All language subtitles for BBC.Storyville.2012.Olympic.Massacre.One.Day.in.September.PDTV.x264.AAC.MVGroup.Forum

This programme contains some scenes
which some viewers may find
upsetting.

CHORAL SINGING

Guten Morgen und guten Appetit.

FILM SOUNDTRACK: 'A morning
like any other in Munich.

'A city where tradition and
modernity exist side by side.

'This summer, our beautiful city
is host to the 20th Olympic Games.

'In the centre of the Olympic site
is the Olympic tower,
next to it the Olympic arena.

'For many visitors,
Munich is a kind of German paradise.
We're sure that you'll agree.'

MAN: Well, nobody could foresee
what later on happened.

VOICES FADE IN AND OUT:

Good afternoon. Another deadline
has come and gone...

They had their hands tied
in front of them, like that...

It wasn't any James Bond,
it was the real thing...

I just want to know what happened...

The deadline appears to be
less than a minute away...

It was feared an attempt
might be made to seize him...

An Arab guerrilla
with some kind of weapon...

MACHINE GUN SHOTS

It was a year and three months
that I was married to Andre Spitzer.

But it made
such an enormous impression on me,
sometimes it looks like a lifetime.

I went fencing and he happened
to be my fencing master.

I didn't know he was from Israel.

He spoke Dutch with a slight accent.
I thought maybe he was
from Eastern Europe.

Something about him
really appealed to me.

He was very much at peace
with himself

and also with the people around him.

That affected me
because I was not so at peace -
certainly not with myself.

Being the person he was, it was
hard not to fall in love with him.

MAN SPEAKS IN ARABIC

I joined the revolution since 1967.

Which revolution?
The Palestinian new revolution.

We lived on the border
between Lebanon and Israel.

It was way out in nowhere.

They decided to have
their fencing academy there.

He was going from town to town,
to village to village,
to try to teach youngsters -

through fencing -
to have respect for each other.

Fencing is an aggressive sport.
You have a weapon, you attack.

If you attack someone right,
you score a point.

He tried to teach the youngsters
how to channel that aggression
into respect for your opponent.

It was very tough living there,
but I remember that year

as the most beautiful and wonderful
year of my life.

He dreamt always to be once
at the Olympics.

Years before I knew him
he said he was thinking
to get to the Olympics once.

For athletes it's the climax
of your career.

For Andre
and the rest of the Israeli team,

the 1972 Olympics
held a particular significance.

They were held in Munich, Germany,
the birthplace of Nazism.

There was a feeling that this was
a huge event for the Israeli team -
to be attending.

Their presence in the Olympic
village, and in the opening ceremony,

when they marched under the Star of
David, were very emotional moments.

The Germans saw the Games as a way
to erase the negative memories

many still had of the 1936
Berlin Olympics,

which had been misused by the Nazis
for propaganda.

27 years after the end of the war,
Munich was the ideal opportunity

to show the world the new,
democratic face of Germany.

# Express yourself

# Express yourself

# You don't never be in hell

# From nobody else

# All you've got to do now

# Express yourself... #

The friendliness was in overdrive.

It was a massive attempt

to appear open, modern
and shorn of their past.

To help promote this new,
non-militaristic image of Germany,

security was kept deliberately lax.

Police were banned
from Olympic sites.

In their place were 2,000
unarmed security officers,
clad in specially-designed outfits.

But for some of the Israeli team,
it wasn't so easy to erase the past.

My father...

was five times at the Olympic Games.
Five times. It's very special.

He was born in Poland in 1921.

His father was from Germany,

and thought because they spoke
German nothing would happen to them.

So all the family stayed in Poland
during the war.

But my father went to Russia.
He was afraid something
would happen to them.

All the family - all his brothers
and sisters and parents -

were killed in Poland.
He was the only one who survived.

NEWS REPORTER: '36 years
after the Nazi Olympics, Dachau
was chosen for a memorial service.

'The Israelis came to the service,
along with competitors
from most European countries.

'Dachau is six miles
from the Munich stadium.'

