Munich Massacre
At 4:30 in the morning on September 5, 1972, a total of 8 Arab terrorists, belonging to the group "Black September," infiltrated two apartments used by the Israeli Athletes at the Olympic village in Munich. "Black September" refers to the date September 17, 1970 when the King of Jordan began attacks against Palestinian refugees in the city of Amman. The decision to attack the refugees came from the King's anger of the terrorists that existed within that population. At least four thousand fedayeen ("Men of Sacrifice,") were massacred by the Jordanian military.
After a brief struggle resulting in the death of two of the eleven athletes of the Israeli delegation, nine Israelis were held hostage. Two athletes escaped and quickly notified authorities. At 9:30 it was announced that they were Palestinians and their demands were the relase of 234 prisoners imprisoned in Israel as well as the release of two German terrorists of the Baader-Meinhoff Gang in Frankfurt, and then safe passage out of Germany.
After lengthy negotiations German leaders acquiesced and transported them by bus to Firstenfeldbruck, a NATO airbase. The plan was for the terrorists and hostages to board two helicopters and subsequentally, after meeting up with the released prisoners, one of three planes bound for Cairo. However, German authorities planned to use sharpshooters to simultaneously kill all the terrorists.
The plan failed due to ineptitude on the part of the German military, as well as miscalculating the perceived number of terrorists from 5 when in actuality there were 8. A tremendous firefight brokeout between the Palestinians and Germans. Around 3:00 AM a grenade was set off in a helicopter by one of the Palestinians killing all on board, the remaining terrorists executed the surviving Israeli hostages. Three of the terrorists were captured by German authorities.
The Israeli Government withdrew from the Munich Olympics on the fifth of May, and Egypt withdrew on the seventh fearing an Israeli reprisal. A short time after in October, a Lufthansa aircraft was hijacked and demands were made for the relase of the three captured terrorists from Munich and the German government shortly after released them from custody. Following the deaths of the Israeli athletes, Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir was quick to order the hunting down of those responsible for the Munich Massacre. The result was the Israeli Mossad initiating a massive covert counter-terrorist campaign called "Wrath of God." It was later revealed that one of the teams created for the mission succeeded in killing five of the terrorists related to the Munich Massacre.
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