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This programme contains some scenes which some viewers may find upsetting. | 0:00:02 | 0:00:09 | |
CHORAL SINGING | 0:00:12 | 0:00:15 | |
Guten Morgen und guten Appetit. | 0:00:25 | 0:00:27 | |
-FILM SOUNDTRACK: -'A morning like any other in Munich. | 0:00:29 | 0:00:34 | |
'A city where tradition and modernity exist side by side. | 0:00:34 | 0:00:39 | |
'This summer, our beautiful city is host to the 20th Olympic Games. | 0:00:43 | 0:00:48 | |
'In the centre of the Olympic site is the Olympic tower, next to it the Olympic arena. | 0:00:48 | 0:00:55 | |
'For many visitors, Munich is a kind of German paradise. We're sure that you'll agree.' | 0:01:01 | 0:01:08 | |
MAN: Well, nobody could foresee what later on happened. | 0:01:12 | 0:01:17 | |
VOICES FADE IN AND OUT: | 0:01:17 | 0:01:20 | |
Good afternoon. Another deadline has come and gone... | 0:01:20 | 0:01:25 | |
They had their hands tied in front of them, like that... | 0:01:25 | 0:01:29 | |
It wasn't any James Bond, it was the real thing... | 0:01:29 | 0:01:33 | |
I just want to know what happened... | 0:01:33 | 0:01:36 | |
The deadline appears to be less than a minute away... | 0:01:36 | 0:01:41 | |
It was feared an attempt might be made to seize him... | 0:01:41 | 0:01:45 | |
An Arab guerrilla with some kind of weapon... | 0:01:45 | 0:01:49 | |
MACHINE GUN SHOTS | 0:01:52 | 0:01:54 | |
It was a year and three months that I was married to Andre Spitzer. | 0:02:14 | 0:02:19 | |
But it made such an enormous impression on me, sometimes it looks like a lifetime. | 0:02:19 | 0:02:25 | |
I went fencing and he happened to be my fencing master. | 0:02:27 | 0:02:31 | |
I didn't know he was from Israel. | 0:02:31 | 0:02:34 | |
He spoke Dutch with a slight accent. I thought maybe he was from Eastern Europe. | 0:02:34 | 0:02:40 | |
Something about him really appealed to me. | 0:02:40 | 0:02:44 | |
He was very much at peace with himself | 0:02:44 | 0:02:49 | |
and also with the people around him. | 0:02:49 | 0:02:51 | |
That affected me because I was not so at peace - certainly not with myself. | 0:02:51 | 0:02:58 | |
Being the person he was, it was hard not to fall in love with him. | 0:02:59 | 0:03:05 | |
MAN SPEAKS IN ARABIC | 0:03:23 | 0:03:25 | |
I joined the revolution since 1967. | 0:04:29 | 0:04:33 | |
-Which revolution? -The Palestinian new revolution. | 0:04:33 | 0:04:36 | |
We lived on the border between Lebanon and Israel. | 0:04:55 | 0:05:00 | |
It was way out in nowhere. | 0:05:00 | 0:05:02 | |
They decided to have their fencing academy there. | 0:05:02 | 0:05:06 | |
He was going from town to town, to village to village, to try to teach youngsters - | 0:05:08 | 0:05:14 | |
through fencing - to have respect for each other. | 0:05:14 | 0:05:18 | |
Fencing is an aggressive sport. You have a weapon, you attack. | 0:05:18 | 0:05:23 | |
If you attack someone right, you score a point. | 0:05:23 | 0:05:27 | |
He tried to teach the youngsters how to channel that aggression into respect for your opponent. | 0:05:27 | 0:05:35 | |
It was very tough living there, but I remember that year | 0:05:40 | 0:05:44 | |
as the most beautiful and wonderful year of my life. | 0:05:44 | 0:05:48 | |
He dreamt always to be once at the Olympics. | 0:07:04 | 0:07:08 | |
Years before I knew him he said he was thinking to get to the Olympics once. | 0:07:08 | 0:07:15 | |
For athletes it's the climax of your career. | 0:07:15 | 0:07:19 | |
For Andre and the rest of the Israeli team, | 0:07:20 | 0:07:24 | |
the 1972 Olympics held a particular significance. | 0:07:24 | 0:07:29 | |
They were held in Munich, Germany, the birthplace of Nazism. | 0:07:29 | 0:07:33 | |
There was a feeling that this was a huge event for the Israeli team - to be attending. | 0:07:35 | 0:07:41 | |
Their presence in the Olympic village, and in the opening ceremony, | 0:07:41 | 0:07:46 | |
when they marched under the Star of David, were very emotional moments. | 0:07:46 | 0:07:51 | |
The Germans saw the Games as a way to erase the negative memories | 0:08:10 | 0:08:14 | |
many still had of the 1936 Berlin Olympics, | 0:08:14 | 0:08:18 | |
which had been misused by the Nazis for propaganda. | 0:08:18 | 0:08:23 | |
27 years after the end of the war, Munich was the ideal opportunity | 0:08:35 | 0:08:41 | |
to show the world the new, democratic face of Germany. | 0:08:41 | 0:08:46 | |
# Express yourself | 0:08:52 | 0:08:55 | |
# Express yourself | 0:08:59 | 0:09:01 | |
# You don't never be in hell | 0:09:04 | 0:09:06 | |
# From nobody else | 0:09:06 | 0:09:09 | |
# All you've got to do now | 0:09:09 | 0:09:12 | |
# Express yourself... # | 0:09:14 | 0:09:16 | |
The friendliness was in overdrive. | 0:09:19 | 0:09:22 | |
It was a massive attempt | 0:09:22 | 0:09:25 | |
to appear open, modern and shorn of their past. | 0:09:25 | 0:09:29 | |
To help promote this new, non-militaristic image of Germany, | 0:09:31 | 0:09:37 | |
security was kept deliberately lax. | 0:09:37 | 0:09:40 | |
Police were banned from Olympic sites. | 0:09:40 | 0:09:43 | |
In their place were 2,000 unarmed security officers, clad in specially-designed outfits. | 0:09:43 | 0:09:50 | |
But for some of the Israeli team, it wasn't so easy to erase the past. | 0:09:50 | 0:09:55 | |
My father... | 0:09:57 | 0:09:59 | |
was five times at the Olympic Games. Five times. It's very special. | 0:09:59 | 0:10:05 | |
He was born in Poland in 1921. | 0:10:08 | 0:10:12 | |
His father was from Germany, | 0:10:12 | 0:10:15 | |
and thought because they spoke German nothing would happen to them. | 0:10:15 | 0:10:20 | |
So all the family stayed in Poland during the war. | 0:10:20 | 0:10:26 | |
But my father went to Russia. He was afraid something would happen to them. | 0:10:26 | 0:10:32 | |
All the family - all his brothers and sisters and parents - | 0:10:32 | 0:10:37 | |
were killed in Poland. He was the only one who survived. | 0:10:37 | 0:10:42 | |
-NEWS REPORTER: -'36 years after the Nazi Olympics, Dachau was chosen for a memorial service. | 0:10:55 | 0:11:02 | |
'The Israelis came to the service, along with competitors from most European countries. | 0:11:07 | 0:11:13 | |
'Dachau is six miles from the Munich stadium.' | 0:11:13 | 0:11:17 | |
I think it was very difficult for him - the memories. | 0:11:21 | 0:11:26 | |
..Of his family and what the Germans did to them. | 0:11:26 | 0:11:30 | |
I think he felt this. | 0:11:30 | 0:11:33 | |
But maybe it was also for him to... | 0:11:34 | 0:11:37 | |
..to show something to the Germans. | 0:11:38 | 0:11:40 | |
Here I am, coming back - to the Olympic Games. | 0:11:40 | 0:11:44 | |
