The 1972 Munich Olympics Massacre

1972 Munich Olympics Video Reaction Paper The 1972 Munich Olympics Massacre was the bloodiest hostage taking the world had yet seen. It was a devastating situation which no one was expecting, let alone prepared for. The Munich massacre will be remembered as the beginning of the new age of international terrorism. The terrorist hostage situation took place at the Olympics in Munich, Germany in 1972. This was to be the first time Germany will host the Olympic Games since World War II. At the time, Germany was attempting to show that they were a “new” Germany, one that was peaceful, or in other words, a Germany without Hitler. Unfortunately, because of this image that Germany was trying to present, the security was very loose, which led to an easy infiltration. The Germans had a fairly accurate idea of what would happen if there were to be a terrorist attack, but the concept was dismissed because it didn’t fit into the scenario of the “happy games”. This was their greatest mistake. After the hostages were taken, the Germans made many mistakes. The most known are the three attempts at rescuing the hostages. First, they decided to use force. In broad daylight, the German police were given track suits, some running up the steps to the apartments, and others climbing down the walls and running down the stairs to the room where the hostages were being kept. Unfortunately the first plan had a great flaw; the entire media was watching and broadcasting the police action live on television. After realizing this fact, the operation was aborted before it even begun. The next attempt was to attack the terrorists as they passed through the underground garage on helicopters that will take them to an air field from which they will fly back to their country. During the trial run that the terrorists requested, it was announced in a large voice that it was only a trial run and that the police, who were already in position, were “not to shoot”. This resulted in