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60-619: Following the 1972 Munich massacre and success of Operation Entebbe in 1976, in December 1977 the Ministry of National Defense was ordered to start the training and preparation for forming MPSSC, mainly because the rise of international terrorism has diffused internationally in the 1970s. In 2020 it was revealed that the MPSSC was providing counter-terrorism training for the special operations forces of an unnamed Middle Eastern country. New members of

120-657: A critical juncture , prompting governments to recognise terrorism as a lasting security challenge and to address it with diverse resources. By 4:30 pm, a hastily improvised team of 13 West German police officers, who had signed a declaration to willingly participate in a bold and risky hostage rescue operation, could be seen scaling the building in the Olympic Village. Awkwardly disguised in Olympic training suits, wearing heavy bulletproof vests beneath, and carrying Walther MP submachine guns, they were thought to be members of

180-743: A pupil infantry officer in the fighting on the Loire . An information officer for the French Resistance , he was arrested in January 1943 by the Gestapo , sentenced to thirty years in prison, and deported to Germany. He recounted this experience in his first published work, Crépuscule des vivants , in 1946. In 1953, Groussard was a military parachutist. From October 1956 to October 1957 and again in 1959, he served as lieutenant, then captain, in Algeria, to which he dedicated

240-486: A question, he was clubbed with the butt of an AK-47 in full view of international television cameras and pulled away from the window. At 3:25 pm, the ultimatum was postponed to 5 pm. By 3:38 pm, the Olympic Games were suspended, after allowing ongoing competitions to be completed. The terrorists repeatedly changed their clothes and appeared on the balcony, with their number estimated at five. Meanwhile,

300-705: A tip-off from a Palestinian informant in Beirut three weeks before the massacre. The informant warned that Palestinians were planning an "incident" at the Olympic Games, and the Federal Foreign Office in Bonn took the tip-off seriously enough to pass it to the Bavarian State Secret Service in Munich, urging that "all possible security measures" be taken. According to Der Spiegel , the authorities failed to act on

360-500: A unit specialised in handling hostage crises. In West Germany, since there were no specialised units in the modern sense—only special military combat units, which could not be deployed internally during peacetime due to their " combatant " status according to the German constitution —all such duties fell under the remit of ordinary law enforcement , specifically the regional state and municipal police . The ensuing events in Munich would mark

420-401: A while.' How long could you stand that?" Shortly before 5:00 am, the Munich police, the organising committee, and paramedics were alerted. Ambulances arrived, and the blood-soaked body of Weinberg, who had been thrown in front of the apartment building entrance (Connollystraße 31) by the terrorists and could not be saved, was recovered. The paramedics also tried in vain to negotiate with

480-568: Is there anything I can do for you?" to which the terrorist replied, "No, thank you," and let them go. The hostage-takers demanded the release of a significant number of Palestinians and non-Arabs imprisoned in Israel, including Kōzō Okamoto of the Japanese Red Army , along with one West German insurgent held by the West German penitentiary system, Ulrike Meinhof , who was one of the founders of

540-524: The 1948 Palestine war . West German neo-Nazis provided logistical assistance to the group. Shortly after the hostages were taken, Afif demanded the release of a significant number of Palestinians and non-Arab prisoners held in Israel, as well as one of the West German–imprisoned founders of the Red Army Faction , Ulrike Meinhof . The list included 328 detainees. West German police from

600-603: The Arab League , and Ahmed El Demerdash Touny, an Egyptian member of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), also helped try to win concessions from the kidnappers but to no avail. However, the German negotiators were able to convince the terrorists that their demands were being considered, as "Issa" granted several deadline extensions. Elsewhere in the village, athletes carried on as normal, seemingly oblivious to

660-556: The German Federal Border Guard ; according to former Munich police officer Heinz Hohensinn, who was a lead officer ( Einsatzleiter ) and part of the police assault operation on the ground, they were regular Munich police officers from the Bavarian State Police , with no experience in counter-terrorism or hostage rescue. Quoting Hohensinn, they realised from the onset that the bulletproof vests would not withstand

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720-482: The Israeli cabinet had decided not to accept the demands of the hostage-takers. Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir rejected the blackmail in order not to risk the lives of its citizens abroad for all time. Ambassador Ben Horin underscored Israel's faith in the German authorities' ability to save the hostages and demanded that the sporting competitions be halted until the hostage-taking was concluded. At one point during

780-528: The Olympic Park in Munich . 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 Olympic Village apartment at Connollystraße 31, a decision that may have saved the boy's life. The hostages were taken during the second week of the Games. At 4:10 am local time on 5 September, as

