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Hostage survivor speaks at MU
Israeli Olympic athlete recounts experience at '72 Munich games
Michelle Scaglione
Issue date: 11/10/06 Section: Campus
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"For 34 years I stayed silent," Alon said. "I was full of anger. I'm traveling and telling the students (about Munich) because when you know it, you can prevent another Munich."
Alon was a member of the Israeli fencing team during the 1972 Munich Olympic games when a Palestinian Arab terrorist group, Black September, took the team hostage. The group killed 11 Israeli team members during an attack on the team's apartment building. Alon was one of five survivors.
Alon, who spoke at 5 p.m. Thursday in Shriver Center Multipurpose Room, shared with Miami University students his story in, "A Survivor's Tale: Daniel Alon Speaks Out."
It was not until after the release of Steven Spielberg's movie Munich that Alon began publicly discussing his experiences.
When Alon began to share his story, starting with how to he learned to fence as a 12-year-old boy, the packed room in Shriver Center fell silent.
Alon recounted the events of the Olympics; how he felt compelled to stay in apartment No.2, how he marched into the stadium behind the Israeli flag with 100,000 people cheering and how it felt to participate in the first Olympics to be held in Germany since World War II.
"I felt so proud of myself to reach that moment and represent Israel," Alon said. "We were telling everyone we are still alive."
Alon also recalled his first match against the champion of Germany, which he won. He went on to beat several other opponents before finally losing to a British fencer.
Then the focus of the games changed from athletics to politics, as Palestinian terrorists took Israeli athletes hostage in the early morning of Sept. 5.
In the building where Alon, his teammates, coach and other personnel were sleeping, the terrorists went from room to room taking hostages and the two men who tried to fight back were killed right away.
Alon described being able to hear the shots from the machine gun though the wall behind his bed's headboard. Luckily for Alon, he and a few others managed to escape before the terrorists made it to apartment No.2.
