Munich Athletes

The Munich massacre occurred during the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich, West Germany, when members of the Israeli Olympic team were taken hostage by Black September, a group with ties to Yasser Arafat’s Fatah organization. By the end of the ordeal, the terrorist group had murdered eleven Israeli athletes and coaches and one German police officer. Five of the eight terrorists were killed by police officers during an abortive rescue attempt. The three surviving terrorists were captured, and were later released by West Germany following the hijacking of a Lufthansa airliner, a release that has led to speculation that West Germany had helped stage the Lufthansa hijacking.

Shot during the initial break-in: Moshe Weinberg (wrestling coach) Yossef Romano (weightlifter) Shot and blown up by grenade in D-HAQO (eastern) helicopter: (according to the order in which they were seated, from left to right) Ze'ev Friedman (weightlifter) David Berger (weightlifter) Yakov Springer (weightlifting judge) Eliezer Halfin (wrestler) Shot in D-HADU (western) helicopter: (according to the order in which they were seated, from left to right) Yossef Gutfreund (wrestling referee) Kehat Shorr (shooting coach) Mark Slavin (wrestler) Andre Spitzer (fencing coach) Amitzur Shapira (track coach) Shot on airstrip: Anton Fliegerbauer (German counter-terrorist police officer)