840-606: The Palestinian militant organisation Black September . The militants infiltrated the Olympic Village , killed two members of the Israeli Olympic team , and took nine others hostage, who were later killed in a failed rescue attempt. Black September commander and negotiator Luttif Afif named the operation " Iqrit and Biram ", after two Palestinian Christian villages whose inhabitants were expelled by Israel during

900-514: The 1936 Olympics and had lived through the experience of those games. Security personnel, known as OLYs, were inconspicuous and primarily prepared to handle ticket fraud and drunkenness. The documentary film One Day in September claims that security in the athletes' Village was inadequate for the Games. Athletes could bypass security and enter other countries' rooms by climbing over the 2 m (6 ft 7 in)-high chain-link fence surrounding

960-633: The 1967 Six-Day War , also attacked and wounded one of the intruders before being shot and later succumbed to his wounds. According to a report by The New York Times on 1 December 2015, Romano, after he was shot, was slowly left to bleed to death and, at some point over many hours, was castrated. The gunmen were left with nine hostages: in addition to Gutfreund, they had shooting coach Kehat Shorr , track and field coach Amitzur Shapira , fencing master Andre Spitzer , weightlifting judge Yakov Springer , wrestlers Eliezer Halfin and Mark Slavin , and weightlifters David Berger and Ze'ev Friedman . Berger

1020-472: The Bavarian State Police ambushed the terrorists, killing five of the eight Black September members, but the rescue attempt failed, resulting in the deaths of all the hostages. A West German police officer was also killed in the crossfire. The West German government faced criticism for the rescue attempt and its handling of the incident. The three surviving perpetrators were arrested but were released

1080-681: The Coast Guard’s Special Task Unit undergo two months of training with the Special Services Company following three months of training with the Amphibious Reconnaissance and Patrol Unit . The SSC operates handheld non-projectile anti-drone weapons. Centurion Arms CM4. Munich massacre International incidents The Munich massacre was a terrorist attack during the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich, West Germany , carried out by eight members of

1140-501: The German authorities had rejected his repeated offer to deploy the IDF 's Sayeret Matkal , insisting instead the Bavarian State Police would handle the crisis. The Bavarian interior minister , Bruno Merk, who headed the crisis centre jointly with Genscher and Munich's police chief Manfred Schreiber, denies that such an Israeli offer ever existed. Furthermore, such an offer of foreign military intervention could never be entertained due to

1200-649: The Japanese Red Army, one of the perpetrators of the massacre at Lod Airport on 30 May 1972. Various news reports and television documentaries had also claimed that the Red Army Faction founder Baader was listed along with Meinhof, but the original communiqué held in the Munich State Archives issued by the Black September group to the West German government only listed Meinhof, not Baader. . A copy of

1260-685: The Munich Police President and the head of security for the Games of the XX Olympiad, Bavarian Minister of the Interior Bruno Merk, and Federal Minister of the Interior and Vice President of the German NOC, Hans-Dietrich Genscher, offered themselves to the terrorists as replacement hostages, but to no avail. The Israeli ambassador to Germany, Eliashiv Ben-Horin , announced around midday that

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1320-648: The Olympic Village, on the ground floor of a small building close to a gate, which Lalkin felt made them particularly vulnerable to an outside assault. The West German authorities assured Lalkin that extra security would be provided for the Israeli team, but Lalkin doubts that any additional measures were taken. Olympic organisers asked West German forensic psychologist Georg Sieber  [ de ] to present some threat scenarios to aid in planning security, and he presented 26 scenarios. His "Situation 21" scenario accurately predicted an incursion of Palestinian elements into

1380-403: The Olympic Village, rather than using the official entrances. The absence of armed personnel worried Israeli delegation head Shmuel Lalkin even before his team arrived in Munich. In later interviews with journalists Serge Groussard and Aaron J. Klein, Lalkin said he had expressed concerns to the relevant authorities about his team's lodgings. The team was housed in a relatively isolated part of

1440-565: The Olympic Village. However, the organizers did not forward the document to the West German authorities, as guarding the Games against such threats conflicted with their goal of hosting "Carefree Games" without heavy security. Despite having clear intelligence from multiple sources and technically considering the possibility of such an attack, the Bavarian State police were still taken by surprise. The German news magazine Der Spiegel reported in 2012 that West German authorities had received

1500-521: The Olympic team), and Minister of Defence Moshe Dayan . As the ultimatum neared its expiry, the crisis team resumed negotiations with the German-speaking leader of the terrorists, "Issa", who hid his face under a mask and wore a white hat. With the assistance of an envoy from the Arab League and the head of the Egyptian IOC delegation, they managed to extend the ultimatum. At 9:30 am, there

