Eleven Munich Olympic 1972 Athletes From Israel And The Palestinians

 Nadene Goldfoot                                         

1936 Berlin Olympics Teed Off Hitler

James Cleveland "Jesse" Owens (September 12, 1913 – March 31, 1980) age 23,  was an American track and field athlete who made history at the 1936 Olympic Games of 1936 by becoming the first track and field athlete to win four gold medals in a single Olympics. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest athletes in track and field history.

The 1936 Summer Olympics, also known as the Games of the XI Olympiad, were held in Berlin, Germany, from August 1 to 16, 1936. The most successful athlete was the American Jesse Owens, who won four gold medals, while Germany led the medal count. These were the last Olympic Games before a 12-year hiatus caused by World War II that Germany started by invading Poland in 1939. 

Owens’ decision to compete in Berlin drew fire at the time from fellow blacks at the NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People). He went anyway. In hindsight, decent people everywhere ought to be glad he did. By winning four gold medals as Hitler watched from the stands, Jesse impressively undermined the fiction of Aryan racial superiority.                                                         

             2012 games in remembrance of the Munich 11

Thirty-six years later was the 1972 Olympic games and Israel braved the atmosphere by entering its contestants.  The 1972 Summer Olympics, held in Munich, West Germany, were intended to project an image of a new, optimistic, and democratic Germany to the world, in contrast to the 1936 Berlin Games.  This was after the Holocaust killinag 6 million Jews that was caused by the Nazis of Germany.   However, the Games are primarily remembered for the Munich massacre, a terrorist attack that overshadowed the athletic achievements of any Olympic games..                           

  A grieving mother of an athletic son in 1972 Olympic Munich Games
                

                     The Munich massacre

On September 5, 1972, Palestinian terrorists from the group Black September infiltrated the Olympic Village. They broke into the Israeli team's quarters, killing two athletes and taking nine others hostage.  The victims were:

•                                                                     
  
•  (1) September 5th      Moshe Weinberg, wrestling coach;  Moshe Weinberg (Hebrew: משה ויינברג sometimes Weinberger; 19 September 1939 – 5 September 1972)age 33,  was an Israeli wrestler who was the coach of the national team, as well as the coach of Hapoel Tel Aviv.
  He began his career in Hapoel Haifa. He was the Israeli youth champion in wrestling. He was also the adult wrestling middleweight champion for eight years. At the 1965 Maccabiah Games, he won a gold medal in Greco-Roman wrestling.    
•                                                   
• (2) September 5th : Yossef Romano, weightlifter       Yossef Romano (Hebrew: יוסף רומנו; 15 April 1940 – 5 September 1972),age 32,  also known as Joseph Romano or Yossi Romano, was a Libyan-born Israeli weightlifter with the Israeli team that went to the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich, West Germany. He was the second of eleven Israeli team members killed in the Munich massacre by Palestinian members of Black September during that Olympics. He was the Israeli weight-lifting champion in the light and middle-weight divisions for nine years.                                          
• 
• Yossef Gutfreund, wrestling referee;  Yossef Gutfreund (Hebrew: יוסף גוטפרוינד; 1 November 1931 – 6 September 1972) age 41,  was an Israeli wrestling judge for his country's 1972 Olympic team. He was murdered in the Munich massacre by Black September terrorists along with 10 other members of the Israeli team.
• On 5 September 1972, Gutfreund was sleeping in the Israeli coaches' quarters in the Olympic Village. At around 4:30 am he heard a noise outside the door and went to investigate, thinking that it might be wrestling coach Moshe Weinberg, who had the other key to the door. He saw the door begin to open and caught a glimpse of masked men with guns on the other side. Gutfreund threw his 6-foot 3-inch, 290 pound frame against the door and screamed a warning to his fellow Israelis. The force expended by Gutfreund on one side of the door and the eight fedayeen on the other was enough to twist the hinges and doorjambs out of place. The precious few seconds allowed his roommate, weightlifting coach Tuvia Sokolsky, to smash a window and escape. In the adjacent Apartment 2, race-walker Dr. Shaul Ladany was jolted awake by Gutfreund's screams and also managed to escape the building.
•                                                                        
  
• Kehat Shorr, shooting coach, Kehat Shorr (Hebrew: קהת שור; 21 February 1919 – 6 September 1972) age 53,  was the shooting coach for the 1972 Israeli Olympic team. He was one of the 11 members of Israel's Olympic team killed in the Munich massacre. 
• Kehat was among the Israelis taken hostage and murdered by Black September terrorists at the 1972 Summer Olympics. The Israeli team was sleeping in their quarters in the early morning hours of 5 September 1972, when the terrorists raided the compound, murdered two of the Israeli athletes and took the others hostage. Kehat Shorr was photographed standing next to fellow coach Andre Spitzer at the second-floor window of their besieged building while terrorists trained guns on the pair. The German authorities failed to rescue 9 hostages, including Kehat Shorr, resulting in their deaths. Shorr's team members, Henry Hershkowitz and Zelig Stroch, survived the attack.     
  
