The Olympic Games are a time when the world comes together to celebrate diversity and outstanding athletic achievement.
September 5, 1972 changed the games forever.
On that day, eight Palestinian terrorists massacred 11 Israeli Olympic athletes during that year’s games in Munich. The terrorists invaded the athlete’s apartments and took them hostage.
The Palestinians demanded Israel release 200 Palestinian hostages and then be given clear passage out of Germany.
“It’s a day that my dream became a nightmare,” said Dan Alon, who is one of five Israeli athletes who survived that day. He went to the Olympics for fencing.
Alon was in an Olympic village apartment when the terrorists barged in, took hostages and killed two athletes in Rooms 1 and 3. Alon was in Room 2, which was skipped.
“They didn’t enter through my door," Alon said. "That’s really something we still don’t know why.”
As German police closed in on the apartment, Alon and his roommates saw a chance to escape and did one by one. Nine other teammates were killed later that night.
Alon is sharing his story as part of a speaking tour which included a stop in Lake Mary Monday night.
“I’m trying to do the best to forget about it but it’s impossible,” said Alon, adding, “Still I am suffering from paranoia. I don’t feel safe when I go out of my country.”
Alon, 69, still lives in Israel and meets with the other survivors every few years. It’s only been recently they felt they could talk about that day together, one Alon says younger generations also need to know about.
“I want to tell it because it’s a piece of history. The new ones are learning it in school in history and I don’t want them to forget about it.”
In 2000, a documentary based on the massacre called “One Day in September” won a Best Documentary Academy Award.
Five years later, director Steven Spielberg released a movie called “Munich” which received several Academy Award nominations.