I think it was very difficult
for him - the memories.

..Of his family and what the Germans
did to them.

I think he felt this.

But maybe it was also for him to...

..to show something to the Germans.

Here I am, coming back -
to the Olympic Games.

And you...
You couldn't really destroy me.

COMMENTATOR: 'Mark Spitz
has got about a half-a-metre lead.

'And Spitz wins the gold medal!'

'That's the whistle anyway.
The USA keep their unbeaten record.

'The referee says
there's three more seconds to play.

'The only way they can score is by
going for a long shot. They got it!

'My goodness! I don't believe it!
I do not believe it!

'The Russians get the gold. Victory
for the USSR for the first time.'

'Absolutely fantastic!
She loves every moment of it!'

ANKIE: After one competition,
he said, "There's the Lebanese team.
I'm going to say hello."

I said, "Are you out of your mind?

"They're from Lebanon!"
Israel was at war with Lebanon.

He said, "That's what the Olympics
are about. Here I can talk to them.
That's what the Olympics are."

He went over and asked, "How were
your results?" and "How did it go?"

To my big amazement,
I saw that the people responded,

shook hands with him
and talked to him.

They asked him about his results.

I will never forget,

he turned around with a huge smile
on his face

and said, "You see?
This is what I dreamt about."

After ten days, Andre's fencers
finished their competitions.

He and Ankie went to Holland
to spend time with their baby,

whom they'd left
with Ankie's parents.

So the next morning, at ten o'clock,
he had to take the train to Munich.

He woke up a little late.

We got to the station,
the train had left.

I thought, "He'll get in trouble.
They're waiting in Munich for him."

He said,
"Oh, well, another day with you."

I said, "Let's try the other train
station." About 30 miles onwards.

So we raced to the next station.
In Eindhoven he jumped on the train.

The train was already
in the station.

I remember running by the train,

and he left.
That was the last time I saw him.

On the night of September 4, as
Andre arrived back at the village,

the Israeli delegation
was enjoying a night out,
watching Fiddler On The Roof.

They returned to the village
at midnight.

With the help of members
of the East German team,

the terrorist leaders had studied
the Olympic village

prior to the attack.

They headed
for the Israeli men's quarters.

The Israelis
were in five apartments.

Apartment 1 housed the team coaches.
The terrorists went there first.

As they broke in, wrestling coach
Moshe Weinberg tried to stop them.

He was shot and wounded.

In Apartment 5, the Israeli
team leader was awakened.

We heard a shot. I didn't see anyone.

I went back to bed.

The terrorists demanded that
Weinberg

show them where the others were.

He led them past Apartment 2,
which housed the field athletes,

to Apartment 3, which contained
weightlifters and wrestlers.

He thought they might have a chance
of overpowering the terrorists.

The terrorists are already holding
all five of Zubari's roommates.

One of them,
weightlifter David Berger, suggests
they attack the terrorists,

saying, "We have nothing to lose."

But a gunman understands and jabs
a machine gun into Zubari's waist,

ordering him back to Apartment 1.

As Gad Zubari ran away,
the already wounded Weinberg

jumped on the terrorists.
He was shot and killed.

I heard some other shots.

I walked again to the window,
and there I was looking again.

Then I realised that Moshe Weinberg

had been thrown out of the door
to the pavement.

He was naked, without anything
on him. I saw that he was dead -

blood was pooled around him.

This is when I thought
we were attacked by somebody.

This is ABC!

I'm speaking to you live
from ABC headquarters,

Munich, West Germany.
The Olympics of Serenity

have become the Olympics of Terror.

I had a call from the leader

at six o'clock.

He said they were there
and one Israeli was killed.

His name is Moshe Weinberg.

I saw his body carried out
into an ambulance.

That body was smashed.

It means it was killed
by machine gun

not by a regular gun.

I was sleeping.

My parents woke me up, saying,

"We just heard there was an attack
on the Israeli Olympic quarters.

"They killed the boxing coach."
I knew there was no boxing coach.

I thought, "If it's not the boxing
coach, what coach is it?
Maybe it's Andre."