1560-466: The Russian ammunition the terrorists were using. The police officers were also informed and had signed a declaration that they had to return the Olympic training suits the next day, washed and cleaned, despite not knowing if they would survive or what was about to confront them. They planned to crawl down from the ventilation shafts and overpower the terrorists. The police officers took up positions awaiting

1620-551: The West German Red Army Faction . Evidence uncovered in later years from the Munich Public Prosecutor's Office, held in the Munich State Archives, revealed that the original typewritten English-language communiqués of Black September contained a list of 328 names. The hostage-takers threw the body of Weinberg out of the front door of the apartment building to demonstrate their resolve. Israel's response

1680-478: The apartment building's roof. In the desperate scramble, the judo and swimming coaches, due to their age and reduced physical capability, were unable to climb out and became stranded. Once Wong, Chan, and Mok had fled, they did a headcount and realized that the judo and swimming coaches were missing. Sales, who was staying at a hotel, rushed to the scene. As the deadline given by the terrorists approached, Sales knew he had to act. He spoke to some German officials and

1740-406: The athletes from Apartment 3 were marched back to the coaches' apartment, the wounded Weinberg attacked the gunmen again, allowing one of his wrestlers, Gad Tsobari , to escape via the underground parking garage. Weinberg knocked one of the intruders unconscious and slashed at another with a fruit knife but failed to draw blood before being shot to death. Weightlifter Yossef Romano , a veteran of

1800-623: The athletes slept, eight tracksuit-clad members of the Black September faction of the Palestine Liberation Organization , carrying duffel bags loaded with AKM assault rifles, Tokarev pistols , and hand grenades , scaled a 2-metre ( 6 + 1 ⁄ 2  ft) chain-link fence with the assistance of unsuspecting athletes who were also sneaking into the Olympic Village. The athletes were originally identified as Americans but were later claimed to be Canadians. They entered

1860-533: The attack. However, since Nazzal was recognized as a worker in the Village, nothing was thought of it at the time. The other members of the group entered Munich via train and plane in the days leading up to the attack. On Monday evening, 4 September, the Israeli athletes enjoyed a night out, watching a performance of Fiddler on the Roof and dining with the star of the play, Israeli actor Shmuel Rodensky , before returning to

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1920-490: The attackers at the building entrance to attend to the injured person inside, Romano. Despite their efforts, the attackers would not allow them to enter the building, and he eventually succumbed to his gunshot injuries. The terrorists demanded by 9 am, the release of Palestinians and non-Arabs held captive in Israel, as well as Meinhof, who was imprisoned in West Germany. They also requested safe passage for themselves and

1980-521: The author Simon Reeve , Afif (the son of a Jewish mother and Christian father), Nazzal, and one of their confidantes had all worked in various capacities in the Olympic Village and had spent a couple of weeks scouting for their potential target. A member of the Uruguay Olympic delegation , which shared housing with the Israelis, claimed that he found Nazzal inside 31 Connollystraße less than 24 hours before

2040-634: The cabinet met in Bonn . The crisis team was given full authorisation by Chancellor Willy Brandt and the German Federal Government to do whatever was needed to rescue the hostages. At 8:45 am, the Israeli Foreign Ministry received the initial news about the attack from the Israeli embassy in Bonn. This information was then forwarded to Prime Minister Golda Meir , Minister of Education and Culture Yigal Allon (who had responsibility for

2100-486: The codeword "Sunshine", which, upon hearing, they were to begin the assault. In the meantime, camera crews filmed the actions of the police officers from nearby apartments in the Olympic Village and broadcast the images live on television. This allowed the terrorists to watch the police prepare for the attack and hear it on the radio. A press image shows one of the terrorists peering from the balcony door—an image that became world-famous—while an armed police officer stood on

2160-459: The crisis, the German negotiators demanded direct contact with the hostages to satisfy themselves the Israelis were still alive. Fencing coach Andre Spitzer , who spoke fluent German, and shooting coach Kehat Shorr , the senior member of the Israeli delegation, had a brief conversation with West German officials while standing at the second-floor window of the besieged building, with two kidnappers holding guns on them. When Spitzer attempted to answer

2220-520: The eleven Israelis and one German killed at Munich. During the 2020 Summer Olympics , a moment of silence was observed in the opening ceremony. Ahead of the 1972 Olympics, the West German Olympic Organizing Committee aimed to discard Germany's military image, wary of the propaganda portrayed by the 1936 Summer Olympics under Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler . The IOC President at the time, Avery Brundage , had been involved in

