As the gunmen made their way into apartment one, they inserted a passkey and successfully entered.  Yossef Gutfreund, a 275 pound wrestling referee began reacting to the sound of Arab voices behind his door.  He quickly alerted his roommates there was danger and pushed his body against the door in an attempt to deny the fedayeen entrance.  His efforts were effective, but for only a few seconds; however, it did allow one roommate enough time to break out a window and successfully escape.  The terrorists immediately took five Israeli team members hostage: track coach Amitzur Shapira, fencing Master Andrei Spitzer, rifle coach Kehat Shorr, weightlifting Judge Yacov Springer, and Yossef Gutfreund.  The terrorists then expanded their search throughout the complex capturing six additional athletes.  Wrestling Coach Moshe Weinberger was not at the complex during the initial assault. 

      When he arrived back the terrorists were searching for additional Israeli team members.  As he entered the apartment he struggled with two terrorists, striking one down and knocking him unconscious.  The second terrorists shot Weinberger in the face.  Although his was seriously wounded he managed to fight off another attacker before being shot repeatedly in the chest by a third terrorist, and later killing him with a point-blank gunshot to the head.  As the attack continued weightlifter Yossef Romanno tried to escape through an open kitchen window.  The attempt was unsuccessful; however, Romanno located a kitchen knife and stabbed one of the gunmen in the forehead.  A second terrorist then moved forward and fired from point-blank range into Romanno with an assault rifle, killing him. 

      At approximately 5:00 AM, the terrorists had killed two Israeli athletes and captured nine.  The terrorists then issued a set of demands, written in English, and had thrown Moshe Weinberger’s body into the street.  Their demands were to release 234 Arab and German prisoners held in Israel and West Germany.  They also included a written list of prisoners for release, and requested a jet to transport them to Cairo where the prisoners demanded for release by Israel would meet them.  Israel’s Prime Minister Golda Meir assured West German Chancellor Willy Brandt that the Government of Israel would never negotiate with the terrorists.  Golda Meir’s refusal to negotiate forced Manfred Schreiber, the Munich Police Commissioner, to believe that a rescue attempt was his only option.

      Schreiber believed in order to conduct a successful hostage rescue; he must confine the terrorists to Germany.  He felt the best way to isolate the terrorists was at Germany’s Furstenfeldbruck Airport.  Once the terrorists were at the airfield, West German sharpshooters would attempt to rescue the hostages.  At this particular time it broadcasted on live TV that all hostages were safe and alive.  After the terrorists arrived at the airport German Police realized there were eight terrorists as opposed to five terrorists.  This was a problem seeing how the German Police thought there were only five terrorists and only deployed five snipers.

      As the terrorists moved a safe distance from the hostages, Schreiber ordered the snipers to open fire. Once the initial rounds went off-target a full gun-battle ensued. The Israeli hostages were sitting frantically in the helicopters which had transported them to the airfield. The gun fight between the fedayeen and police lasted around an hour and fifteen minutes.  The police then decided to initiate an infantry attack to move terrorists away from the helicopters.  (http://jewishvirtuallibrary.org)  As the infantry attack began one of the fedayeen tossed a live grenade into one of the helicopters holding five of the Israeli athletes.  Shortly after another fedayeen entered the second helicopter, shot, and killed the last four hostages.  News broadcasters had to now inform the public that all nine hostages were now dead.  During the gunfight police managed to arrest three of the terrorists.

      Later in 1972, the Israeli Mossad secretly initiated one of the most inspiring covert counterterrorist campaigns in history.  Golda Meir and the Israeli cabinet’s top secret Committee-X came up with a campaign to retaliate against the massacre of the eleven Israelis.  They referred to this as the Operation Wrath of God.  The Mossad Chief Zwi Zamir provided the group with the identities of eleven top targets for assassination.  The teams consisted of five highly trained individuals with specialties that varied.  Some specialized in devising alias documents, stealing vehicles, improvised explosive devices (IED), small arms, electronics, business, banking, and operational security. 

      Even though each officer specialized in certain skills, each team member could potentially perform any task.  In order to sever any ties with the Israeli Government, the team members had to resign from their positions in the Mossad.  They had to sign a contract saying there is no contract.  The team’s goal was to operate until they successfully completed the mission.  The members were not allowed to see their families until all eleven targets were assassinated.  By 1979, eight targets had been assassinated.    Among them was the leading figure Ali Hassan Salameh, nicknamed the “Red Prince.”  Salameh was killed by a car bomb in Beirut on January 22, 1979.  (http://en.wikipedia.org)

      The shoot-out between the German Police and the fedayeen showed a lack of preparation on the part of the German authorities.  They were not prepared to deal with this sort of terrorism, so less than two months later they founded GSG9.  The GSG9 made it a point to be less dependent on its weapons than on the talents, discipline, and training of its men.  The GSG9 consists of citizens as members as opposed to Sarayet Mat’Kal and the British Secrecy and Surprise.  There are not just trained in combat, but they also study the origins and tactics of known terrorists groups. 

      Many argue if the Munich massacre could have been prevented.  No one can officially say if it could have completely been stopped, but we could say that the security measures could have been more stringent.  We as a nation should not be so lenient after a tragedy, regardless of how many years have gone by.  The Munich massacre created controversy on top of mourning and fear.  The games had been suspended for 24 hours and a memorial was held at the main stadium in front of 80,000 spectators.  In a controversial decision, International Olympic Committee president, Avery Brundage, declared “the Games must go on” and the games resumed one day later.

      People say the most memorable footage from Munich should have been of American swimmer Mark Spitz winning his seventh gold medal.  Or, 17-year-old Russian gymnast Olga Korbut wowing the world on the balance beam. Instead the world was left with exasperating photos of terrorists in ski masks and a policeman standing on the roof waiting to attack with a semi-automatic weapon.  The ultimate picture we were left with that day was of ABC announcer Jim McKay uttering his fateful words, “They’re all gone.” (http://www.infoplease.com) 
 
 
 
 

      REFERENCES

1. http://en.wikipedia.org
2. http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org
3. http://www.infoplease.com