On This Day in History: September 6

The murder of Israeli Olympians at Munich

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The rescue attempt of Israeli athletes taken hostage by Palestinian terrorist group Black September at the 1972 Munich Olympic Games was a colossal fuckup for which Germany deserves much blame. It’s almost like that country has a history of not giving a shit about Jewish lives.

--On This Day in History, Shit Went Down: September 6, 1972--

To begin the clusterfuckery, German intelligence had received a warning weeks earlier by a Palestinian informant in Beirut that an “incident” was being planned for the games, but security measures remained unbelievably lax. The head of the Israeli delegation even expressed concern at the lack of security for their athletes, and was assured extra security would be added, but none was.

In the early morning of September 5, the eight terrorists snuck over the fence disguised in tracksuits, carrying duffle bags filled with assault rifles, pistols, and grenades. They had received logistical assistance for their attack by German neo-Nazis, because of course. Two of the Israeli athletes fought back and were murdered. The terrorists took nine other Israelis hostage.

The terrorists demanded the release of 234 Palestinians and non-Arabs held in Israeli prisons, as well as two West German militants held in German prisons. Although Germany denies it, Israel offered to send its special forces unit to Germany to handle the crisis, because they were expertly trained in how to deal with such a situation, as they would prove in the raid on Entebbe, Uganda four years later. Germany declined, preferring to use its unqualified regular police officers to attempt a rescue.

Big surprise, that shit went sideways, and just after midnight on September 6, 1972, all nine of the hostages were murdered by the terrorists during the amateurish rescue attempt. One German police officer was also killed, as were five of the eight terrorists. The three terrorists who survived were imprisoned, but the German government LET THEM FUCKING GO a month later as part of a hostage negotiation when a Lufthansa flight was hijacked.

Like I said: colossal fuckup.

Anyway, the Israeli government was pissed, and launched Operation Wrath of God using the Mossad to track down and kill those responsible for the planning and execution of the massacre of their 11 athletes. And they had quite a bit of success over a lengthy period, including allegedly getting two of the three terrorists that Germany released. They also killed an innocent Moroccan man in Norway in 1973 via a case of mistaken, or perhaps misdirected, identity. Six Mossad agents were arrested and five convicted in the Norway killing but were released to Israel two years later.

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