And you... You couldn't really destroy me. | 0:11:44 | 0:11:49 | |
COMMENTATOR: 'Mark Spitz has got about a half-a-metre lead. | 0:12:31 | 0:12:36 | |
'And Spitz wins the gold medal!' | 0:12:36 | 0:12:39 | |
'That's the whistle anyway. The USA keep their unbeaten record. | 0:13:03 | 0:13:08 | |
'The referee says there's three more seconds to play. | 0:13:08 | 0:13:13 | |
'The only way they can score is by going for a long shot. They got it! | 0:13:13 | 0:13:18 | |
'My goodness! I don't believe it! I do not believe it! | 0:13:18 | 0:13:23 | |
'The Russians get the gold. Victory for the USSR for the first time.' | 0:13:23 | 0:13:28 | |
'Absolutely fantastic! She loves every moment of it!' | 0:13:34 | 0:13:38 | |
-ANKIE: -After one competition, he said, "There's the Lebanese team. I'm going to say hello." | 0:15:07 | 0:15:14 | |
I said, "Are you out of your mind? | 0:15:14 | 0:15:17 | |
"They're from Lebanon!" Israel was at war with Lebanon. | 0:15:17 | 0:15:21 | |
He said, "That's what the Olympics are about. Here I can talk to them. That's what the Olympics are." | 0:15:21 | 0:15:28 | |
He went over and asked, "How were your results?" and "How did it go?" | 0:15:28 | 0:15:34 | |
To my big amazement, I saw that the people responded, | 0:15:34 | 0:15:39 | |
shook hands with him and talked to him. | 0:15:39 | 0:15:42 | |
They asked him about his results. | 0:15:42 | 0:15:45 | |
I will never forget, | 0:15:45 | 0:15:47 | |
he turned around with a huge smile on his face | 0:15:47 | 0:15:50 | |
and said, "You see? This is what I dreamt about." | 0:15:50 | 0:15:54 | |
After ten days, Andre's fencers finished their competitions. | 0:15:58 | 0:16:03 | |
He and Ankie went to Holland to spend time with their baby, | 0:16:03 | 0:16:07 | |
whom they'd left with Ankie's parents. | 0:16:07 | 0:16:11 | |
So the next morning, at ten o'clock, he had to take the train to Munich. | 0:16:16 | 0:16:22 | |
He woke up a little late. | 0:16:22 | 0:16:24 | |
We got to the station, the train had left. | 0:16:24 | 0:16:28 | |
I thought, "He'll get in trouble. They're waiting in Munich for him." | 0:16:28 | 0:16:33 | |
He said, "Oh, well, another day with you." | 0:16:33 | 0:16:36 | |
I said, "Let's try the other train station." About 30 miles onwards. | 0:16:36 | 0:16:43 | |
So we raced to the next station. In Eindhoven he jumped on the train. | 0:16:43 | 0:16:48 | |
The train was already in the station. | 0:16:48 | 0:16:51 | |
I remember running by the train, | 0:16:51 | 0:16:54 | |
and he left. That was the last time I saw him. | 0:16:54 | 0:16:59 | |
On the night of September 4, as Andre arrived back at the village, | 0:17:05 | 0:17:10 | |
the Israeli delegation was enjoying a night out, watching Fiddler On The Roof. | 0:17:10 | 0:17:17 | |
They returned to the village at midnight. | 0:17:17 | 0:17:20 | |
With the help of members of the East German team, | 0:19:34 | 0:19:38 | |
the terrorist leaders had studied the Olympic village | 0:19:38 | 0:19:42 | |
prior to the attack. | 0:19:42 | 0:19:43 | |
They headed for the Israeli men's quarters. | 0:19:43 | 0:19:47 | |
The Israelis were in five apartments. | 0:20:17 | 0:20:20 | |
Apartment 1 housed the team coaches. The terrorists went there first. | 0:20:20 | 0:20:25 | |
As they broke in, wrestling coach Moshe Weinberg tried to stop them. | 0:20:29 | 0:20:35 | |
He was shot and wounded. | 0:20:35 | 0:20:37 | |
In Apartment 5, the Israeli team leader was awakened. | 0:21:00 | 0:21:05 | |
We heard a shot. I didn't see anyone. | 0:21:05 | 0:21:08 | |
I went back to bed. | 0:21:08 | 0:21:11 | |
The terrorists demanded that Weinberg | 0:21:11 | 0:21:14 | |
show them where the others were. | 0:21:14 | 0:21:17 | |
He led them past Apartment 2, which housed the field athletes, | 0:21:17 | 0:21:22 | |
to Apartment 3, which contained weightlifters and wrestlers. | 0:21:22 | 0:21:27 | |
He thought they might have a chance of overpowering the terrorists. | 0:21:27 | 0:21:32 | |
The terrorists are already holding all five of Zubari's roommates. | 0:21:47 | 0:21:52 | |
One of them, weightlifter David Berger, suggests they attack the terrorists, | 0:21:52 | 0:21:58 | |
saying, "We have nothing to lose." | 0:21:58 | 0:22:00 | |
But a gunman understands and jabs a machine gun into Zubari's waist, | 0:22:00 | 0:22:05 | |
ordering him back to Apartment 1. | 0:22:05 | 0:22:08 | |
As Gad Zubari ran away, the already wounded Weinberg | 0:23:08 | 0:23:12 | |
jumped on the terrorists. He was shot and killed. | 0:23:12 | 0:23:16 | |
I heard some other shots. | 0:23:25 | 0:23:28 | |
I walked again to the window, and there I was looking again. | 0:23:28 | 0:23:33 | |
Then I realised that Moshe Weinberg | 0:23:33 | 0:23:35 | |
had been thrown out of the door to the pavement. | 0:23:35 | 0:23:40 | |
He was naked, without anything on him. I saw that he was dead - | 0:23:40 | 0:23:45 | |
blood was pooled around him. | 0:23:45 | 0:23:49 | |
This is when I thought we were attacked by somebody. | 0:23:49 | 0:23:53 | |
This is ABC! | 0:24:28 | 0:24:30 | |
I'm speaking to you live from ABC headquarters, | 0:24:30 | 0:24:34 | |
Munich, West Germany. The Olympics of Serenity | 0:24:34 | 0:24:39 | |
have become the Olympics of Terror. | 0:24:39 | 0:24:42 | |
I had a call from the leader | 0:24:44 | 0:24:47 | |
at six o'clock. | 0:24:47 | 0:24:51 | |
He said they were there and one Israeli was killed. | 0:24:51 | 0:24:55 | |
His name is Moshe Weinberg. | 0:24:55 | 0:24:58 | |
I saw his body carried out into an ambulance. | 0:24:58 | 0:25:01 | |
That body was smashed. | 0:25:05 | 0:25:07 | |
It means it was killed by machine gun | 0:25:07 | 0:25:11 | |
not by a regular gun. | 0:25:11 | 0:25:13 | |
I was sleeping. | 0:25:17 | 0:25:19 | |
My parents woke me up, saying, | 0:25:19 | 0:25:22 | |
"We just heard there was an attack on the Israeli Olympic quarters. | 0:25:22 | 0:25:28 | |
"They killed the boxing coach." I knew there was no boxing coach. | 0:25:28 | 0:25:33 | |
I thought, "If it's not the boxing coach, what coach is it? Maybe it's Andre." | 0:25:33 | 0:25:39 | |
-How many Israelis are they holding? -Around 16, 17. | 0:25:47 | 0:25:52 | |
..13 members of the Israeli team as hostages. | 0:25:52 | 0:25:55 | |
Nobody could tell me if Andre was part of this, | 0:26:00 | 0:26:04 | |
if he was one of the hostages, if he escaped. Nobody knew. | 0:26:04 | 0:26:09 | |
The terrorists handed a communique to the police. | 0:26:46 | 0:26:51 | |
They demanded the release of over 200 revolutionary prisoners. | 0:26:51 | 0:26:57 | |
If this was not done by 12 noon, the hostages would be executed. | 0:26:57 | 0:27:03 | |
