Category: Reading

After watching Steven Spielberg‘s Munich I wanted to learn more about the tragic events of the ’72 German Olympic Games.  Simon Reeve’s book One Day in September: The Full Story of the 1972 Munich Olympics Massacre and the Israeli Revenge Operation “Wrath of God” is a sad and detailed overview of the events surrounding the massacre of 11 Israeli Olympic coaches and athletes.

The book includes a new epilogue by Reeve that mixes the ’72 Games with America’s 9/11 regarding the confrontation with terrorists.  Speilberg focused his film upon a controversial book Vengeance: The True Story of an Israeli Counter-Terrorist Team. A web search and reading a few blogs regarding the event pointed to Reeve’s work as a well written overview of that tragic summer.

Reeve includes a chapter of a tragic and sad event left out of Speilberg’s movie, The Lillehammer Affair when Israel’s Mossad agents killed an innocent man who they mistook for a Black September leader.  To this day Mossad has never apologized for the killing even though they reached a settlement with the family after more than 20 years.

Reeve’s focus surrounds Black September, Andre Spitzer and his wife Ankie who had just given birth to their daughter Anouk before the games.  Reeve brings Ankie’s life before, during and after into the book.  He writes about the impact of family members whose children, husbands and fathers were killed at Fürstenfeldbruck when German authorities attempted a poorly planned rescue of the athletes.

Reeve also reveals the battle between German police and the terrorists at the airport lasted over two hours while the movie suggests the confrontation lasted only minutes.  Learning the gunfire during the rescue lasted that long only made their deaths all the more tragic and horrifying.