2012 Olympics one minute of silence campaign Olympic truce, marking the first time ever that the IOC honored the Israeli victims in a ceremony inside an Olympic village. The Munich massacre occurred during the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich, in southern West Germany, when members of the Israeli Olympic team were taken hostage and eventually murdered by the Palestinian group Black September. The kidnappers killed eleven Israeli athletes and coaches, as well as a West German police officer. Following the attack, a memorial service was held in the Olympic Stadium, although the International Olympic Committee (IOC) President Avery Brundage did not refer to the athletes during his
Munich massacre lowered to honor murdered Israelis; their flags were restored to the tops of their flagpoles almost immediately. Willi Daume, president of the Munich organizing committee, initially sought to cancel the remainder of the Games, but in the afternoon Brundage and others who wished to continue the Games prevailed, stating that they could not let the incident halt the Games. Brundage stated "The Games must go on, and we must ... and we must continue our efforts to keep them clean, pure and honest." The decision was endorsed by the Israeli government and Israeli Olympic team chef de mission Shmuel Lalkin.