A Finnish eyewitness was at the heart of the Munich massacre at the 1972 Olympics

Munich Olympic Village on September 5, 1972 at around 05:30.

– There is a pretty loud knock on the door of the room. It’s the team leader Oiva Halmetojan sound. He shouts that terrorists have attacked the area, recalls the coach of the Finnish sprint team Antti Lanamäki.

The blue and white team is staying in an apartment building on Conollystrasse in the Olympic village of the five ring games.

– We don’t immediately believe Halmetoja’s message, but we decide to get up and have a look.

In the house next door, at Conollystrasse 31, apartment number one, hell is breaking loose. Eight heavily armed Palestinian terrorists have taken 12 members of the Israeli team hostage around 5:30 in the morning.

– Let’s go to the next overpass, from where you can see the roof of the neighboring house. There, the machine gunner turns his barrel towards us. We trust it won’t shoot us.

Threat claim

The curious action of the Finns sounds blue-eyed in the world situation of the 2020s, but they weren’t the only ones watching the drama from a “seat of the fence”.

– No one can imagine that something like this will happen, Lanamäki returns to his memories.

During the morning, some of the athletes exercise and some sunbathe near Conollystrasse. The police, who arrived after five o’clock, did not evacuate the Olympic Village or its surroundings. Thousands of people have gathered behind the fence of the Olympic village.

The terrorists demand that a flight to Cairo must be arranged for them and the hostages. In addition, 234 Palestinian prisoners must be released from Israeli prisons and two from Germany.

Brutal reality TV

In Finland, the Bryggare family is one of the many who have purchased a new color TV for the climax of the bench sports season.

– I remember the unfortunate pictures of terrorists. It was unbelievable when I thought about how this is possible, the 14-year-old at the time and now Iltalehti’s athletics expert Arto Bryggare tells.

The Black September organization’s attack was shown live on TV around the world. It was brutal reality TV, which was probably surpassed in its tragedy only by the first Persian Gulf War in 1991.

– It brought the Middle East directly into living rooms. It was commonplace there after World War II. The worst thing is that the Jews were targeted again in Germany. It was unreasonable but definitely planned, says Bryggare.

Lanamäki and his partners also moved indoors to follow the progress of the events.

It wasn’t until 11:00 a.m. that the International Olympic Committee decided to suspend the competitions.

– When it became known that there had been victims, we were quite sure that the Olympics would end there, Lanamäki says.

Yankees in action

In retrospect, the security measures at the games have received a lot of criticism. The Olympic Village was in a fenced area, but the locked entrance gate 25A closest to Israel’s accommodation was unguarded at night.

Eight young terrorists dressed in red tracksuits climbed over the fence from the edge of the gate. Before this, they helped in drunken American athletes who were out at night.

Lanamäki, who was in his first Olympic Games, did not criticize the security arrangements.

– The action was as it should be in the Olympic Games. There were document checks and security guards. Everyone thought that a terrorist attack did not fit the Olympic idea, he commented.

Bad cops

At nine in the evening, after fierce negotiations in the countries, the terrorists and hostages were transported by bus from the door of the building 200 meters away to the landing place of the helicopters.

We went to the Fürstenfeldbruck military airport, where the Boeing 727 passenger plane demanded by the terrorists was waiting.

– It was the most difficult crisis in German history after the war, said the German police chief Ulrich Wegener in an interview with the news agency AP 20 years ago.

The Germans had placed five snipers at the airport. They were not trained special men, but ordinary blue anvils armed with Heckler & Koch G3 rifles. It’s not a so-called sniper rifle.

– Our companies were helpless, and Germany had no reasonable solution to offer in handling the crisis, Wegener criticized.

The ambush at the airport ended in heavy failure. All the hostages, one policeman and five terrorists were killed in the chaotic firefight. Three fleeing Palestinians were captured alive.

A total of 11 Israelis died in the tragedy. One hostage survived.

A huge commemoration

– Tried with the team management not to incite panic. It was stated to the athletes that this happened, it ended sadly, but it ended nonetheless, Lanamäki describes the mood of the Finnish team.

A memorial service was held in a full Munich Olympic Stadium and the competitions resumed after a 34-hour break.

– It was the biggest commemorative event of our lives for all of us. A very touching event, says Lanamäki.

– The solution was right when the Olympics were continued. It would have been a victory for terrorism if the games had ended there, he continues.

The tenth day of September in 1972 is perhaps the most memorable in Finnish Olympic sports, when first Lasse Virén won the 5,000 meters and soon after Pekka Vasala 1,500 meters.

– One always dreams of success, but it even went beyond dreams.

Everything changed

The Olympics were not the same after the massacre.

– Security measures were tightened to the extreme. There were quite a lot of soldiers next to the fence of the Olympic village. It was determined that no one would make it over the fence alive.

Bryggare was at the Olympic Games in Moscow in 1980 for the first time in his career.

– It was crazy when the accreditation card had to be shown a total of 43 times on the way from the door of the lodge to the running track to the starting line. Some athletes even ran with a card around their neck, the hurdles legend smiles.

At this week’s European Athletics Championships in Munich, the identity had to be proven four times at the pick-up point for media accreditation cards. By comparison, at the World Championships in Eugene in July, all you had to do was say your name and show your ID.