How many Israelis
are they holding?
Around 16, 17.

..13 members of the Israeli team
as hostages.

Nobody could tell me if Andre
was part of this,

if he was one of the hostages,
if he escaped. Nobody knew.

The terrorists handed a communique
to the police.

They demanded the release of
over 200 revolutionary prisoners.

If this was not done by 12 noon,
the hostages would be executed.

And you have until 12 o'clock?

They said at 12 they will shoot.

I certainly took it seriously.
I was at gunpoint.

There were always two or three
machine guns pointed at me.

The leader had
a hand grenade in his hand.

When he was discussing with me,
he always had that grenade.

The negotiators knew nothing about
the terrorists except what they saw.

Three were visible at any one time -
leader Issa, his face blackened,

Tony, wearing a cowboy hat,

and another man
guarding the balcony door.

Issa told the negotiators

that a second Israeli had been
shot and killed

trying to overpower them.

But the terrorists' leader
refused to identify the dead man

or let his body be removed until
all the prisoners had been released.

My camera crew and I ended up,
for all of that long day,

looking down into
this little walkway - very quiet.

You were looking down into
the cockpit of world events.

We opened up the radios and TV
stations to get some information.

Then at nine o'clock in the morning

I found out Andre
is one of the hostages.

Joseph Romano, 31 years old, is an
Israeli middleweight weightlifter.

David Berger, 26,
is in the light heavyweight class.

Ze'ev Friedman, also 26,
a bantamweight weightlifter.

These strong men, helpless
at the point of sub-machine guns.

Eliezer Halfin, 24, a freestyle
wrestler, is in that room.

Mark Slavin is 18,
a record-holding wrestler.

The others are Yosef Gottfeund,
Jacov Springer, Andre Spitzer,

Kehat Shorr and Amitzuer Shapira.

In Israel, the population awoke
to the shocking news.

The Israeli Government made it clear
that, in line with their policy,

no deals would be struck
with the terrorists.

If we should give in,

no Israeli anywhere in the world

can feel that his life is safe.

It's blackmail of the worst kind.

At this time, I was aide-de-camp
of Minister Genscher.

The minister was shocked, of course.

He wanted to see
the Minister of Interior of Bavaria.

They talked to each other and they
decided to go to the Olympic village.

GERALD SEYMOUR: In terms of the
politicians and the VIPs who came,

they looked as if they held
none of the cards,

did not understand how to respond
or understand the mind-set
of the people they were dealing with.

The Palestinians that one saw -

there was the feeling that they were
in charge and they were dictating.

Peter Jennings
is inside the village. Peter?

Jim, I am almost directly over
the Israeli building.

It will be a famous number
before long.

It's building 31.
It's on Connollystrasse.

It appears to be confirmed, though
anything confirmed is difficult,

that these guerrillas are from
a very extreme left-wing group
called Black September.

Continuous delegations go forward.

People here waiting,
but the mood becoming more tense.

They have set a deadline of noon -
that's an hour and 15 minutes away -

saying that they were going to kill
all of their hostages at that time.

There were other people involved.
A friend of mine was a member
of the Arab Council,

and he also came to negotiate.

Israel was adamant that no deal
could be struck with the terrorists.

To buy time,
the negotiators told Issa

that they were still awaiting
a definitive answer from Jerusalem.

They begged him to postpone
his deadline.

Issa responded with a new threat.

One Israeli would be shot publicly

every hour that their demands
remained unmet.

We were, I think, a little bit naive.
Also the minister.

The German Government, then, thought
they could negotiate with terrorists.

They were thinking that they could
convince them to let the Israelis go.

But there was no way.

So, the time to get close to noon
and to think,

"It's almost noon.
Are they going to kill him now?" -

it was like dying a little bit.

Seconds before the deadly ultimatum
was reached,

the negotiators persuaded Issa
to agree to an extension.

A new deadline was set at 5.00pm.

TV PRESENTER: The deadline now is
five o'clock Munich time.

