Arabs soon entered the apartment, immediately taking five Israelis hostage. It was at this time that Romana, in an effort to save his teammates, took a knife out of the kitchen and stabbed one of the gunmen. Moments later, he and wrestling coach Moshe Weinberger were each shot several times, resulting in the first casualties of the morning. Approximately an hour after the attack began, the terrorists left, having killed two Israeli team members and capturing nine. Due to the unanticipated chaos and struggle, the terrorists failed to locate eight other team members in the neighboring apartments. Within the next hour, the Arabs had issued a set of demands, and had thrown Weinberger’s body into the street. The Palestinian off-shoot group, the Black September Organization, claimed responsibility for the actions at the apartment of the Israeli athletes. Their demands included the release of 234 Arab and German prisoners held in Israel and West Germany. The terrorists provided a typewritten list of prisoners for release, including the founders and leaders of the German based Baader-Meinhof Gang. The terrorists also demanded three planes for their escape; one would be used to return the released prisoners to a safe location.The Munich police commissioner, chief of Olympic security forces, and others worked with the Israeli Prime Minister, Golda Meir to attain the release of the hostages. However, Meir made it perfectly clear to all involved that the government of Israel would not negotiate with terrorists. The West German police extended the three deadlines originally imposed by the terrorists, giving the officials more time to deal with the situation. Eventually, after the failure of last-minute negotiations and further demands by the Black September Organization, combined with Meir’s absolute refusal to negotiate, the police commissioner was forced to believe that a rescue attempt was the only option. ...