2280-494: The events unfolding nearby. The Games continued until mounting pressure on the IOC forced a suspension 12 hours after the first athlete had been murdered. United States marathon runner Frank Shorter , observing the unfolding events from the balcony of his nearby lodging, was quoted as saying, "Imagine those poor guys over there. Every five minutes a psycho with a machine gun says, 'Let's kill 'em now,' and someone else says, 'No, let's wait

2340-417: The following month in a hostage exchange after the hijacking of Lufthansa Flight 615 . By then the Israeli government had launched an assassination campaign , which authorised Mossad to track down and kill anyone who had played a role in the attack. Two days before the start of the 2016 Summer Olympics , Brazilian and Israeli officials led a ceremony where the International Olympic Committee honoured

2400-575: The hostages on a plane to Cairo , where they intended to continue negotiations for the prisoners' release. To verify the hostages were still alive, Minister Genscher and Walter Tröger, the mayor of the Olympic Village, were briefly allowed into the apartments to speak with the hostages. Clearly, in fear for their lives, they agreed to fly to the Egyptian capital with the terrorists. Serge Groussard Serge Groussard ( French pronunciation: [sɛʁʒ ɡʁusaʁ] ; 18 January 1921 – 2 January 2016)

2460-476: The hostages to an Arab capital, using a plane provided for this purpose, where the hostage exchange would take place. The terrorists warned that they would shoot the hostages immediately if their demands were not met. There are different reports about the exact number of people to be released and whether non-Arab terrorists were included. For a long time, there was talk of two hundred Palestinians. In non-fiction books by Simon Reeve, Luis Palme, and Kay Schiller, it

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2520-615: The initial communiqué shown in the movie One Day in September shows Meinhof, Baader and Okamoto listed. Between 5:40 am and 9 am, the crisis team was set up on-site and met with Federal Minister of the Interior Hans-Dietrich Genscher , Bavarian Minister of the Interior Bruno Merk, Munich Police President Manfred Schreiber, State Secretary Erich Kiesl, German National Olympic Committee President Willi Daume, and IOC President Avery Brundage , while

2580-456: The intruders past Apartment 2, Weinberg lied, telling them that the residents were not Israelis. Instead, he directed them to Apartment 3, where the gunmen corralled six wrestlers and weightlifters as additional hostages. Weinberg might have hoped that the stronger men would have a better chance of fighting off the attackers than those in Apartment 2, but they were all surprised in their sleep. As

2640-487: The other side. Shouting a warning to his sleeping roommates, he threw his 135 kg (300 lb) weight against the door in an attempt to stop the intruders from forcing their way in. Gutfreund's actions gave his roommate, weightlifting coach Tuvia Sokolovsky, enough time to escape through a window. Meanwhile, wrestling coach Moshe Weinberg , known as "Muni", fought the intruders, who shot him through his cheek and then forced him to help them find more hostages. Leading

2700-543: The rear second-story balcony. He then ran to the American dormitory, woke up US track coach Bill Bowerman , and informed him of the attack. Ladany, a survivor of the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp , was the first person to spread the alert. The remaining four residents of Apartment 2—shooters Henry Hershkowitz and Zelig Shtroch, and fencers Dan Alon and Yehuda Weisenstein —along with chef de mission Shmuel Lalkin and

2760-506: The reply was that "money means nothing to us; our lives mean nothing to us." The Germans also offered the Palestinians the substitution of high-ranking German officials. The kidnappers refused both offers. Meanwhile, the Olympic committee's refusal to suspend the games amid the emerging crisis intensified the pressure on the West German authorities and police to find a resolution. Magdi Gohary and Mohammad Khadif, both Egyptian advisers to

2820-429: The roof less than 12 m (40 ft) away. After "Issa" threatened to kill some of the hostages and the police cover had been blown by the television coverage, the police were forced to suspend the rescue operation to avoid a bloodbath and retreated from the premises. The press were also removed from the Olympic Village. Shortly before the 5 pm deadline, the terrorists demanded safe passage for themselves and

2880-520: The sovereignty of the Federal Republic of Germany. According to journalist John K. Cooley , the hostage situation presented an extremely difficult political situation for the Germans because the hostages were Jewish. Munich police chief Manfred Schreiber and Bruno Merk, the interior minister of Bavaria, negotiated directly with the kidnappers, repeatedly offering an unlimited ransom. According to Cooley,

