Forty years ago, on September 5-6, 1972, the world was stunned as Palestinian gunmen took Israeli team members and coaches hostage at the Summer Olympics in Munich in a bid to secure the release of hundreds of prisoners in Israeli jails and Red Army Faction founders in German jails. Eleven Israeli athletes and coaches and a German policeman died in what became known as the "Munich Massacre." Authorities' lack of preparation and a botched operation to free the hostages prompted many countries to reassess their preparedness for such terrorist attacks.
Remembering The 1972 'Munich Massacre'
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A Palestinian hostage taker appears on the balcony of an Israeli apartment at the Olympic village.
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A Palestinian terrorist (right) appears on a balcony at the Israeli apartment watching an official at the Olympic village at the height of the crisis on September 5, 1972.
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The 11 Israeli Olympic athletes and coaches who were killed by the Palestinian Black September gunmen.
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Abu Daoud (center), the mastermind behind the Munich attack who was wanted on an international arrest warrant, after his release in Paris in January 1977. Daoud died in Syria in 2010.
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Israelis demonstrate on September 6, 1972 for the Munich Olympics to be halted after the Israeli team members were taken hostage.
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Israelis demonstrate for a halt to the Olympic Games in Munich on September 6, 1972.
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German police stand guard on September 6, 1972 at the fence demarcating the Munich Olympic village.
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A burned-out, border-police helicopter that was part of the failed rescue operation at the Fuerstenfeldbruck air base near Munich.
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Members of the Israeli team march onto the field at Munich's Olympic Stadium on September 6, 1972 for a memorial ceremony for their countrymen killed by the Palestinian gunmen.
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Members of the Israeli team holding an Israeli flag mourn during a memorial ceremony held at Olympic Stadium on September 6, 1972.
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The Israeli flag flies at half-mast alongside other national flags at Olympic Stadium in Munich on September 10, 1972.
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The caskets of Israeli Olympic team members killed by the hostage takers are transported on military vehicles at Lof Airport on September 8, 1972.
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A memorial ceremony for the victims of the Palestinian gunmen the day after the tragedy.
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Israeli Olympian Esther Roth-Shachamorov, a survivor of the tragedy, poses at her home in Ramat Hasharon near Tel Aviv in September 2012.
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Race walker Shaul Ladany, who escaped a Nazi concentration camp and survived the 1972 Munich ordeal, shows the 1972 Israeli Olympic team's flag at his home in Omer in April 2012.
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Athens rabbi Jakov Arar speaks at a memorial event in the Greek capital in 2004 for the Israeli victims of the 1972 Munich attack.