The World Shook With Terror

the time, and the Nazis were in power. Before the Olympics, German Jews had been segregated and

The Munich massacre occurred during the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich, Germany, where members of the Israeli Olympic team were taken hostage and eventually murdered by Black September, a Palestinian terrorist organisation. By the end of the agonising ordeal, 11 Israeli athletes and coaches had been killed, and one German police officer. Consequently, the “Operation Wrath of God” was carried out in order to assassinate the individuals involved in the massacre, in which five of the eight members of the terrorist group were killed. The remaining three members were captured, and later released by West Germany after the hijacking by Black September of a Lufthansa airliner. The aftermath of the terrorist attack consisted of several short and long term impacts, including the effects on the Olympic Games, the world’s view on security and the victims’ families.

From 1933 to 1945, hiding Jews was a massive event in Germany. Many Germans risked

The Massacre occurred on September 5th, the eleventh day of the 1972 Olympics. Eight Palestinian Terrorists that belonged to the group Black september killed two Israeli athletes and took another nine hostage. The terrorists did this because Israel has Arabs in their prisons. They wanted Israel to “release over 230 Arab prisoners being held in Israeli jails and two German terrorists” (History). The Olympics did not have very good security during this time so this made it easy for the terrorists to carry out their plan. Israel did not want any negotiations to be made however, German authorities tried to make many with the terrorists. “The terrorists demanded transportation to Cairo following more than twelve hours of unsuccessful negotiations. Authorities led the terrorists to believe they would comply while in truth they were planning to ambush them at the airport” (NPS).The ambush did not go as planned. The authorities thought that there were only five terrorists although there were eight. The rescue failed for a few reasons. First, “the German snipers that were chosen had no sharpshooting experience and had no communication with each other. [...] Second, the police were

Starting with Document 3, we are shown how the Nazi’s took the Olympic Games during the period of World War 2. Document 3 shows that the Nazi’s interpreted the Olympic games as a competition showing what countries have the most power in the world. Since during World War 2, The Nazi’s were trying to spread their ideas and beliefs to the world and they thought a good way to do this was the Olympic Games since their interpretation of the Olympic Games was a way to show a country's supremacy. In the end, The Nazi’s were provoked to cheat as they were caught practicing a course before the course was to be presented. In the end, the world was shown what would happen when national conflicts are brought into the Olympic games.

“There is no room for discrimination,” James Mahoney said, “on the grounds of race, color, or creed in the Olympics” (Jeremy Schaap). The statement above is definitely true. The 1936 Olympics were hosted in Berlin at a time when the Nazis were in power. Did the Nazis hold true to that statement? Believe it or not the 1936 Olympics actually had an effect on the holocaust.

An article titled "Gate-Crashing at Village Easy Despite the Guards" states that, "Anyone who wants to crash the Olympic Village badly enough, as Arab guerrillas did early this morning in search of Israeli athletes and officials, can succeed without difficulty." Additionally, The New York Times would report that the guerrillas snuck in weakly disguised as athletes armed with a cache of weapons in duffle bags. These men, as a diagram of the Olympic Village shows, did not have to go far to find the Israelis after easily entering the compound. Red Smith, sports editorialist, was livid at Olympic Organizers for their lack of attention to detail, and due to the fact that the Games continues until 4:00 PM on the day of the attacks. "The men who run the Olympics are not evil men. Their shocking lack of awareness can't be due to callousness." He adds, "It has to be stupidity." The New York Times put security under the microscope on day one of reporting the story, and would continue to do so for several days.

In this essay, will be explained the horrible and unfair things that happened on this event. This started around July in 1942 where Jews thought they were safe when they were not. (Vashem, 2015)

A little after 4 a.m. on September fifth, as the Israeli athletes slept, eight members of the Black September jumped over the six-foot high fence that encircled the Olympic Village. The terrorists headed straight for 31 Connollystrasse, the building where the Israeli team was staying. Around 4:30 a.m., the terrorists entered the building. They rounded up the occupants of Apartment one and then Apartment three. Several of the Israelis fought back and two of them were killed. A several others were able to escape out windows. Nine were taken hostage (Rosenberg). In another apartment, they captured the Israeli wrestlers and weightlifters Eliezer Halfin, Yossef Romano, Mark Slavin, David Berger, and Zeev Friedman. When the fearless Israelis fought back, the Black September opened fire, killing Romano and one other person (Olympics Massacre). Once the team was taken hostage, the Palestinians dropped a list of demands out the window. In return for the hostages, the terrorists demanded 234 prisoners released from Israeli prisons and two from German prisons by 9 a.m. (Rosenberg).

There are several events that occur each day that people go without knowing about because they’re more focused in their own world that paying attention to the one that we live in. Many humans live in a very self centered world. Then when comes a time of great tragedy and death it will sometimes appear in headlines for the pure intentions of entertainment for most people, especially in western civilization.

"...Sport is prostituted when sport loses its independent and democratic character and becomes a political institution...Nazi Germany is endeavoring to use the Eleventh Olympiad to serve the necessities and interests of the Nazi regime rather than the Olympic ideals."

The 1936 Olympics in Berlin, also known as the “Nazi Olympics”, was a milestone in the history of the world. All of the attention of the Olympics that year was focused on Adolf Hitler and the Nazis. In 1933, Nazi leader Adolf Hitler became leader of Germany and quickly turned the nation's democracy into a one-party dictatorship. He took thousands of political opponents, holding them without trial in concentration camps. The Nazis also set up a program to strengthen the Germanic Aryan population. They began to exclude all one-half million Jews from the population, and German life. As part of the drive to "purify" and strengthen the German population, a 1933 law permitted physicians to perform forced

The hostages were abducted easily by Black September. At approximately 4:30 a.m. local time on September 5, as the athletes slept, eight armed tracksuit-clad members of Black September breached the Olympic compound. They did this simply by by scaling the surrounding six foot fence with help from two unsuspecting American athletes who were also sneaking into the Olympic Village. Using stolen keys, the terrorists entered two apartments used by the Israeli team.(1) Israeli wrestling referee Yossef Gutfreund woke up after hearing a sound near the door of the first apartment. While investigating the noise,Gutfreund watched as the door began to open and saw masked Black September members with guns on the other side. He yelled to the others as he

Most Germans hoped that the 1972 Olympics would help to heal the racial damage caused by the 1936 Olympics. It was the first time the games had returned to the state since Nazism

The current conflict in the Middle East between the Israeli Jews and the Palestinian Arabs has many historical roots. Several events in the history of this conflict have been very important and also have a strong connection with the current situation between the two sides. One of these important events was the Nazi Holocaust. During the Second World War the Jews were persecuted by the Nazis and sent to concentration camps.