And you have until 12 o'clock? | 0:27:10 | 0:27:12 | |
They said at 12 they will shoot. | 0:27:12 | 0:27:14 | |
I certainly took it seriously. I was at gunpoint. | 0:27:16 | 0:27:20 | |
There were always two or three machine guns pointed at me. | 0:27:20 | 0:27:25 | |
The leader had a hand grenade in his hand. | 0:27:25 | 0:27:29 | |
When he was discussing with me, he always had that grenade. | 0:27:29 | 0:27:35 | |
The negotiators knew nothing about the terrorists except what they saw. | 0:27:40 | 0:27:46 | |
Three were visible at any one time - leader Issa, his face blackened, | 0:27:46 | 0:27:51 | |
Tony, wearing a cowboy hat, | 0:27:51 | 0:27:55 | |
and another man guarding the balcony door. | 0:27:55 | 0:28:00 | |
Issa told the negotiators | 0:28:00 | 0:28:02 | |
that a second Israeli had been shot and killed | 0:28:02 | 0:28:06 | |
trying to overpower them. | 0:28:06 | 0:28:08 | |
But the terrorists' leader refused to identify the dead man | 0:28:08 | 0:28:12 | |
or let his body be removed until all the prisoners had been released. | 0:28:12 | 0:28:18 | |
My camera crew and I ended up, for all of that long day, | 0:28:18 | 0:28:23 | |
looking down into this little walkway - very quiet. | 0:28:23 | 0:28:29 | |
You were looking down into the cockpit of world events. | 0:28:29 | 0:28:34 | |
We opened up the radios and TV stations to get some information. | 0:28:38 | 0:28:43 | |
Then at nine o'clock in the morning | 0:28:43 | 0:28:46 | |
I found out Andre is one of the hostages. | 0:28:46 | 0:28:49 | |
Joseph Romano, 31 years old, is an Israeli middleweight weightlifter. | 0:28:49 | 0:28:55 | |
David Berger, 26, is in the light heavyweight class. | 0:28:55 | 0:28:59 | |
Ze'ev Friedman, also 26, a bantamweight weightlifter. | 0:28:59 | 0:29:04 | |
These strong men, helpless at the point of sub-machine guns. | 0:29:04 | 0:29:08 | |
Eliezer Halfin, 24, a freestyle wrestler, is in that room. | 0:29:08 | 0:29:13 | |
Mark Slavin is 18, a record-holding wrestler. | 0:29:13 | 0:29:16 | |
The others are Yosef Gottfeund, Jacov Springer, Andre Spitzer, | 0:29:16 | 0:29:20 | |
Kehat Shorr and Amitzuer Shapira. | 0:29:20 | 0:29:23 | |
In Israel, the population awoke to the shocking news. | 0:29:32 | 0:29:37 | |
The Israeli Government made it clear that, in line with their policy, | 0:29:39 | 0:29:44 | |
no deals would be struck with the terrorists. | 0:29:44 | 0:29:47 | |
If we should give in, | 0:29:47 | 0:29:50 | |
no Israeli anywhere in the world | 0:29:50 | 0:29:53 | |
can feel that his life is safe. | 0:29:53 | 0:29:56 | |
It's blackmail of the worst kind. | 0:29:56 | 0:30:00 | |
At this time, I was aide-de-camp of Minister Genscher. | 0:30:12 | 0:30:16 | |
The minister was shocked, of course. | 0:30:16 | 0:30:20 | |
He wanted to see the Minister of Interior of Bavaria. | 0:30:20 | 0:30:27 | |
They talked to each other and they decided to go to the Olympic village. | 0:30:27 | 0:30:32 | |
GERALD SEYMOUR: In terms of the politicians and the VIPs who came, | 0:30:32 | 0:30:37 | |
they looked as if they held none of the cards, | 0:30:37 | 0:30:41 | |
did not understand how to respond or understand the mind-set of the people they were dealing with. | 0:30:41 | 0:30:49 | |
The Palestinians that one saw - | 0:30:52 | 0:30:55 | |
there was the feeling that they were in charge and they were dictating. | 0:30:55 | 0:31:01 | |
Peter Jennings is inside the village. Peter? | 0:32:05 | 0:32:10 | |
Jim, I am almost directly over the Israeli building. | 0:32:10 | 0:32:15 | |
It will be a famous number before long. | 0:32:15 | 0:32:18 | |
It's building 31. It's on Connollystrasse. | 0:32:18 | 0:32:22 | |
It appears to be confirmed, though anything confirmed is difficult, | 0:32:22 | 0:32:28 | |
that these guerrillas are from a very extreme left-wing group called Black September. | 0:32:28 | 0:32:35 | |
Continuous delegations go forward. | 0:32:39 | 0:32:42 | |
People here waiting, but the mood becoming more tense. | 0:32:42 | 0:32:47 | |
They have set a deadline of noon - that's an hour and 15 minutes away - | 0:32:47 | 0:32:52 | |
saying that they were going to kill all of their hostages at that time. | 0:32:52 | 0:32:57 | |
There were other people involved. A friend of mine was a member of the Arab Council, | 0:33:01 | 0:33:07 | |
and he also came to negotiate. | 0:33:07 | 0:33:11 | |
Israel was adamant that no deal could be struck with the terrorists. | 0:33:53 | 0:33:58 | |
To buy time, the negotiators told Issa | 0:33:58 | 0:34:01 | |
that they were still awaiting a definitive answer from Jerusalem. | 0:34:01 | 0:34:06 | |
They begged him to postpone his deadline. | 0:34:06 | 0:34:09 | |
Issa responded with a new threat. | 0:34:09 | 0:34:12 | |
One Israeli would be shot publicly | 0:34:12 | 0:34:15 | |
every hour that their demands remained unmet. | 0:34:15 | 0:34:18 | |
We were, I think, a little bit naive. Also the minister. | 0:34:18 | 0:34:22 | |
The German Government, then, thought they could negotiate with terrorists. | 0:34:25 | 0:34:31 | |
They were thinking that they could convince them to let the Israelis go. | 0:34:31 | 0:34:37 | |
But there was no way. | 0:34:37 | 0:34:40 | |
So, the time to get close to noon and to think, | 0:34:53 | 0:34:58 | |
"It's almost noon. Are they going to kill him now?" - | 0:34:58 | 0:35:02 | |
it was like dying a little bit. | 0:35:02 | 0:35:04 | |
Seconds before the deadly ultimatum was reached, | 0:35:09 | 0:35:12 | |
the negotiators persuaded Issa to agree to an extension. | 0:35:12 | 0:35:17 | |
A new deadline was set at 5.00pm. | 0:35:17 | 0:35:20 | |
-TV PRESENTER: -The deadline now is five o'clock Munich time. | 0:35:20 | 0:35:25 | |
It is 1.25 here in Munich - three and a half hours to the deadline. | 0:35:25 | 0:35:30 | |
The Israeli Olympic Committee has now named the second dead man | 0:35:37 | 0:35:42 | |
as Joseph Romano, a 31-year-old middleweight weightlifter. | 0:35:42 | 0:35:47 | |
A lot of people I meet in the street or at work, | 0:36:11 | 0:36:16 | |
when they hear about me being the daughter of Joseph Romano... | 0:36:16 | 0:36:21 | |
..they say, "Oh, you know, when I was little I admired your father. | 0:36:24 | 0:36:30 | |
"He was like this and like that." | 0:36:30 | 0:36:33 | |
All the time, I hear new stories and new things | 0:36:33 | 0:36:37 | |
about my father. | 0:36:37 | 0:36:39 | |
And that's how I know him. | 0:36:39 | 0:36:42 | |
Of course, not enough, | 0:36:42 | 0:36:45 | |
like I can't imagine his voice. | 0:36:45 | 0:36:49 | |
I can't imagine him... calling my name. | 0:36:52 | 0:36:56 | |
