One day in September : the full story of the 1972 Munich Olympics massacre and the Israeli revenge operation "Wrath of God" : with a new epilogue

Published to coincide with Steven Spielberg's Munich, this is the gripping, definitive account of the massacre of Israeli athletes at the 1972 Olympics and the Israeli revenge operation that followed—now available in paperback, with a new epilogue. At 4:30 A.M. on September 5, 1972, a band of Palestinian terrorists took eleven Israeli athletes and coaches hostage at the Summer Olympics in Munich. More than 900 million viewers followed the chilling, twenty-hour event on television, as German authorities desperately negotiated with the terrorists. Finally, late in the evening, two helicopters bore the terrorists and their surviving hostages to Munich's little-used Furstenfeldbruck airfield, where events went tragically awry. Within minutes all the Israeli athletes, five of the terrorists, and one German policeman were dead. Why did the rescue mission fail so miserably? And why were the reports compiled by the German authorities concealed from the public for more than... At 4:30 a.m. on September 5, 1972, a band of Palestinian terrorists took eleven Israeli athletes and coaches hostage at the Summer Olympics in Munich. More than 900 million viewers followed the chilling, twenty-hour event on television, as German authorities desperately negotiated with the terrorists. Finally, late in the evening, two helicopters bore the terrorists and their surviving hostages to Munich's little-used Fürstenfeldbruck airfield, where events went tragically awry. Within minutes all of the Israeli athletes, five of the terrorists, and one German policeman were dead. Why did the rescue mission fail so miserably? And why were the reports compiled by the German authorities concealed from the public for more than two decades? Reeves takes on a catastrophe that permanently shifted the political spectrum with a fast-paced narrative that covers the events detail by detail. Based on years of exhaustive research, One Day in September is the definitive account of one of the most devastating and politically explosive tragedies of the late twentieth century, one that set the tone for nearly thirty years of renewed conflict in the Middle East. At 4:30 A.M. on the morning of September 5, 1972, a band of Palestinian terrorists took eleven Israeli athletes and coaches hostage at the Summer Olympics in Munich. More than 900 million viewers followed the chilling, twenty-hour event on television, as German authorities desperately negotiated with the terrorists. Finally, late in the evening, two helicopters bore the terrorists and their surviving hostages to Munich's little-used Furstenfeldbruck airfield, where events went tragically awry. Within minutes all the Israeli athletes, five of the terrorists, and one German policeman were dead. Why did the rescue mission fail so miserably? And why were the reports compiled by the German authorities concealed from the public for more than two decades? Based on years of exhaustive research and the Academy Award -- winning documentary of the same name, One Day in September is the definitive account of one of the most devastating and politically explosive tragedies of the late twentieth century, one that set the tone for nearly thirty years of renewed conflict in the Middle East. "At 4:30 A.M. on the morning of September 5, 1972, a small band of Palestinian terrorists scaled the perimeter wall of the Olympic Village in Munich, Germany. Within minutes they had invaded the apartments of the Israelis quartered at 31 Connollystrasse and taken hostage eleven athletes and coaches. Their goal: to thrust the foundering PLO cause into the world spotlight and gain the release of several hundred Arabs held prisoner by the Israelis. In the end, fifteen people were dead: all the Israeli athletes, five of the terrorists, and one German policeman." "Based on years of exhaustive research, thousands of official documents recently released as a result of the legal demands made by the families of the murdered athletes, and hundreds of interviews with participants and survivors, One Day in September is the definitive account of one of the most devastating and politically explosive events of the late twentieth century."--BOOK JACKET.