September 5, 1972
During the Summer Olympics in Munich, Germany, 11 members of the Israeli Olympic team are killed in a hostage-taking operation by Black September, a Palestinian terrorist organization affiliated with Yasser Arafat’s Fatah.
Just after 4 a.m., as the Israeli athletes sleep, eight terrorists jump over the 6-foot-high fence encircling the Olympic Village and enter the building with the five apartments that house the Israeli team. Two Israelis, wrestling coach Moshe Weinberg and weightlifter Yossef Romano, are killed attempting to fight off the initial attack as the terrorists round up the team members in Apartments 1 and 3.
Nine team members are taken hostage, while some others escape. The terrorists demand the release of 236 Palestinian prisoners and eventually request a plane to take them and the hostages to Egypt. During a botched German rescue attempt at the airport, the nine hostages are killed, along with five of the eight kidnappers. Three terrorists are captured but are released in October 1972 as part of an exchange after the Palestinian hijacking of a Lufthansa jet.