They let Joseph Romano bleed to death between all his friends, | 0:37:28 | 0:37:33 | |
as a warning that if anybody tried to grab a Palestinian's weapon, | 0:37:33 | 0:37:38 | |
this would be their lot. | 0:37:38 | 0:37:40 | |
Nobody has the right to do that. | 0:37:40 | 0:37:43 | |
In a way... I didn't like Issa, of course, because of what he was doing. | 0:37:50 | 0:37:55 | |
But I could have liked him when I met him elsewhere. | 0:37:55 | 0:37:59 | |
He was not violent. | 0:37:59 | 0:38:02 | |
I would have even trusted him in his word. | 0:38:02 | 0:38:06 | |
Not his compatriots. They were like "Galgenvogel" - gallow birds. | 0:38:06 | 0:38:12 | |
But Issa was different from them. | 0:38:12 | 0:38:15 | |
We were not only negotiating on how to handle this. | 0:38:18 | 0:38:23 | |
We were also going into the grounds of the whole thing. | 0:38:23 | 0:38:28 | |
I said, "Why are you doing it?" | 0:38:28 | 0:38:31 | |
He said, "We are sorry for you, but you offered us a showcase. | 0:38:31 | 0:38:36 | |
"And we have to use this to show our possibility | 0:38:36 | 0:38:40 | |
"to so many millions of people in the world | 0:38:40 | 0:38:44 | |
"who are watching your Olympic Games." | 0:38:44 | 0:38:48 | |
RADIO: ..Five Palestinian terrorists are holding nine Israelis hostage. | 0:38:48 | 0:38:54 | |
TV: Mark Spitz, the American swimming star | 0:38:54 | 0:38:57 | |
who won seven gold medals, was placed under heavy guard | 0:38:57 | 0:39:01 | |
shortly after the drama unfurled. | 0:39:01 | 0:39:04 | |
Within hours, Spitz was hustled out of Germany. | 0:39:04 | 0:39:07 | |
Spitz is a Jew, and it was feared an attempt might be made to seize him. | 0:39:07 | 0:39:13 | |
Demonstrations sprang up around the world. | 0:39:13 | 0:39:16 | |
There was outrage that the Olympic ideal of peace and brotherhood | 0:39:16 | 0:39:21 | |
had been so shamelessly destroyed. | 0:39:21 | 0:39:24 | |
But there was also a growing sense of anger | 0:39:25 | 0:39:29 | |
at the International Olympic Committee | 0:39:29 | 0:39:32 | |
for refusing to halt the Games in the light of what had happened. | 0:39:32 | 0:39:37 | |
The Olympic Committee, at that time, was very arrogant - very arrogant. | 0:39:37 | 0:39:43 | |
They felt they had nothing to do with it. | 0:39:43 | 0:39:46 | |
The head of the Olympic committee has announced that, | 0:39:46 | 0:39:51 | |
as of this hour, the Games of the 20th Olympiad will continue. | 0:39:51 | 0:39:56 | |
MUSIC: "Immigrant Song" by Led Zeppelin | 0:39:56 | 0:40:01 | |
# Aaaah | 0:40:04 | 0:40:08 | |
# Aaaah | 0:40:08 | 0:40:12 | |
# We come from the land of the ice and snow | 0:40:12 | 0:40:14 | |
# From the midnight sun where the hot springs blow | 0:40:14 | 0:40:18 | |
# The hammer of the gods Will drive our ships to new lands | 0:40:18 | 0:40:25 | |
# To fight the horde | 0:40:25 | 0:40:27 | |
# Singing and crying | 0:40:27 | 0:40:30 | |
# "Valhalla, I am coming!" | 0:40:30 | 0:40:36 | |
# On we sweep with threshing oar | 0:40:38 | 0:40:42 | |
# Our only goal will be the western shore | 0:40:42 | 0:40:47 | |
# Aaaah | 0:40:51 | 0:40:55 | |
# Aaaah... # | 0:40:55 | 0:40:58 | |
APPLAUSE AND CHEERING DROWNS SONG | 0:40:58 | 0:41:03 | |
# ..fields so green | 0:41:05 | 0:41:09 | |
# Can whisper tales of gore | 0:41:09 | 0:41:12 | |
# Of how we calmed the tides of war | 0:41:12 | 0:41:17 | |
# We are your overlords. # | 0:41:17 | 0:41:22 | |
-TV PRESENTER: -This is a live shot you're looking at right now. | 0:41:46 | 0:41:51 | |
We're moving in now on the windows, | 0:41:51 | 0:41:54 | |
behind which eight or nine terrified living human beings are being held prisoner. | 0:41:54 | 0:42:01 | |
The demands have been many. There is someone right now. | 0:42:01 | 0:42:05 | |
That has to be one of the guerillas. | 0:42:05 | 0:42:08 | |
One of them is believed to be a woman. | 0:42:08 | 0:42:11 | |
This has happened time and time again - the head coming out. | 0:42:11 | 0:42:16 | |
Within 200 yards of that building, | 0:42:16 | 0:42:20 | |
there's a kind of a man-made pond, | 0:42:20 | 0:42:23 | |
where the athletes lie in the sun, and that's what they're doing now. | 0:42:23 | 0:42:28 | |
They're sunning themselves, swimming, talking with others, | 0:42:28 | 0:42:33 | |
and yet this grim, terrible thing is taking place inside the village. | 0:42:33 | 0:42:37 | |
There were people running round the training track. | 0:42:37 | 0:42:41 | |
I thought, "OK, you've trained for four years." But it seemed wrong. | 0:42:41 | 0:42:46 | |
There was something selfish, slightly obscene about the atmosphere there. | 0:42:46 | 0:42:53 | |
The Germans decided that the time had come | 0:44:00 | 0:44:04 | |
for them to take the initiative. | 0:44:04 | 0:44:07 | |
Food was brought in with the hope that the hostages would be fed, | 0:44:07 | 0:44:11 | |
and in such large quantities that that no man could carry it alone. | 0:44:11 | 0:44:16 | |
The police hoped that guerrillas would come out and be overpowered | 0:44:16 | 0:44:21 | |
and that the two chefs could gain access and count the Arabs inside. | 0:44:21 | 0:44:26 | |
It was the police commissioner and myself | 0:44:26 | 0:44:30 | |
with two policemen clad as chefs. | 0:44:30 | 0:44:33 | |
But the idea was not to poison the food, but that someone of us | 0:44:33 | 0:44:38 | |
could enter the room, because nobody knew the number of the terrorists. | 0:44:38 | 0:44:44 | |
The deception had no effect. | 0:44:44 | 0:44:47 | |
The negotiators told the Israeli ambassador that the plan had failed. | 0:44:47 | 0:44:52 | |
The ambassador repeated again that no deal would be made. | 0:44:52 | 0:44:56 | |
The Israeli ambassador was watching, together with me, what was going on, | 0:44:57 | 0:45:02 | |
and he was not very happy about this. | 0:45:02 | 0:45:05 | |
He asked for a phone and he phoned the prime minister in Israel. | 0:45:05 | 0:45:10 | |
The Israelis wanted to send a team. | 0:45:10 | 0:45:14 | |
That was rejected by the German Government, of course. | 0:45:14 | 0:45:19 | |
NEW SPEAKER: The Prime Minister had a long talk with Kanzler Brandt. | 0:45:21 | 0:45:26 | |
I remember her report saying that he refused that any Israeli team | 0:45:26 | 0:45:33 | |
would come to Germany to do the action. | 0:45:33 | 0:45:37 | |
And... | 0:45:37 | 0:45:39 | |
the general feeling was that if the German Army | 0:45:39 | 0:45:44 | |
would take it upon itself, | 0:45:44 | 0:45:49 | |
then they are capable of doing it well in Germany | 0:45:49 | 0:45:53 | |
and there was no necessity to send the Israeli team. | 0:45:53 | 0:45:58 | |
At the time, the head of the Mossad... | 0:45:58 | 0:46:01 | |