It is 1.25 here in Munich - three
and a half hours to the deadline.

The Israeli Olympic Committee
has now named the second dead man

as Joseph Romano, a 31-year-old
middleweight weightlifter.

A lot of people I meet in the street
or at work,

when they hear about me being
the daughter of Joseph Romano...

..they say, "Oh, you know, when
I was little I admired your father.

"He was like this and like that."

All the time,
I hear new stories and new things

about my father.

And that's how I know him.

Of course, not enough,

like I can't imagine his voice.

I can't imagine him...
calling my name.

They let Joseph Romano bleed
to death between all his friends,

as a warning that if anybody tried
to grab a Palestinian's weapon,

this would be their lot.

Nobody has the right to do that.

In a way... I didn't like Issa, of
course, because of what he was doing.

But I could have liked him
when I met him elsewhere.

He was not violent.

I would have even trusted him
in his word.

Not his compatriots. They were like
"Galgenvogel" - gallow birds.

But Issa was different from them.

We were not only negotiating
on how to handle this.

We were also going into
the grounds of the whole thing.

I said, "Why are you doing it?"

He said, "We are sorry for you,
but you offered us a showcase.

"And we have to use this
to show our possibility

"to so many millions of people
in the world

"who are watching
your Olympic Games."

RADIO: ..Five Palestinian terrorists
are holding nine Israelis hostage.

TV: Mark Spitz,
the American swimming star

who won seven gold medals,
was placed under heavy guard

shortly after the drama unfurled.

Within hours,
Spitz was hustled out of Germany.

Spitz is a Jew, and it was feared an
attempt might be made to seize him.

Demonstrations sprang up
around the world.

There was outrage that the Olympic
ideal of peace and brotherhood

had been so shamelessly destroyed.

But there was also a growing
sense of anger

at the International
Olympic Committee

for refusing to halt the Games
in the light of what had happened.

The Olympic Committee, at that time,
was very arrogant - very arrogant.

They felt they had
nothing to do with it.

The head of the Olympic committee
has announced that,

as of this hour, the Games
of the 20th Olympiad will continue.

MUSIC: "Immigrant Song"
by Led Zeppelin

# Aaaah

# Aaaah

# We come from the land
of the ice and snow

# From the midnight sun
where the hot springs blow

# The hammer of the gods
Will drive our ships to new lands

# To fight the horde

# Singing and crying

# "Valhalla, I am coming!"

# On we sweep with threshing oar

# Our only goal will be
the western shore

# Aaaah

# Aaaah... #

APPLAUSE AND CHEERING DROWNS SONG

# ..fields so green

# Can whisper tales of gore

# Of how we calmed the tides of war

# We are your overlords. #

TV PRESENTER: This is a live shot
you're looking at right now.

We're moving in now on the windows,

behind which eight or nine
terrified living human beings
are being held prisoner.

The demands have been many.
There is someone right now.

That has to be one of the guerillas.

One of them is believed
to be a woman.

This has happened time and time
again - the head coming out.

Within 200 yards of that building,

there's a kind of a man-made pond,

where the athletes lie in the sun,
and that's what they're doing now.

They're sunning themselves,
swimming, talking with others,

and yet this grim, terrible thing
is taking place inside the village.

There were people running round
the training track.

I thought, "OK, you've trained for
four years." But it seemed wrong.

There was something selfish,
slightly obscene
about the atmosphere there.

The Germans decided
that the time had come

for them to take the initiative.

Food was brought in with the hope
that the hostages would be fed,

and in such large quantities that
that no man could carry it alone.

The police hoped that guerrillas
would come out and be overpowered

and that the two chefs could gain
access and count the Arabs inside.

It was the police commissioner
and myself

with two policemen clad as chefs.

But the idea was not to poison
the food, but that someone of us

could enter the room, because nobody
knew the number of the terrorists.

The deception had no effect.

The negotiators told the Israeli
ambassador that the plan had failed.

The ambassador repeated again
that no deal would be made.

The Israeli ambassador was watching,
together with me, what was going on,

and he was not very happy about this.