                                  Andre Spitzer, fencing coach  Born: July 4, 1945, Timișoara, Romania, age 27    Andre Spitzer (German: [andˈreː ˈʃpɪtsɐ]; Hebrew: אנדרי שפיצר; 4 July 1945 – 6 September 1972) was an Israeli fencing master and coach of Israel's 1972 Summer Olympics team. He was one of 11 athletes and coaches taken hostage and subsequently killed by terrorists in the Munich massacre.  Spitzer was born in Timișoara, Romania, on 4 July 1945, and was Jewish. His parents survived the Holocaust in Nazi forced labor camps. After his father died in 1956 when he was 11, Andre and his mother moved to Israel.             
  
•                         
      Amitzur Shapira (Hebrew: עמיצור שפירא; 9 July 1932 – 6 September 1972) age 40, track and field coach.  
• He was an Israeli sprinter and long jumper. He was head coach for the Israeli track and field team at the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich, Germany. He was killed in the Munich massacre.
• From an early age, he was a successful track athlete. After retiring from active competition, he worked as a physical education teacher and coach. In Munich, he was coaching a female Israeli athlete in the hurdles. Amitzur bled to death in the early morning of 6 September 1972 in a helicopter.      Amitzur Shapira was born in 1932 and lived in Herzliya. He was one of the outstanding sprinters in the 1950's and in 1952 earned a degree to be a physical education teacher while also becoming a track and field coach. Shapira dedicated his time and efforts to sport and helped guide the younger generation of stars                                                          
• 
•                      
  
                                                                                           
• David Berger, weightlifter      born 1944-1972=age 28 ;
• David Berger was an American weightlifter and one of the victims of the Munich massacre at the 1972 Summer Olympics, where he died from smoke inhalation after a terrorist tossed a grenade into a helicopter during the hostage situation. Berger, born in Cleveland, Ohio, in 1944, was a high school and college athlete before competing in the Olympics. 
  
  
  
• Ze'ev Friedman, weightlifter   born 1944-1972=age 28 ;
• Ze'ev Friedman was an Israeli flyweight weightlifter. A member of the Israeli Olympic team, he was killed in the 1972 Munich Olympics massacre.                                              
• 
                           
  
  
        
  
•   Eliezer Halfin, wrestler , born June 18, 1948 in Riga, Latvia USSR, age 24  
•   Eliezer Halfin was a Soviet-born wrestler with the Israeli Olympic team at the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich, Germany. Along with 10 other athletes and coaches he was taken hostage and later murdered by Palestinian Black September terrorists on 5 September 1972.     
  
                                                                                       
  
  
  
• 
•                                                                        Mark Slavin, wrestler   born 1954,  31 January 1954 – 6 September 1972) was an Israeli Olympic Greco-Roman wrestler and victim of the Munich massacre at the 1972 Summer Olympics.  
•   Mark Slavin was an Israeli Olympic Greco-Roman wrestler and victim of the Munich massacre at the 1972 Summer Olympics. He was the youngest of the victims at the age of 18. He was taken hostage with eight other Israeli athletes. Slavin was shot by machine gun fire in a helicopter during a botched rescue attempt.         
•   
  
• Yakov Springer, weightlifting judge, born 1921-19972=age 51  
Yaacov Springer:  Yakov Springer (Hebrew: יעקב שפרינגר; 10 June 1921 – 6 September 1972)  was a wrestler and a weightlifting coach and judge but is best known as one of the victims of the Munich massacre at the 1972 Summer Olympics. During the Holocaust, Springer took part in Warsaw Ghetto Uprising.

The terrorists demanded the release of more than 200 Palestinian prisoners in Israel.

• During a failed rescue attempt by German authorities at a military airport, all nine Israeli hostages were killed.  Germans had no plan for protection and no plan during episode.  
• The attack also left five terrorists and a West German police officer dead. The Games were suspended for one day to hold a memorial service for the victims. The decision to continue the Games was controversial. Some felt if they ended the games the terrorists would win;  if they continued, it was an affront to those who died.  
• The next year was the Yom Kippur War.  
• The Yom Kippur War, also known as the 1973 Arab–Israeli War, the fourth Arab–Israeli War, the October War, or the Ramadan War, was fought from 6 to 25 October 1973 between Israel and a coalition of Arab states led by Egypt and Syria. Most of the fighting occurred in the Sinai Peninsula and Golan Heights, territories won by Israel in 1967 in the 1967 War when many nations attacked Israel who never-the- less won again .