and Moshe Dayan spoke with the Prime Minister | 0:46:01 | 0:46:06 | |
and they insisted that I should go to be present to see | 0:46:06 | 0:46:12 | |
how the Germans do this operation. | 0:46:12 | 0:46:15 | |
Zvi Zamir immediately flew to Munich, arriving early that evening. | 0:46:15 | 0:46:21 | |
Almost 11 hours after the start of the crisis, | 0:46:26 | 0:46:32 | |
the Olympic committee bowed to pressure and suspended the Games. | 0:46:32 | 0:46:37 | |
A few competitions will finish, then the Games will be suspended. | 0:46:37 | 0:46:43 | |
At 10am tomorrow in the Olympic stadium, | 0:46:43 | 0:46:46 | |
there will be a memorial service for the two dead men. | 0:46:46 | 0:46:50 | |
The Olympic Games are reduced to utter silence, | 0:47:22 | 0:47:26 | |
and one tantalising head poking out of a door. | 0:47:26 | 0:47:30 | |
Something has to happen. | 0:47:30 | 0:47:33 | |
It was kind of | 0:47:55 | 0:47:58 | |
a bizarre, surreal situation | 0:47:58 | 0:48:02 | |
in which we journalists surrounded the event with every possible camera. | 0:48:02 | 0:48:07 | |
Endless cameras around the village. | 0:48:07 | 0:48:10 | |
It was a great story | 0:48:12 | 0:48:15 | |
to many TV stations and media round the world. | 0:48:15 | 0:48:19 | |
In the Olympics, such an event. | 0:48:19 | 0:48:23 | |
Perhaps some of the stations took a very cynical approach to it, | 0:48:23 | 0:48:28 | |
saying "What an audience we'll get now." | 0:48:28 | 0:48:32 | |
On a lovely late summer afternoon, the tense vigil continues. | 0:48:32 | 0:48:37 | |
In just half an hour, | 0:48:37 | 0:48:40 | |
the deadline will have expired. | 0:48:40 | 0:48:43 | |
Late in the afternoon, I suddenly saw that the window of the hostages' apartment was open. | 0:49:01 | 0:49:08 | |
I saw Andre in front of the window. | 0:49:08 | 0:49:11 | |
They asked him, "Is everybody OK there? What is the situation?" | 0:49:11 | 0:49:16 | |
Andre said everybody was OK, except for one. | 0:49:16 | 0:49:21 | |
When the Germans asked who was the one and what had happened to him, | 0:49:21 | 0:49:25 | |
he was not allowed to say that and got hit by the butt of one of the Palestinians' rifles. | 0:49:25 | 0:49:31 | |
He was pushed away and they closed the curtains. | 0:49:31 | 0:49:35 | |
That was the last time that I saw him. | 0:49:35 | 0:49:40 | |
After that, Mr Genscher said | 0:49:45 | 0:49:47 | |
he wished to have a direct discussion with the Israeli hostages. | 0:49:47 | 0:49:53 | |
Mr Schreiber said he wished to accompany him. | 0:49:53 | 0:49:57 | |
They said, "No, you are policeman." | 0:49:57 | 0:50:00 | |
I said, "All right, then it's me." So we went up there | 0:50:00 | 0:50:03 | |
and it was a terrible impression, I must say. | 0:50:03 | 0:50:08 | |
One was bound to a chair, the others were on the two sides tied together. | 0:50:11 | 0:50:18 | |
The one who was killed was lying there and the wall was full of blood. | 0:50:18 | 0:50:24 | |
Then we had a discussion. | 0:50:38 | 0:50:40 | |
And the discussion was | 0:50:40 | 0:50:43 | |
absolutely covered by the... | 0:50:43 | 0:50:46 | |
..um... | 0:50:48 | 0:50:50 | |
..very depressed mood of the hostages. | 0:50:52 | 0:50:56 | |
They feared two things. | 0:51:01 | 0:51:04 | |
They feared a possible storm, | 0:51:04 | 0:51:06 | |
because they knew they could be killed if the police stormed in. | 0:51:06 | 0:51:11 | |
They feared the terrorists, to be in their power | 0:51:11 | 0:51:16 | |
with an uncertain fate, | 0:51:16 | 0:51:18 | |
an uncertain future. | 0:51:18 | 0:51:21 | |
They wished to come to a conclusion which might save their lives, | 0:51:21 | 0:51:26 | |
but they were not very hopeful. | 0:51:26 | 0:51:29 | |
One report attributed to Will Grimsley of the Associated Press | 0:51:55 | 0:51:59 | |
says a police lieutenant told him that at five o'clock Munich time | 0:51:59 | 0:52:04 | |
a volunteer squad of police would storm the Israeli team headquarters | 0:52:04 | 0:52:09 | |
and would come in shooting. | 0:52:09 | 0:52:13 | |
These are the volunteer squad of 38 West German border guards. | 0:52:13 | 0:52:18 | |
Due to complicated laws, the German Army aren't allowed to participate. | 0:52:18 | 0:52:24 | |
That policeman dressed as an athlete is holding a machine gun. | 0:52:24 | 0:52:29 | |
The commissioner of the police, Mr Schreiber, selected some policemen. | 0:52:29 | 0:52:35 | |
He asked them, "Have you ever shot a gun?" | 0:52:35 | 0:52:40 | |
And that was it. They had no training, nothing. | 0:52:40 | 0:52:44 | |
Jim, there are now a great many | 0:52:52 | 0:52:55 | |
of those security men in athletic uniforms | 0:52:55 | 0:52:59 | |
moving in various directions. | 0:52:59 | 0:53:02 | |
I don't want to instigate any false drama, | 0:53:02 | 0:53:06 | |
but it looks like the start of a deployment. | 0:53:06 | 0:53:09 | |
Walking cautiously on the roof, | 0:53:51 | 0:53:54 | |
hopefully not being heard in the rooms below. | 0:53:54 | 0:53:58 | |
You see how close these two men are. | 0:54:12 | 0:54:15 | |
They couldn't be 20 feet... | 0:54:15 | 0:54:19 | |
He gets down on his hands and knees. | 0:54:22 | 0:54:25 | |
That's to get a better look up. | 0:54:25 | 0:54:27 | |
Outside our studio here and around the Olympic village, | 0:54:39 | 0:54:44 | |
a crowd of 75-80,000 has gathered, awaiting the outcome of this. | 0:54:44 | 0:54:48 | |
This building swarming with Germans trying to rescue the Israelis. | 0:54:53 | 0:54:58 | |
The deadline appears to us to be less than one minute away. | 0:55:00 | 0:55:05 | |
Anything to report, Peter? | 0:55:05 | 0:55:07 | |
The commando looks very much more nervous now. | 0:55:07 | 0:55:11 | |
He has an apprehensive, darting-about look, | 0:55:11 | 0:55:15 | |
almost as though they sense something is imminent. | 0:55:15 | 0:55:19 | |
Once again there's a delegation under the building. | 0:55:24 | 0:55:29 | |
The Arab guard, not on the window but on the balcony below him | 0:55:29 | 0:55:34 | |
is negotiating with them. | 0:55:34 | 0:55:36 | |
We've gotten an official time check. It's 5pm. This is the deadline. | 0:55:43 | 0:55:48 | |
The storming could happen at any moment. | 0:55:48 | 0:55:51 | |
If you'd told me that the Germans did not have a trained storm squad, | 0:56:42 | 0:56:47 | |
I would have disbelieved you. | 0:56:47 | 0:56:51 | |
Everybody in 1972 was totally transfixed | 0:56:51 | 0:56:55 | |
by a myth of utter German ruthless efficiency. | 0:56:55 | 0:56:59 | |
14 minutes to six, Munich time. | 0:57:12 | 0:57:15 | |
The terrorists were getting nervous. They knew time was against them. | 0:57:17 | 0:57:23 | |