He asked for a phone and he phoned
the prime minister in Israel.

The Israelis wanted to send a team.

That was rejected
by the German Government, of course.

NEW SPEAKER: The Prime Minister
had a long talk with Kanzler Brandt.

I remember her report saying that
he refused that any Israeli team

would come to Germany
to do the action.

And...

the general feeling was
that if the German Army

would take it upon itself,

then they are capable
of doing it well in Germany

and there was no necessity
to send the Israeli team.

At the time,
the head of the Mossad...

and Moshe Dayan spoke
with the Prime Minister

and they insisted that I should go
to be present to see

how the Germans do this operation.

Zvi Zamir immediately flew to
Munich, arriving early that evening.

Almost 11 hours
after the start of the crisis,

the Olympic committee bowed
to pressure and suspended the Games.

A few competitions will finish,
then the Games will be suspended.

At 10am tomorrow
in the Olympic stadium,

there will be a memorial
service for the two dead men.

The Olympic Games are reduced
to utter silence,

and one tantalising
head poking out of a door.

Something has to happen.

It was kind of

a bizarre, surreal situation

in which we journalists surrounded
the event with every possible camera.

Endless cameras around the village.

It was a great story

to many TV stations
and media round the world.

In the Olympics, such an event.

Perhaps some of the stations
took a very cynical approach to it,

saying "What an audience
we'll get now."

On a lovely late summer afternoon,
the tense vigil continues.

In just half an hour,

the deadline will have expired.

Late in the afternoon,
I suddenly saw that the window
of the hostages' apartment was open.

I saw Andre in front of the window.

They asked him, "Is everybody OK
there? What is the situation?"

Andre said everybody was OK,
except for one.

When the Germans asked who was the
one and what had happened to him,

he was not allowed to say that
and got hit by the butt
of one of the Palestinians' rifles.

He was pushed away
and they closed the curtains.

That was the last time
that I saw him.

After that, Mr Genscher said

he wished to have a direct
discussion with the Israeli hostages.

Mr Schreiber said
he wished to accompany him.

They said, "No, you are policeman."

I said, "All right, then it's me."
So we went up there

and it was a terrible impression,
I must say.

One was bound to a chair, the others
were on the two sides tied together.

The one who was killed was lying
there and the wall was full of blood.

Then we had a discussion.

And the discussion was

absolutely covered by the...

..um...

..very depressed mood
of the hostages.

They feared two things.

They feared a possible storm,

because they knew they could be
killed if the police stormed in.

They feared the terrorists,
to be in their power

with an uncertain fate,

an uncertain future.

They wished to come to a conclusion
which might save their lives,

but they were not very hopeful.

One report attributed to Will
Grimsley of the Associated Press

says a police lieutenant told him
that at five o'clock Munich time

a volunteer squad of police would
storm the Israeli team headquarters

and would come in shooting.

These are the volunteer squad
of 38 West German border guards.

Due to complicated laws, the German
Army aren't allowed to participate.

That policeman dressed as
an athlete is holding a machine gun.

The commissioner of the police, Mr
Schreiber, selected some policemen.

He asked them,
"Have you ever shot a gun?"

And that was it.
They had no training, nothing.

Jim, there are now a great many

of those security men
in athletic uniforms

moving in various directions.

I don't want to instigate
any false drama,

but it looks like the start
of a deployment.

Walking cautiously on the roof,

hopefully not being heard
in the rooms below.

You see how close these two men are.

They couldn't be 20 feet...

He gets down on his hands and knees.

That's to get a better look up.

Outside our studio here
and around the Olympic village,

a crowd of 75-80,000 has gathered,
awaiting the outcome of this.

This building swarming with Germans
trying to rescue the Israelis.

The deadline appears to us to be
less than one minute away.

Anything to report, Peter?

The commando
looks very much more nervous now.

He has an apprehensive,
darting-about look,

almost as though they sense
something is imminent.

Once again there's a delegation
under the building.

The Arab guard, not on the window
but on the balcony below him

is negotiating with them.

