Wanted... The Secret Behind the 1972 Olympic Assassinations

On 5th September 1972, halfway through the Olympic Games in Munich, Palestinian terrorists stormed the living quarters of the Israeli team, killing two athletes and taking nine others hostage. The event was a deep shock for the whole world. In the night that followed, all nine hostages, five of the Palestinians and a German police officer died during a gun battle at Fürstenfeldbruck military airport. How did Yassir Arafat´s order to take hostages end up in such a massacre? Who bears responsibility? The answers to these questions have long remained secret. In 1972, the German and Israeli governments under Willy Brandt and Golda Meir agreed to keep the wraps on what really happened in order not to jeopardize relations between the two countries. Flies disappeared and witnesses were sworn to secrecy. Twenty-four years on, Wilfried Huismann, a journalist working for WDR Television in Germany, has managed to trace witnesses and documents that throw new light on these events. Huismann tracked down Jamal Chashi, the only surviving member of the terrorist group (who still lives in hiding for fear of Mossad reprisals) and talked to policemen who took part in the bungled attempt to free hostages. High-ranking Israeli security officers were also interviewed for the first time. The result is a completely new version of the events of 5th September 1972. In the early hours of that day, Chancellor Willy Brandt rejected Golda Meir´s offer to send the Israeli elite unit “Sayaret Matikal” to Munich to liberate the hostages. Brandt wanted a political solution and in the course of the day reached agreement on a rescue plan through secret negotiations with President Sadat of Egypt and the PLO. The plan involved the terrorists and their hostages flying to Cairo, with President Sadat guaranteeing the hostages´ safety. The Black September terrorist group in Munich consented to the plan after the German interior minister, Hans-Dietrich Genscher, had promised them safe passage. Under pressure from the Israeli government, however, he went back on that promise and ordered the tragic attempt to free the hostages that ended in their death instead. The film reveals the calamitous mistakes that have been covered up all this time. The special operations unit that was supposed to overpower the terrorists in the waiting airplane deserted shortly before the terrorists appeared. Despite this, Genscher gave marksmen the order to shoot. Contrary to expectations, the Palestinians did not kill the hostages at first, even when they were under fire. Instead, they hoped that negotiations would produce a solution. But the Israeli cabinet, dominated by Moshe Dayan, refused to make any deals. After a ceasefire lasting over an hour, the emergency staff sent in tanks to end the crisis. That was the death penalty for the Israeli hostages, victims of raison d´état.