And they certainly knew, or guessed, that running out of time | 0:57:23 | 0:57:29 | |
was an attempt by our side | 0:57:29 | 0:57:31 | |
to get better prepared for a final decision. | 0:57:31 | 0:57:35 | |
At 6pm, the Palestinians issued a new demand. | 0:57:59 | 0:58:03 | |
They wanted a long-distance jet | 0:58:03 | 0:58:05 | |
to fly them and their hostages to an unspecified Arab country. | 0:58:05 | 0:58:10 | |
The German Government and the organising committee decided we weren't allowed | 0:58:10 | 0:58:17 | |
to let foreigners bring out guests of our country to the Olympic Games. | 0:58:17 | 0:58:22 | |
We decided to make the terrorists believe that we'd let them fly out, | 0:58:22 | 0:58:27 | |
but try everything to then kill them or bring them into prison | 0:58:27 | 0:58:34 | |
before they could leave the country. | 0:58:34 | 0:58:37 | |
To move the thing from the Olympic compound | 0:59:16 | 0:59:21 | |
in order to let the Games carry on. This was their main objective. | 0:59:21 | 0:59:27 | |
The Israeli team and its rescue was secondary to that. | 0:59:28 | 0:59:34 | |
The staff group decided to bring them to the public airport of Munich. | 0:59:41 | 0:59:47 | |
I said, "Listen, that's crazy. You have another private airport." | 0:59:47 | 0:59:52 | |
So I proposed to make Furstenfeldbruck the target. | 0:59:52 | 0:59:57 | |
The police plan revolved around a decoy Boeing 727, | 1:00:10 | 1:00:14 | |
which was to be left on the runway, its engine idling. | 1:00:14 | 1:00:18 | |
On board would be policemen disguised as flight crew | 1:00:18 | 1:00:22 | |
The Palestinians and Israelis would arrive by helicopter. | 1:00:22 | 1:00:26 | |
When Issa inspected the plane, the crew would overcome him. | 1:00:26 | 1:00:30 | |
Five snipers on the tower and around the airfield | 1:00:30 | 1:00:34 | |
would fire on the remaining terrorists. | 1:00:34 | 1:00:38 | |
Vehicles would rush in to get the hostages. | 1:00:38 | 1:00:41 | |
The police still believed there would be a total of four to five terrorists. | 1:00:41 | 1:00:48 | |
This is Peter Jennings in the Olympic Village. | 1:01:32 | 1:01:36 | |
The village is built on various levels. | 1:01:36 | 1:01:39 | |
Underneath all the buildings here there's a network of roads. | 1:01:39 | 1:01:44 | |
Those alleyways have been used to bring in a massive security force. | 1:01:44 | 1:01:50 | |
Just a short while ago, | 1:01:50 | 1:01:52 | |
it's been noticed that there was considerable activity there. | 1:01:52 | 1:01:57 | |
-NEW REPORTER: -In the last 30 minutes there was a flurry of activity - cars speeding off. | 1:01:57 | 1:02:04 | |
There's now a corridor of departure available to the Arabs | 1:02:04 | 1:02:09 | |
should they be now coming out, as now seems likely. | 1:02:09 | 1:02:14 | |
There is a quiet now, and an expectancy. | 1:02:14 | 1:02:18 | |
The Palestinians and Israelis were to be flown by helicopter | 1:02:37 | 1:02:42 | |
to Furstenfeldbruck airport. | 1:02:42 | 1:02:45 | |
But how would they get to the helicopters on the edge of the village? | 1:02:45 | 1:02:51 | |
They decided to walk via the underground car park. | 1:02:51 | 1:02:55 | |
The police saw another ambush opportunity | 1:02:55 | 1:02:59 | |
and placed marksmen here. | 1:02:59 | 1:03:01 | |
But Issa insisted on checking the route first. | 1:03:01 | 1:03:05 | |
So we walked there. | 1:03:05 | 1:03:08 | |
One terrorist had a machine gun in my back. | 1:03:08 | 1:03:11 | |
At that time, some of the gunmen of the German police | 1:03:11 | 1:03:16 | |
were lying in the side streets. | 1:03:16 | 1:03:19 | |
When we approached, they were crawling away. | 1:03:19 | 1:03:23 | |
So the terrorists immediately found out that there was danger. | 1:03:27 | 1:03:30 | |
They decided to use a bus and not to walk. | 1:03:30 | 1:03:35 | |
REPORTER: The terrorists brought the Israelis to the underground car park and onto a bus. | 1:03:45 | 1:03:51 | |
Robert Thompson, a Canadian water polo player, saw them leave. | 1:03:51 | 1:03:56 | |
-THOMPSON: -They brought seven Israelis out and put them on the bus. | 1:03:56 | 1:04:01 | |
Then they went back inside and brought out more. | 1:04:01 | 1:04:04 | |
There was one fellow standing in front of the bus with a machine gun. | 1:04:04 | 1:04:09 | |
What were the Israelis doing? | 1:04:09 | 1:04:13 | |
They were tied. Their hands were tied in front of them, | 1:04:13 | 1:04:18 | |
tied like that. Then around the back they had ropes | 1:04:18 | 1:04:22 | |
and were tied together. | 1:04:22 | 1:04:24 | |
The first man that got out was the man with the pith helmet. | 1:05:29 | 1:05:34 | |
He went to the helicopter and made a complete check. | 1:05:34 | 1:05:38 | |
He checked in and out, back, middle and front of the helicopter. | 1:05:38 | 1:05:43 | |
When everything looked all right, he signalled. | 1:05:43 | 1:05:47 | |
Four hostages marched out with their hands tied in front. | 1:05:48 | 1:05:52 | |
Behind them was an Arab with some kind of weapon. | 1:05:52 | 1:05:56 | |
It was quite frightening. It wasn't James Bond - it was the real thing. | 1:05:56 | 1:06:01 | |
-AMERICAN REPORTER: -It took just five minutes to reach the helicopter, | 1:06:03 | 1:06:08 | |
but in that time a critical piece of information was revealed - | 1:06:08 | 1:06:13 | |
there are not four Arab guerrillas but eight. | 1:06:13 | 1:06:16 | |
And there are only five police marksmen at the airport. | 1:06:16 | 1:06:21 | |
One of the helicopters proceeds out over the Olympic site, over the main stadium. | 1:07:10 | 1:07:17 | |
The second helicopter is following it, | 1:07:17 | 1:07:20 | |
moving around this tremendously high, major Olympic tower, | 1:07:20 | 1:07:26 | |
as they depart to a destination we, of course, as yet do not know. | 1:07:26 | 1:07:31 | |
We, with the German team, | 1:07:34 | 1:07:37 | |
we moved to the third helicopter. | 1:07:37 | 1:07:40 | |
The third helicopter now moving right by us, | 1:07:40 | 1:07:44 | |
right over the Olympic village, passing over the main stadium. | 1:07:44 | 1:07:48 | |
All the lights are on in this Olympic site, which for more than a week has been a place of serenity, | 1:07:48 | 1:07:56 | |
an Olympic village, which was happy and today has been shattered | 1:07:56 | 1:08:01 | |
by this tragedy. | 1:08:01 | 1:08:04 | |
MUSIC: "It's Not Too Beautiful" by the Beta Band | 1:08:05 | 1:08:10 | |
# You'd like to feel her heart | 1:08:18 | 1:08:22 | |
# Float away some day | 1:08:22 | 1:08:25 | |
# I cried a hundredth time | 1:08:27 | 1:08:32 | |
# Things never came my way | 1:08:32 | 1:08:36 | |
# But I will find | 1:08:37 | 1:08:40 | |
# But I will find... # | 1:08:42 | 1:08:46 | |
The marksmen, who had no radio link, | 1:09:55 | 1:09:58 | |