We've gotten an official time check.
It's 5pm. This is the deadline.

The storming could happen
at any moment.

If you'd told me that the Germans
did not have a trained storm squad,

I would have disbelieved you.

Everybody in 1972
was totally transfixed

by a myth of utter
German ruthless efficiency.

14 minutes to six, Munich time.

The terrorists were getting nervous.
They knew time was against them.

And they certainly knew, or guessed,
that running out of time

was an attempt by our side

to get better prepared
for a final decision.

At 6pm, the Palestinians
issued a new demand.

They wanted a long-distance jet

to fly them and their hostages
to an unspecified Arab country.

The German Government
and the organising committee
decided we weren't allowed

to let foreigners bring out guests
of our country to the Olympic Games.

We decided to make the terrorists
believe that we'd let them fly out,

but try everything to then kill them
or bring them into prison

before they could leave the country.

To move the thing
from the Olympic compound

in order to let the Games carry on.
This was their main objective.

The Israeli team and its rescue
was secondary to that.

The staff group decided to bring
them to the public airport of Munich.

I said, "Listen, that's crazy.
You have another private airport."

So I proposed to make
Furstenfeldbruck the target.

The police plan revolved
around a decoy Boeing 727,

which was to be left on the runway,
its engine idling.

On board would be policemen
disguised as flight crew

The Palestinians and Israelis
would arrive by helicopter.

When Issa inspected the plane,
the crew would overcome him.

Five snipers on the tower
and around the airfield

would fire
on the remaining terrorists.

Vehicles would rush in
to get the hostages.

The police still believed
there would be a total
of four to five terrorists.

This is Peter Jennings
in the Olympic Village.

The village is built
on various levels.

Underneath all the buildings here
there's a network of roads.

Those alleyways have been used to
bring in a massive security force.

Just a short while ago,

it's been noticed that there was
considerable activity there.

NEW REPORTER: In the last 30 minutes
there was a flurry of activity -
cars speeding off.

There's now a corridor of departure
available to the Arabs

should they be now coming out,
as now seems likely.

There is a quiet now,
and an expectancy.

The Palestinians and Israelis
were to be flown by helicopter

to Furstenfeldbruck airport.

But how would they
get to the helicopters
on the edge of the village?

They decided to walk
via the underground car park.

The police saw another
ambush opportunity

and placed marksmen here.

But Issa insisted
on checking the route first.

So we walked there.

One terrorist had a machine gun
in my back.

At that time, some of the gunmen
of the German police

were lying in the side streets.

When we approached,
they were crawling away.

So the terrorists immediately
found out that there was danger.

They decided to use a bus
and not to walk.

REPORTER: The terrorists brought the
Israelis to the underground car park
and onto a bus.

Robert Thompson, a Canadian
water polo player, saw them leave.

THOMPSON: They brought seven Israelis
out and put them on the bus.

Then they went back inside
and brought out more.

There was one fellow standing in
front of the bus with a machine gun.

What were the Israelis doing?

They were tied. Their hands were
tied in front of them,

tied like that.
Then around the back they had ropes

and were tied together.

The first man that got out
was the man with the pith helmet.

He went to the helicopter
and made a complete check.

He checked in and out, back,
middle and front of the helicopter.

When everything looked all right,
he signalled.

Four hostages marched out
with their hands tied in front.

Behind them was an Arab
with some kind of weapon.

It was quite frightening. It wasn't
James Bond - it was the real thing.

AMERICAN REPORTER: It took just five
minutes to reach the helicopter,

but in that time a critical piece
of information was revealed -

there are not four Arab guerrillas
but eight.

And there are only five
police marksmen at the airport.

One of the helicopters proceeds
out over the Olympic site,
over the main stadium.

The second helicopter
is following it,

moving around this tremendously
high, major Olympic tower,

as they depart to a destination we,
of course, as yet do not know.

We, with the German team,

we moved to the third helicopter.

The third helicopter
now moving right by us,

right over the Olympic village,
passing over the main stadium.

