Gruesome details revealed about 1972 Munich massacre

The murders of 11 Israeli athletes by Palestinian terrorists at the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich has long been engraved in Israel's national memory. But new details revealed by The New York Times on Tuesday reveal a level of barbarity by the terrorists previously unknown by the public.

The details come from interviews given by two of the athletes' widows, Ilana Romano and Ankie Spitzer, ahead of the release of the documentary film "Munich 1972 & Beyond" early next year.

The attack began early on Sept. 5, 1972, when eight Black September terrorists entered the Olympic Village and seized apartments where Israeli athletes were sleeping. Two Israelis were killed during the hostage-taking, while nine others were taken captive.

Weightlifter Yossef Romano was one of the athletes killed during the hostage-taking.

"What they did is that they cut off his genitals through his underwear and abused him," said his widow, Ilana Romano. "Can you imagine the nine others sitting around tied up? They watched this."

The nine other hostages were killed 20 hours later during a failed rescue attempt.

Ankie Spitzer, whose husband, fencer Andre Spitzer, was one of the nine, told The New York Times that she and other family members of the slain athletes only learned the details of how their loved ones had been treated by the terrorists in 1992, two decades after their deaths, when the Germans released hundreds of pages of reports -- including photographs -- they previously denied had existed.

Ilana Romano was quoted by The New York Times as saying that the photographs were "as bad I could have imagined."

In an interview with Israel Hayom on Tuesday, Romano said, "I saw how [the terrorists] broke their arms and legs and sexually abused Yossi. I made the decision to tell my daughters that I had seen the terrible photos, but I didn't tell them the details.

"The moment I saw the photos, it was so painful. I remembered how until that day Yossi had been a young man with a huge smile, but in one moment the Yossi I knew was completely erased."

Ankie Spitzer was quoted in The New York Times as saying, "The terrorists always claimed that they didn't come to murder anyone -- they only wanted to free their friends from prison in Israel. They said it was only because of the botched-up rescue operation at the airport that they killed the rest of the hostages, but it's not true. They came to hurt people. They came to kill."

Romano and Spitzer are still seeking to have their husbands honored with a special moment of silence at future Olympic competitions.

"We've decided not to let go," Romano said.

Eyal Shapira, the son of murdered field coach Amitzur Shapira, has heard the testimony of Romano and Spitzer.

"It's terrible. The murdered must be remembered. If they are not remembered with a moment of silence at the Olympics, terrorism will continue to pursue us," Eyal Shapira said.

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