were still only expecting five terrorists. | 1:09:58 | 1:10:02 | |
Nobody from the village thought to inform them that there were now known to be eight. | 1:10:02 | 1:10:08 | |
We rushed quickly to the main building, moved to the second floor. | 1:10:08 | 1:10:13 | |
It was dark...dark in the place. | 1:10:13 | 1:10:16 | |
There were very many people in the corridors. | 1:10:16 | 1:10:20 | |
around and behind the building. | 1:10:20 | 1:10:23 | |
From the building we could watch and see the two helicopters landing in front of us. | 1:10:23 | 1:10:29 | |
As the helicopters bearing the Palestinians and Israelis landed, | 1:10:37 | 1:10:42 | |
the police squad on the decoy plane, | 1:10:42 | 1:10:45 | |
fearing they were undertrained, took a vote to abandon the mission. | 1:10:45 | 1:10:50 | |
This was seconds - not even minutes - | 1:10:57 | 1:11:00 | |
before the helicopters landed. | 1:11:00 | 1:11:03 | |
I told the minister, I said, | 1:11:06 | 1:11:08 | |
"I'm sure this will blow the whole affair." | 1:11:08 | 1:11:12 | |
The Germans had marksmen on top of the control tower and on the ground. | 1:11:12 | 1:11:17 | |
But they had no communications between each other. | 1:11:17 | 1:11:21 | |
When the first marksman opened fire, they would all open fire. There was no co-ordination of targets. | 1:11:21 | 1:11:29 | |
Now the leader of the team, he and another one | 1:11:48 | 1:11:52 | |
went to check the aircraft. | 1:11:52 | 1:11:55 | |
The Palestinians obviously missed the crew. | 1:11:57 | 1:12:01 | |
They were yelling. They were excited. | 1:12:01 | 1:12:05 | |
MACHINE-GUN FIRE | 1:12:06 | 1:12:09 | |
The key marksman | 1:12:40 | 1:12:43 | |
was moving to another position when the shooting started. | 1:12:43 | 1:12:48 | |
So he missed the crucial shot against the Black September commander. | 1:12:48 | 1:12:52 | |
Issa made it back to the cover of the helicopters unscathed. | 1:12:52 | 1:12:57 | |
Sniper 2 was more successful, | 1:12:57 | 1:13:00 | |
seriously wounding Issa's deputy. | 1:13:00 | 1:13:02 | |
Snipers 3 and 4 fired on the six terrorists guarding the helicopters. | 1:13:02 | 1:13:08 | |
Inexplicably, they killed only one. | 1:13:08 | 1:13:11 | |
Sniper 5 did not fire a single shot. | 1:13:11 | 1:13:14 | |
Because the helicopters had landed in the wrong place, | 1:13:14 | 1:13:18 | |
he was now in the direct line of fire of his fellow marksmen. | 1:13:18 | 1:13:23 | |
Like the others, he had no bullet-proof vest or steel helmet. | 1:13:23 | 1:13:28 | |
He was hopelessly exposed. | 1:13:28 | 1:13:31 | |
A policeman standing by a window inside the tower | 1:13:31 | 1:13:35 | |
was killed by a stray bullet. | 1:13:35 | 1:13:38 | |
They weren't capable. | 1:13:38 | 1:13:40 | |
I doubt whether the snipers were really snipers. | 1:13:40 | 1:13:44 | |
I listened to their shots. | 1:13:44 | 1:13:47 | |
One was lying on the roof, not far from us. | 1:13:47 | 1:13:51 | |
He wasn't firing a sniper's rifle. | 1:13:51 | 1:13:54 | |
They didn't see it! They didn't see the targets. | 1:13:54 | 1:13:57 | |
Unbelievable. | 1:13:57 | 1:14:00 | |
The latest word is that "all hell's broken loose" out there. | 1:14:02 | 1:14:06 | |
There's still shooting going on. | 1:14:06 | 1:14:09 | |
All seems to be confusion. | 1:14:09 | 1:14:11 | |
We've no idea what has happened to the hostages. | 1:14:11 | 1:14:15 | |
I hoped the Israelis could get out of the helicopter. | 1:14:42 | 1:14:46 | |
They'd tied them together, and so they couldn't leave the helicopters. | 1:14:46 | 1:14:52 | |
The entire area is ringed off by armed troops keeping people away. | 1:15:03 | 1:15:08 | |
We tried to approach and were stopped by an officer. | 1:15:08 | 1:15:12 | |
He said, "Do not come close. They're armed." | 1:15:12 | 1:15:16 | |
It's total confusion out there. | 1:15:18 | 1:15:21 | |
Just about everybody has gotten into their cars and driven to the area, clogging the roads. | 1:15:21 | 1:15:28 | |
Police reinforcements have a bad time getting there because these people, | 1:15:28 | 1:15:34 | |
clogging up the roads. | 1:15:34 | 1:15:36 | |
I decided to try and find the commander of the police. | 1:15:41 | 1:15:46 | |
Then we said, "What else? What are you doing?" | 1:15:46 | 1:15:51 | |
Then he said he was waiting | 1:15:51 | 1:15:54 | |
for armoured cars to arrive from somewhere near Munich. | 1:15:54 | 1:15:59 | |
The police had forgotten to order the armoured cars | 1:15:59 | 1:16:03 | |
to come to the airport earlier. | 1:16:03 | 1:16:06 | |
It was 20 minutes after shooting began when they radioed for them. | 1:16:06 | 1:16:11 | |
Because the roads were congested, they didn't arrive for an hour, | 1:16:11 | 1:16:17 | |
by which time most of the fighting was over. | 1:16:17 | 1:16:20 | |
No word on the hostages. | 1:16:22 | 1:16:25 | |
We asked them to let us go on the roof | 1:16:31 | 1:16:35 | |
and try to negotiate with the terrorists. | 1:16:35 | 1:16:39 | |
They refused at the beginning. | 1:16:39 | 1:16:42 | |
But then they said, "All right, on certain conditions." We went on the roof, | 1:16:42 | 1:16:49 | |
and started to speak Arabic to the terrorists. | 1:16:49 | 1:16:52 | |
Their reply was clear - very clear. They opened fire on the building. | 1:16:52 | 1:16:59 | |
They fired into the tower. I told the minister to lie down. | 1:16:59 | 1:17:04 | |
He touched down, under the desk of the commander. | 1:17:04 | 1:17:08 | |
Very funny. | 1:17:08 | 1:17:10 | |
..From our view today. | 1:17:10 | 1:17:13 | |
And I still hear...the bullets... | 1:17:14 | 1:17:18 | |
er...bursting into the... | 1:17:18 | 1:17:23 | |
into a cupboard, you know? | 1:17:23 | 1:17:26 | |
Where they had put up some aircraft models or something. | 1:17:26 | 1:17:30 | |
That all was flying down. | 1:17:30 | 1:17:33 | |
One of the surviving terrorists now made a dash for it, | 1:17:33 | 1:17:37 | |
heading straight for sniper 5. | 1:17:37 | 1:17:41 | |
As the terrorist ran towards him, sniper 5 fired his only shots - | 1:17:41 | 1:17:46 | |
point blank into the man's face. | 1:17:46 | 1:17:49 | |
Seeing these shots, police reinforcements at the scene, | 1:17:49 | 1:17:53 | |
not knowing the position of their own snipers, | 1:17:53 | 1:17:57 | |
mistakenly identified sniper 5 | 1:17:57 | 1:17:59 | |
and the helicopter pilot hiding beside him as terrorists. | 1:17:59 | 1:18:04 | |
They opened fire on them. Both were seriously wounded. | 1:18:04 | 1:18:09 | |
-ANKIE SPITZER -At midnight came the official announcement | 1:18:11 | 1:18:16 | |
