The Munich Olympics Hostage Crisis

On 5 September 5th 1972, eight militants of Black September, a Palestinian militant group with ties to the Fatah faction of the Palestinian Liberation Organization, burst into one of the apartments of the Israeli delegation to the 1972 Munich Olympics. At gunpoint they take many Israeli hostages. One of the hostages was able to escape and two were killed in the apartment building after attempting to fight back against the militants. The militants demand the release of 328 imprisoned Arabs and non-Arabs, including members of the German Red Army Faction, or they will begin shooting hostages. The West German police fail to rescue the hostages or to reach an agreement with the Black September militants to release the hostages in the Olympic Village. As a result, the militants and the remaining nine hostages were taken by helicopters to Fürstenfeldbruck Airfield, a remote Luftwaffe base about 12 miles west of Munich. Shortly after the arrival at the airfield, a shootout breaks out.It ends with all nine remaining Israeli hostages killed along with one West German police officer. During the shootout five of the eight perpetrators of the massacre are killed. Over the course the hostage tak…