On September 4th, 8 members of the group Black September took 9 hostages and killed members of the Israeli Olympic team during 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich. The group Black September was a terrorist organization that related to Yasser Arafat's Fatah organization, and their original plan to take the hostages was named "Ikrit and Biram". The organization named the operation Ikrit and Biram after two Christian Palestinian villages whose inhabitants were exiled or killed in 1948 by the Hagannah, a Jewish paramilitary organization.
The 8 members of the Black September group took 9 hostages after breaking into the apartment of the Israeli team. The Olympic village had been created to have little security and few checkpoints to emphasize a relaxed atmosphere after the oppressive memories of the 1936 Berlin Olympics, which had been taken advantage of by Adolf Hitler as an opportunity to impose propaganda. This lack of security made it easier for the terrorists to break into the building, where they killed two men, Yossef Gutfreund (a wrestling referee), and Moshe Weinberg (wrestling coach). As the hostages were taken from the building, Weinberg killed one and knocked another unconscious before being shot to death. The nine remaining hostages were guarded in two team member's rooms.
The reason for the terrorist attack was because the members of Black September wanted the release and safe return to Egypt of non-Arabs and 234 Palestinians imprisoned in Israel. The response from Israel was that there would be no negotiation. However, there is controversy over whether the German police refused an offer from Israel to send special forces to aid the Germans, or if this offer even existed. One way people believe the attack could have been prevented is if there had been better knowledge of how to handle a hostage crisis from the German police. Another problem the German police faced was that at the airport, when the terrorists were transporting the hostages to an airplane that would take them to Cairo, was that the German snipers stationed around the airport to assault them had no special training. A miscommunication among the German police created more problems, as at the last minute when the hostages boarded the plane, they realized there were 8 terrorists instead of the presumed 3, and the German police called off the assault without informing the snipers of their change. This lack of control and communication resulted in all of the hostages being killed, while all but 2 terrorists were killed as well. In total, 11 Israelis were killed, as well as 1 German policeman. A large part of the blame for their deaths was placed on the lack of preparation for such events by the Germans.
Citations:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Munich_massacre
http://www.palestinefacts.org/pf_1967to1991_munich.php
http://middleeast.about.com/od/terrorism/a/me080803e.htm
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