Sky Documentaries look at the tragic events at the Munich Olympic Games fifty years ago.
Fifty years ago, an air of vibrant optimism surrounded the Olympic Games Munich 1972. The athletes delivered mesmerising performances, and the event continues to benefit the local community to this day. However, the Games were overshadowed by a tragedy – a terrorist attack on the Israeli team that shocked the entire world.
IOC President Thomas Bach:
“Even today, the brutal attack on the Israeli team fills us with horror and disgust, with shame and horror. For many of us, it’s one of those moments in life where we know exactly where we were when the news broke. I myself followed the developments on television with incredulous horror. The terrible, inhumane images continue to have an effect on me to this day.
“The attack on the Israeli team was at the same time an attack on the entire Olympic community and their values. (…) Despite this cowardly attack, the Israeli NOC [National Olympic Committee] has never turned its back on the Olympic Games. Israeli athletes have continued to compete and embrace the unifying power of the Olympic Movement.”
The Games brought together 7,134 athletes from 121 countries to compete in 195 events – a record at the time. Notable performances included those by US swimmer Mark Spitz, the first athlete to win seven gold medals in one edition of the Games, and Soviet gymnast Olga Korbut, who captivated crowds with unique routines that had never been seen before.
Against this backdrop and the athletes’ sporting achievements in the Games’ first week, the September terrorist attack came as a shock to the Olympic Movement and the entire world. Eleven Israeli athletes, coaches and a sports official and the German police officer who were assassinated are commemorated by the Park’s “Einschnitt” (incisions) memorial, and with a plaque outside the Village apartment where they were taken as hostages.
Multi-layered and emotional, this documentary reconstructs the course of the Munich Olympic massacre on the 5th of September 1972 from three perspectives; of the victims, the police officers and the assassins.
It interweaves the very personal stories of selected protagonists with the political context of the attack. With impressive archive footage, numerous eyewitnesses from Germany, Lebanon, Jordan, Israel and the West Bank, some of them previously unknown, and high-quality feature film scenes, the makers have succeeded in making a film that is as revealing as it is moving. For the first time ever, Guido Schlosser, who was selected as a young police officer for the mission against the terrorists at the Fürstenfeldbruck airfield, appears in front of the camera.
1972: Munich’s Black September, tonight (September 11th), Sky Documentaries, 9 pm
