At dawn on Sept. 5,1972 eight Palestinian terrorists dressed in tracksuits and carrying assault rifles and hand grenades in their gym bags scaled a fence into the Olympic Village Munich, Germany.
The terrorist group named Black September took hostages at the residence of the Israeli athletes team apartments at 31 Connolly Street, shot to death a wrestling coach named Moshe Weinberg and killed and mutilated a weight lifter named Yossef Romano. Nine Israelis were taken hostage and, early on Sept. 6 after a long standoff, all were killed after a disastrous rescue attempt at a military airport near Munich. Among the dead was a weight lifter named David Berger, who grew up in Shaker Heights, Ohio.
Mark Andrew Spitz a Jewish American competitive swimmer, nine-time Olympic champion, was the most successful athlete at the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich, winning seven gold medals, each in world-record time. He asked “ How can it be that “27 years after World War II, there were still madmen killing Jews because they are Jews.” rsk