Stephen Spielberg movie Munich was based on these events.
Forty-nine years after the 1972 massacre of Israeli athletes at the Munich Olympics, the 23 July opening ceremony for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics included, for the first time, an official commemoration of those who died in the terror attack.
Scene from the 2005 historical action thriller film produced and directed by Steven Spielberg, ‘Munich’. It is based on the 1984 book Vengeance by George Jonas, an account of Operation Wrath of God, the Israeli government’s secret retaliation against the Palestine Liberation Organization after the Munich massacre at the 1972 Summer Olympics. In 2017, the film was named the 16th “Best Film of the 21st Century So Far” by The New York Times[/caption]
Tributes were paid to those lost during the pandemic and throughout Olympic history. The Israeli delegation that was killed at the Munich Games was specifically mentioned. A moment of silence was offered inside the stadium, alongside a dance performance honoring the dead.
“In particular we remember those who lost their lives during the Olympic Games,” the announcer said. “One group still holds a strong place in all our memories and stands for all of those we have lost at the games: the members of the Israel delegation at the Olympic Games Munich 1972.”
‘This is the moment we’ve waited for’
Families of the Munich victims have campaigned for years for greater public recognition for the dead from the International Olympic Committee. The IOC faced criticism for refusing to hold a moment of silence for the Israeli victims during the opening of the 2012 London Games, 40 years after the attack.
Widows Ankie Spitzer and Ilana Romano were at Friday’s ceremony.
“Finally there is justice for the husbands, sons and fathers murdered at Munich,” the two said in a joint statement. “We went through 49 years of struggle and never gave up. (We) cannot hold back our tears. This is the moment we’ve waited for.”
In 2016, a memorial ceremony was held for the first time during the Rio Games (but not in the opening ceremony), under the leadership of German IOC President Thomas Bach.
Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett praised the move.
“Today, for the first time at the Olympic Games, there was an official commemoration for the massacre of the 11 members of the Israeli delegation to the Munich Olympics. I applaud this important historic moment,” he said. “May their memories be a blessing.”
Igal Carmi, head of the Israeli Olympic Committee, said Israel was “grateful” for the 2021 tribute.