All the lights are on in this
Olympic site, which for more than a
week has been a place of serenity,

an Olympic village, which was happy
and today has been shattered

by this tragedy.

MUSIC: "It's Not Too Beautiful"
by the Beta Band

# You'd like to feel her heart

# Float away some day

# I cried a hundredth time

# Things never came my way

# But I will find

# But I will find... #

The marksmen, who had no radio link,

were still only expecting
five terrorists.

Nobody from the village
thought to inform them that
there were now known to be eight.

We rushed quickly to the main
building, moved to the second floor.

It was dark...dark in the place.

There were very many people
in the corridors.

around and behind the building.

From the building we could watch
and see the two helicopters
landing in front of us.

As the helicopters bearing the
Palestinians and Israelis landed,

the police squad on the decoy plane,

fearing they were undertrained,
took a vote to abandon the mission.

This was seconds -
not even minutes -

before the helicopters landed.

I told the minister, I said,

"I'm sure this will
blow the whole affair."

The Germans had marksmen on top of
the control tower and on the ground.

But they had no communications
between each other.

When the first marksman opened fire,
they would all open fire. There was
no co-ordination of targets.

Now the leader of the team,
he and another one

went to check the aircraft.

The Palestinians
obviously missed the crew.

They were yelling.
They were excited.

MACHINE-GUN FIRE

The key marksman

was moving to another position
when the shooting started.

So he missed the crucial shot against
the Black September commander.

Issa made it back to the cover
of the helicopters unscathed.

Sniper 2 was more successful,

seriously wounding Issa's deputy.

Snipers 3 and 4 fired on the six
terrorists guarding the helicopters.

Inexplicably, they killed only one.

Sniper 5 did not fire a single shot.

Because the helicopters
had landed in the wrong place,

he was now in the direct line
of fire of his fellow marksmen.

Like the others, he had no
bullet-proof vest or steel helmet.

He was hopelessly exposed.

A policeman standing by a window
inside the tower

was killed by a stray bullet.

They weren't capable.

I doubt whether the snipers
were really snipers.

I listened to their shots.

One was lying on the roof,
not far from us.

He wasn't firing a sniper's rifle.

They didn't see it!
They didn't see the targets.

Unbelievable.

The latest word is that "all hell's
broken loose" out there.

There's still shooting going on.

All seems to be confusion.

We've no idea what has happened
to the hostages.

I hoped the Israelis could get out
of the helicopter.

They'd tied them together, and so
they couldn't leave the helicopters.

The entire area is ringed off
by armed troops keeping people away.

We tried to approach
and were stopped by an officer.

He said, "Do not come close.
They're armed."

It's total confusion out there.

Just about everybody has gotten into
their cars and driven to the area,
clogging the roads.

Police reinforcements have a bad time
getting there because these people,

clogging up the roads.

I decided to try and find
the commander of the police.

Then we said,
"What else? What are you doing?"

Then he said he was waiting

for armoured cars to arrive
from somewhere near Munich.

The police had forgotten
to order the armoured cars

to come to the airport earlier.

It was 20 minutes after shooting
began when they radioed for them.

Because the roads were congested,
they didn't arrive for an hour,

by which time most of the fighting
was over.

No word on the hostages.

We asked them to let us
go on the roof

and try to negotiate
with the terrorists.

They refused at the beginning.

But then they said, "All right,
on certain conditions."
We went on the roof,

and started to speak Arabic
to the terrorists.

Their reply was clear - very clear.
They opened fire on the building.

They fired into the tower.
I told the minister to lie down.

He touched down, under the desk
of the commander.

Very funny.

..From our view today.

And I still hear...the bullets...

er...bursting into the...

into a cupboard, you know?

Where they had put up
some aircraft models or something.

That all was flying down.

One of the surviving terrorists
now made a dash for it,

heading straight for sniper 5.

As the terrorist ran towards him,
sniper 5 fired his only shots -

point blank into the man's face.

Seeing these shots,
police reinforcements at the scene,

not knowing the position
of their own snipers,

mistakenly identified sniper 5

and the helicopter pilot hiding
beside him as terrorists.

