One Day in September Page #4

Israeli Olympic Committee in Jerusalem

has now named the second dead man...

as being Josef Romano, a 31-year-old

middleweight weight lifter.

I can't believe it for one second

that my husband has gone.

Yesterday I received a cassette...

where he said, " Happy Jewish

New Year" to everyone...

his brothers, the children-

A lot of people I meet

in the street or at work...

Schlomit Romano

when they hear about me

being the daughter...

of Josef Romano from Mnchen...

they say, "Oh, you know,

when I was little...

I admired your father,

and he was like this and that. "

All the time I hear new stories

and new things...

about my father.

That's how I know him.

Of course, not enough.

Like, I can't imagine his voice.

I can't imagine him

calling my name.

They let Josef Romano die, bleeding to

death, lying between all his friends...

as a warning if anybody tried to grab

a weapon from one of the Palestinians...

this would be their lot.

Nobody has the right to do that.

In a way, I didn't like Issa

because of what he was doing...

but I could have liked him

when I met him elsewhere.

He was not violent. I would have

even trusted him in his word.

Not his compatriots and partners.

Walther Trger

Mayor of Olympic Village

They were like-

What do we say in German?

Galgenvogel.

Gallow birds.

But Issa was different from them.

We were not only negotiating

on how to handle this.

We also were-

I wouldn't call it philosophical...

but we were also going into the grounds

of the whole thing.

I said,

"Why are you doing it?"

He said, "We are sorry for you.

You made good Olympic Games.

But you offered us a showcase...

and we have to use this showcase

in order to show our possibility...

to so many millions or even billions

of people in the world...

who are watching

your Olympic Games. "

Mark Spitz,

the American swimming star...

who won seven gold medals

at this Olympiad...

was placed under heavy guard

shortly after the drama unfurled.

Within hours, Spitz was hustled out

of Germany on a plane bound for home.

Spitz is a Jew, and it was feared

an attempt might be made to seize him.

Spontaneous demonstrations condemning

the attack sprung up around the world.

There was outrage that the Olympic ideal

of peace and brotherhood...

had been so shamelessly destroyed.

But as the day progressed, there was

also a growing sense of anger...

directed at the International

Olympic Committee...

for refusing to halt the Games

in the light of what had happened.

The Olympic Committee

at that time was very arrogant.

Very arrogant.

They felt something terrible happened,

but they have nothing to do with it.

Willi Daume, head of

the Olympic Organizing Committee...

has announced that the Olympics

will go on.

As of this hour, the Olympics, the Games

of the 20th Olympiad, will continue.

This is a live shot

you're looking at right now.

And we're moving in now

on the windows...

behind which, at this moment, eight or

nine terrified living human beings...

are being held prisoner.

The demands have been many.

There's someone right now.

And this has happened

time and time and time again.

The door opening, the head coming out

to see what is going on.

Within 200 yards of where that

building is, there's a manmade pond.

Not a formal swimming pool, but

a very lovely pond with a little dock...

where the athletes lie out

and take sun.

That's what they're doing

right now, sunning themselves.

They're swimming, talking of technique

with athletes of other countries.

And yet this grim, terrible thing

is taking place inside the village.

There were people running

around the training track.

I thought, yeah, you've trained

for this for four years...

but it seemed wrong.

There was something selfish,

slightly obscene...

about the atmosphere

in the rest of the village.

I didn't hear much

of the negotiations.

I spent my time

standing guard outside.

But after some time I was relieved

and I went into the room...

where the Israelis

were being held.

I found one of our guys sitting with

the Israelis, his gun by his side.

We began to chat

with the Israelis...

and told each other

stories and jokes.

But then our leader suddenly came in

and ordered us to stop messing about.

He didn't want us

to talk to them too much...

in case they tried

to emotionally exploit us...

and tried to escape.

The Germans decided

that the time had come...

for them to take the initiative.

Food was brought in...

not only with the hope

that the hostages would be fed...

but in such large quantities

that no one man could carry it alone.

The police hoped more than one guerrilla

would come out for the five boxes...

could be rushed and overpowered.

A second hope was the chefs could gain

access and count the Arabs inside.

There were no chefs.

It was the police commissioner...

Mr. Schreiber, and myself...

with two policemen

clad as chefs, as cooks.

The idea was not

to poison the food.

The idea was that someone of us...

could enter the room...

because at that time nobody knew

about the number of the terrorists.

The deception had no effect.

The negotiators reported

to the waiting Israeli ambassador...

that their plan had failed.

The ambassador repeated again

that no deal would be made.

The Israeli ambassador

was watching, together with me...

what was going on, and he

was not very happy about this.

He got out

and asked for a phone...

and he called

the prime minister in Israel.

General Ulrich K. Wegener

The Israelis, they wanted

to send a team...

which was rejected

by the German government, of course.

The prime minister had a long talk

with Chancellor Brandt.

And I remember her report saying...

that he refused

that any Israeli team...

will come to Germany

to do the action.

Zvi Zamir, Chief of Mossad

(Israel Secret Service) 1968-74

And the general feeling was that

if the German defense- army, whoever-

will take it upon itself...

they are capable

of doing it well in Germany...

and there is no necessity

to send an Israeli team.

At the time,

I was the head of the Mossad.

And Moshe Dayan spoke

with the prime minister...

and they insisted that I

should go to be present...

to see how the Germans

do this operation.

Zvi Zamir immediately

flew to Munich...

arriving early that same evening.

Almost 11 hours

after the start of the crisis...

the Olympic Committee finally bowed

to intense international pressure...

and suspended the Games.

Some competitions are continuing.

They will be allowed to finish.

But at that time

the Games will be suspended.

At 10:
00 tomorrow morning,

in the huge Olympic stadium...

there will be a memorial service

for the two men dead.

The Olympic Games are reduced

to utter silence...

and one tantalizing head

poking out a door.

Something has to happen.

It was a kind of...

Dan Shilon

Israeli Television

a bizarre,

surrealistic situation...

in which we journalists

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