Historical live blog about the 1972 Olympics:The news of the kidnapping goes around the world
A hooded Arab terrorist appears on the balcony of the Israeli team headquarters in the Olympic Village at the Munich Summer Games. The assassins broke in early in the morning of September 5, killing two athletes and taking nine hostage.
(Photo: dpa)
50 years ago, Munich was all about the Olympics. The city shows the world a cheerful face – until the attack by Palestinian assassins on the Israeli team of light-heartedness on September 5th put an abrupt end to it. The SZ documents the events surrounding the games between August 25 and September 11, 1972. The texts are based on conversations with contemporary witnesses, literature, documentation, film recordings and the evaluation of numerous newspaper articles from the SZ archive (here is an overview of the contemporary witnesses and sources).
By Barbara Galaktionow and Lisa Sonnabend
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