#0529
The 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich. On 4 September, my parents, my sister and I had tickets for the athletics events in the big Olympic stadium. I had never experienced anything like it before and I was absolutely thrilled. When Ulrike Meyfarth won the gold medal in the high jump that evening, I knew it was the best day of my life.
A few hours later, in the early hours of 5 September, terrorists attacked the Israeli Olympic team, murdering two athletes and taking nine others hostage. After hours of negotiations, a failed rescue attempt took place at Fürstenfeldbruck airport on the night of 6 September, in which all nine Israeli hostages, a policeman and five of the eight hostage-takers were killed. I was paralysed by these events and full of sympathy for the Israeli athletes.
These two images - the iconic Olympic stadium and the haunted airfield in Fürstenfeldbruck - immediately come to mind when I think of the Munich Olympics.
How close euphoria and horror can be ...

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black and white, emulsion lift, collage, mosaic, stadium, assassination, raid, olympics, olympic stadium

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