21 Hours at Munich is a 1976 American made-for-television drama history sport thriller film directed by William A. Graham and starring William Holden, Shirley Knight and Franco Nero. It is based on the book The Blood of Israel by Serge Groussard and it deals with real events concerning the Munich massacre during the 1972 Summer Olympics when Arab terrorists broke into the Olympic compound in Munich and murdered 11 Israeli athletes. It was broadcast by ABC November 7, 1976. Despite its TV origin, the film was released theatrically in several foreign countries. It has been nominated for 2 Primetime Emmys.
The Munich massacre was an attack during the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich, West Germany, by eight members of the Palestinian terrorist group Black September, who infiltrated the Olympic Village, killed two members of the Israeli Olympic team, and took nine others hostage. Black September called the operation "Iqrit and Biram", after two Palestinian Christian villages whose inhabitants were expelled by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War. The Black September commander was Luttif Afif, who was also their negotiator. West German neo-Nazis gave the group logistical assistance.
Shortly after the hostages were taken, Afif demanded the release of 234 Palestinian prisoners who were being held in Israeli jails, plus the West German–imprisoned founders of the Red Army Faction, Andreas Baader and Ulrike Meinhof. West German police ambushed the terrorists, and killed five of the eight Black September members, but the rescue attempt failed and all of the hostages were killed. A West German policeman was also killed in the crossfire, and the West German government was criticized for the poor execution of its rescue attempt and its overall handling of the incident. The three surviving perpetrators were Adnan Al-Gashey, Jamal Al-Gashey, and Mohammed Safady, who were arrested, only to be released the next month in the hostage exchange which followed the hijacking of Lufthansa Flight 615. By then, the Israeli government had launched Operation Wrath of God, which authorized Mossad to track down and kill anyone who had played a role in the attack.