of the German government spokesman, who said all the Israelis are saved | 1:18:16 | 1:18:22 | |
and all the terrorists are dead. | 1:18:22 | 1:18:24 | |
I'm glad that, as far as we can see, | 1:18:24 | 1:18:28 | |
the police action was successful. | 1:18:28 | 1:18:31 | |
It's an unfortunate interruption of the Olympic Games, | 1:18:31 | 1:18:35 | |
but if all that comes out | 1:18:35 | 1:18:37 | |
as we hoped it will come out, or has come out, | 1:18:37 | 1:18:42 | |
it will be forgotten after a few weeks. | 1:18:42 | 1:18:45 | |
People all over Holland were calling me. | 1:18:56 | 1:19:00 | |
A neighbour came with champagne | 1:19:00 | 1:19:03 | |
and we all were very glad. | 1:19:03 | 1:19:07 | |
I think that I went to sleep. | 1:19:07 | 1:19:10 | |
Then the Israeli ambassador in The Hague called me. | 1:19:10 | 1:19:15 | |
He said, "I just heard the news. Congratulations. | 1:19:15 | 1:19:18 | |
"Everybody is saved and OK." | 1:19:18 | 1:19:21 | |
Originally they said the hostages were safe. Now that's been changed. | 1:19:25 | 1:19:30 | |
A spokesman said, "We are afraid the information given so far is too optimistic." | 1:19:30 | 1:19:37 | |
So I called the Olympic Village. | 1:19:40 | 1:19:42 | |
I called every half hour. Each time the news got worse. At 3am I said, | 1:19:42 | 1:19:48 | |
"If you know something happened, you tell me now, | 1:19:48 | 1:19:53 | |
"because I've been waiting from 7am, and now it's 3am. I just want to know about Andre." | 1:19:53 | 1:19:59 | |
We keep hearing that the indications are not good, | 1:20:07 | 1:20:11 | |
that there may be very bad news. | 1:20:11 | 1:20:14 | |
After almost two hours of fighting, | 1:20:18 | 1:20:20 | |
one of the surviving Palestinians threw a hand grenade | 1:20:20 | 1:20:24 | |
into the eastern helicopter. | 1:20:24 | 1:20:27 | |
The helicopter was with fuel and, within minutes, | 1:20:27 | 1:20:31 | |
the helicopter and the area around it was on fire. | 1:20:31 | 1:20:35 | |
Simultaneously, one of his comrades sprayed a full clip of bullets | 1:20:35 | 1:20:40 | |
into the other helicopter. | 1:20:40 | 1:20:42 | |
Then there was silence. | 1:20:42 | 1:20:45 | |
I said, "I have to go and look what the police are doing." | 1:20:45 | 1:20:49 | |
Then I said to the captain of the police company there, | 1:20:49 | 1:20:54 | |
"Are you going to do something? You must move your people there. | 1:20:54 | 1:20:59 | |
"You pull out the hostages or whatever. Do something!" | 1:20:59 | 1:21:04 | |
They didn't do anything. "I have no orders," he said. | 1:21:04 | 1:21:09 | |
It was... | 1:21:10 | 1:21:12 | |
It was a really tragic story. | 1:21:12 | 1:21:15 | |
So...we could only look, you know? | 1:21:15 | 1:21:18 | |
Then you could hear them yelling, you know. | 1:21:18 | 1:21:23 | |
My father used to say our greatest hopes and our worst fears | 1:21:24 | 1:21:28 | |
are seldom realised. | 1:21:28 | 1:21:30 | |
Our worst fears have been realised. | 1:21:30 | 1:21:33 | |
They've now said there were 11 hostages, | 1:21:33 | 1:21:37 | |
two killed in their rooms yesterday morning. | 1:21:37 | 1:21:41 | |
Nine were killed at the airport tonight. They're all gone. | 1:21:41 | 1:21:47 | |
SOLEMN MUSIC FADES IN | 1:22:09 | 1:22:13 | |
That afternoon, the Games continued. | 1:25:47 | 1:25:50 | |
The surviving members of the Israeli team flew home with their dead. | 1:25:50 | 1:25:56 | |
The five dead Palestinians' bodies were handed over to Libya, | 1:25:57 | 1:26:01 | |
where they received a hero's funeral. | 1:26:01 | 1:26:05 | |
The three surviving terrorists never stood trial. | 1:26:30 | 1:26:35 | |
Seven weeks later a Lufthansa jet | 1:26:37 | 1:26:40 | |
en route from Beirut to Frankfurt was hijacked. | 1:26:40 | 1:26:44 | |
The hijackers demanded the release of the Munich terrorists. | 1:26:44 | 1:26:48 | |
With indecent haste, and without consulting the Israeli government, | 1:26:48 | 1:26:54 | |
the Germans handed over the three prisoners. | 1:26:54 | 1:26:57 | |
The circumstances of the hijack were suspicious. | 1:26:58 | 1:27:02 | |
Why were only 12 passengers on the plane? Why no women or children? | 1:27:02 | 1:27:08 | |
Why such haste in agreeing to the hijackers' demands? | 1:27:08 | 1:27:12 | |
One of the Palestinians involved has now revealed it was a set-up, | 1:27:12 | 1:27:18 | |
organised by the German government in collusion with the terrorists. | 1:27:18 | 1:27:23 | |
The Germans thought it would prevent further attacks on their country | 1:27:23 | 1:27:29 | |
and dispose of the embarrassing evidence of their failure. | 1:27:29 | 1:27:33 | |
I think, er... I think it's probably true, yes. | 1:27:33 | 1:27:38 | |
At this time, the mentality was so. Really. | 1:27:40 | 1:27:45 | |
On such questions, Willy Brandt, | 1:27:45 | 1:27:49 | |
always made this gesture. | 1:27:49 | 1:27:52 | |
I can't say more. | 1:27:54 | 1:27:56 | |
Did you shoot any hostages? | 1:28:05 | 1:28:08 | |
It's not important to say if I killed an Israeli or not. | 1:28:08 | 1:28:14 | |
What did you achieve? | 1:28:14 | 1:28:17 | |
INTERPRETER TRANSLATES | 1:28:17 | 1:28:20 | |
HE REPLIES IN ARABIC | 1:28:22 | 1:28:24 | |
We have made our voice heard by the world. | 1:28:24 | 1:28:29 | |
Are those your words? | 1:28:29 | 1:28:32 | |
The same thing. | 1:28:35 | 1:28:37 | |
They have made their voice heard by the world, who has not heard before. | 1:28:37 | 1:28:42 | |
It was only a year and three months that I was married to Andre Spitzer. | 1:29:11 | 1:29:16 | |
But I remember that year as the most beautiful | 1:29:18 | 1:29:22 | |
and wonderful year of my life. | 1:29:22 | 1:29:24 | |
This is the grave of Amitzuer Shapira, the athletics coach. | 1:29:34 | 1:29:39 | |
He had four little children - one my age. | 1:29:39 | 1:29:43 | |
And here is Kehat Shorr. | 1:29:43 | 1:29:46 | |
he was the shooting coach. | 1:29:46 | 1:29:49 | |
Eliezer Halfin was a wrestler. | 1:29:51 | 1:29:54 | |
So was Mark Slavin, who I think was only 18 years old. | 1:29:54 | 1:30:00 | |
And here's my father's grave. | 1:30:02 | 1:30:05 | |
It says his name, Andre Spitzer. | 1:30:06 | 1:30:10 | |
It says, "Son of Tibor, fencing coach. | 1:30:10 | 1:30:13 | |
"Murdered by... Killed by murderers in the Olympic Games in Munich | 1:30:14 | 1:30:20 | |
"as a representative of the Israeli sport." | 1:30:20 | 1:30:23 | |
Then his date of birth and of his murder. | 1:30:23 | 1:30:27 | |
I always bring him sunflowers, because it's his favourite flower. | 1:30:27 | 1:30:32 | |
Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd | 1:32:39 | 1:32:42 |