They opened fire on them.
Both were seriously wounded.

ANKIE SPITZER
At midnight came
the official announcement

of the German government spokesman,
who said all the Israelis are saved

and all the terrorists are dead.

I'm glad that, as far as we can see,

the police action was successful.

It's an unfortunate interruption
of the Olympic Games,

but if all that comes out

as we hoped it will come out,
or has come out,

it will be forgotten
after a few weeks.

People all over Holland
were calling me.

A neighbour came with champagne

and we all were very glad.

I think that I went to sleep.

Then the Israeli ambassador
in The Hague called me.

He said, "I just heard the news.
Congratulations.

"Everybody is saved and OK."

Originally they said the hostages
were safe. Now that's been changed.

A spokesman said, "We are afraid
the information given so far
is too optimistic."

So I called the Olympic Village.

I called every half hour. Each time
the news got worse. At 3am I said,

"If you know something happened,
you tell me now,

"because I've been waiting
from 7am, and now it's 3am.
I just want to know about Andre."

We keep hearing that
the indications are not good,

that there may be very bad news.

After almost two hours of fighting,

one of the surviving Palestinians
threw a hand grenade

into the eastern helicopter.

The helicopter was with fuel and,
within minutes,

the helicopter and the area
around it was on fire.

Simultaneously, one of his comrades
sprayed a full clip of bullets

into the other helicopter.

Then there was silence.

I said, "I have to go and look
what the police are doing."

Then I said to the captain
of the police company there,

"Are you going to do something?
You must move your people there.

"You pull out the hostages
or whatever. Do something!"

They didn't do anything.
"I have no orders," he said.

It was...

It was a really tragic story.

So...we could only look, you know?

Then you could hear them yelling,
you know.

My father used to say our greatest
hopes and our worst fears

are seldom realised.

Our worst fears have been realised.

They've now said there were
11 hostages,

two killed in their rooms
yesterday morning.

Nine were killed at the airport
tonight. They're all gone.

SOLEMN MUSIC FADES IN

That afternoon, the Games continued.

The surviving members
of the Israeli team
flew home with their dead.

The five dead Palestinians' bodies
were handed over to Libya,

where they received
a hero's funeral.

The three surviving terrorists
never stood trial.

Seven weeks later a Lufthansa jet

en route from Beirut to Frankfurt
was hijacked.

The hijackers demanded the release
of the Munich terrorists.

With indecent haste, and without
consulting the Israeli government,

the Germans handed over
the three prisoners.

The circumstances of the hijack
were suspicious.

Why were only 12 passengers on the
plane? Why no women or children?

Why such haste in agreeing
to the hijackers' demands?

One of the Palestinians involved
has now revealed it was a set-up,

organised by the German government
in collusion with the terrorists.

The Germans thought it would prevent
further attacks on their country

and dispose of the embarrassing
evidence of their failure.

I think, er...
I think it's probably true, yes.

At this time, the mentality was so.
Really.

On such questions, Willy Brandt,

always made this gesture.

I can't say more.

Did you shoot any hostages?

It's not important to say
if I killed an Israeli or not.

What did you achieve?

INTERPRETER TRANSLATES

HE REPLIES IN ARABIC

We have made our voice heard
by the world.

Are those your words?

The same thing.

They have made their voice heard by
the world, who has not heard before.

It was only a year and three months
that I was married to Andre Spitzer.

But I remember that year
as the most beautiful

and wonderful year of my life.

This is the grave of Amitzuer
Shapira, the athletics coach.

He had four little children -
one my age.

And here is Kehat Shorr.

he was the shooting coach.

Eliezer Halfin was a wrestler.

So was Mark Slavin, who I think
was only 18 years old.

And here's my father's grave.

It says his name, Andre Spitzer.

It says, "Son of Tibor,
fencing coach.

"Murdered by... Killed by murderers
in the Olympic Games in Munich

"as a representative
of the Israeli sport."

Then his date of birth
and of his murder.

I always bring him sunflowers,
because it's his favourite flower.

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd