It is a horror scenario that unfolds in the Olympic village in Munich on 5 September 1972. Eight Palestinian terrorists sneak into the Israeli team's quarters, kill two Israelis and take nine others hostage. The German security forces are completely unprepared for such a crisis situation. When, after tough negotiations, the terrorists want to be flown out with their hostages, the police prepare a rescue operation at Fürstenfeldbruck military airport. But this is where disaster strikes.
Even 40 years later, not all the mysteries surrounding the Olympic attack and its background have been solved: Was there really no alternative to the fatal operation at Fürstenfeldbruck Airport? For 40 years, officials said that the Federal Republic of Germany had not been prepared for such an attack. In the light of new findings, this seems to be only half the truth. Uli Weidenbach has found contemporary witnesses who claim that better trained forces would have been prepared to intervene. Whether they could have saved the hostages' lives, however, will forever remain a mystery.
First broadcast: Mon., 19 March 2012, 21:45, ZDF.
Munich 72 - The documentary
It is a horror scenario that unfolds in the Olympic village in Munich on 5 September 1972. Eight Palestinian terrorists sneak into the Israeli team's quarters, kill two Israelis and take nine others hostage. The German security forces are completely unprepared for such a crisis situation. When, after tough negotiations, the terrorists want to be flown out with their hostages, the police prepare a rescue operation at Fürstenfeldbruck military airport. But this is where disaster strikes.