2940-409: The terrorists learned from radio and television broadcasts that the police were approaching and had planned a rescue operation. The authorities had failed to cut off the terrorists' electricity and remove the press from the Olympic Village. In the early 1970s, counter-terrorism and tactical policing were still relatively unheard-of methods for combating terrorism , and no military in the world had

3000-804: The tip and never acknowledged it in the following 40 years. The magazine claimed this was part of a 40-year cover-up by German authorities regarding their mishandling of the response to the massacre. The attackers were reported to be Palestinian terrorists from refugee camps in Lebanon, Syria, and Jordan. They were identified as Luttif Afif ( code name Issa), the leader (three of Issa's brothers were also reportedly members of Black September, with two 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 Al-Gashey's cousin, Jamal Al-Gashey ("Samir"). According to

3060-443: The two team doctors, were also able to flee the besieged building. The two female members of Israel's Olympic team, sprinter and hurdler Esther Shahamorov and swimmer Shlomit Nir, were housed in a separate part of the Olympic Village. Hong Kong Olympic swimmer Ronnie Wong Man-chiu recalled the courage of Hong Kong NOC president Arnaldo de Oliveira Sales , who helped bring two stranded Hong Kong coaches to safety. The Hong Kong team

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3120-407: The two-story apartment building at Connollystraße 31, which housed the Israeli , Hong Kong , and Uruguay Olympic delegations , through an unlocked front door. Yossef Gutfreund , a wrestling referee, was awakened by a faint scratching noise at the door of Apartment 1, which housed the Israeli coaches and officials. Investigating the noise, he saw the door begin to open and masked men with guns on

3180-488: The wrists and ankles, and then to each other. Romano's bullet-riddled corpse was left at his bound comrades' feet as a warning. Several of the hostages were beaten during the standoff, with some suffering broken bones as a result. Of the other members of the Israeli team in Apartment 2, racewalker Shaul Ladany was abruptly awakened by sports shooter Zelig Shtroch , who said something like, "Arabs have shot Muni," referring to Moshe Weinberg. Ladany escaped by jumping from

3240-900: Was a French journalist and writer, the son of colonel Georges Groussard and Véra Bernstein-Woolbrunn. Serge Groussard studied at the Calvin Institute in Montauban , at the La Rochelle high school, and at the Lycée Gouraud in Rabat , Morocco. He later attended the Faculty of Arts and the Sciences Po , both in Paris. In September 1939, he volunteered for the duration of the Second World War and participated as

3300-458: Was a mass rush in the press centre, but the press conference focused on the successes of swimming star Mark Spitz . Spitz, himself of Jewish origin, requested an escort and left Munich the same day. A quarter of an hour before the noon ultimatum expired, an extension of three hours, until 3 pm, was negotiated with the terrorists. During the negotiations, the mayor of the Olympic Village, Walther Tröger, along with Willi Daume, Manfred Schreiber,

3360-523: Was an expatriate American with dual citizenship, while Slavin, the youngest of the hostages at 18, had only arrived in Israel from the Soviet Union four months before the Olympic Games began. 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 bound at

3420-453: Was escorted to the apartment building, where he was allowed inside. In several reports, Sales said he encountered the leader of the Black September group, who told him that he thought the entire Hong Kong delegation had already left the building. Led by one of the terrorists to the Hong Kong room, Sales brought the two Hong Kong coaches out. On the way out, Sales said to the terrorist, "Thank you,

3480-466: Was housed one floor above the Israeli team. Wong, along with fencer Matthew Chan and judo athlete Mok Cheuk-wing , came face-to-face with the terrorists, who were pointing weapons at them. They told the terrorists they were Chinese from Hong Kong and wanted to leave. Chan recalls, "He spoke good English and was polite. He told us to come out of the room and we can leave. Once he said that, we felt that we were safe." Wong, Chan, and Mok fled by climbing onto

3540-415: Was immediate and absolute: there would be no negotiation. Israel's official policy at the time was to refuse to negotiate with terrorists under any circumstances, as according to the Israeli government such negotiations would give an incentive to future attacks. Under Chancellor Willy Brandt and Federal Interior Minister Hans-Dietrich Genscher , Zvi Zamir , the head of Israel's Mossad , later reported

3600-601: Was stated from 2006 onwards, without further source evidence, that the hostage-takers had demanded the release of 234 Palestinians from Israeli custody, as well as the German Red Army Faction terrorists Meinhof and Andreas Baader . According to historians Anna Greithanner, Dominik Aufleger, and Robert Wolff, who found the original list of the hostage-takers in the Staatsarchiv München (Munich State Archives), it contains 328 names, including Meinhof and Okamoto of

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