Olympic terrorists sold tools: woman from Bavaria remembers – “You can’t come up with something like that”
Created: 06/10/2022, 18:17
By: Bettina Stuhlweißenburg
The assassination attempt during the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich shook the world.
A woman from Miesbach sold the terrorists some tools without knowing it.
Miesbach – During the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich there was a sense of merriment and a spirit of optimism.
Ella Mair remembers it well - the then 33-year-old worked as a saleswoman in the Bock sports store on Schwanthaler Straße.
"Due to the proximity to the main train station and the many hotels, we had a lot of international customers," she recalls.
“Everyone was open-minded, peaceful and in a good mood, including our boss, because the cash register was always full.
It was a really nice time.”
Olympic assassins from 1972 bought sports bags from Miesbacherin
Of course, she had no idea that Palestinian terrorists would take Israeli athletes hostage in the Olympic Village on September 5.
And even less that it would be her who would sell them the gym bags that would transport those guns to the scene of the assassination.
"You don't come up with something like that," says Mair.
The woman from Miesbach is sitting at the table in her living room, fumbling with a cardboard box printed with the radial logo of the 1972 Summer Olympics.
She keeps Olympic coins in it, the only mementos she has left.
Her son took part in the torch relay at the time as a representative of the Miesbach ski club.
"And we stood guard," says Mair.
Miesbacherin remembers the Olympic assassin – "They looked like normal tourists"
Then came the day that still overshadows her memories to this day: "It was a long Saturday," Mair recalls.
Like every morning, she stood in the shop and advised customers.
The door opened and a group of five men entered.
"They looked like normal tourists," Mair recalls.
One of them grabbed a gym bag, held it up and pointed.
So he wanted to make it clear that they wanted to buy a sports bag - the men spoke neither German nor English.
"They weren't rude or pushy," Mair recalls, "I just found them difficult because they were so indecisive."
The empty pockets after the 1972 Olympic attack in one of the Israeli athletes' rooms.
© Police/Repro Hague
also read
"Real impertinence": Vacationers rumble over bad bike path at Tegernsee
The district office leaves the building application forever - the mayor is angry: "It almost knocks the switch out"
Munich 1972: Olympic terrorists measure bags in a sports shop
The men were shown at least ten different bags.
"They measured each one with a metal tape measure." Design and color - it doesn't matter.
So Mair thought the gentlemen were looking for a bag that would be approved as hand luggage on flights.
"I would never have guessed that they wanted to pack their guns."
The men stayed a long time.
"But we often had customers who couldn't make up their minds." In the end they bought five sports bags from Adidas and Puma.
"I was still happy because I was involved in the sales."
Miesbacherin sold bags to Olympic assassins – "I blamed myself"
Even when the media reported three days later about the attack, which ended with the murder of all eleven Israeli hostages and the death of a police officer, Mair thought nothing.
"It was only when a criminal in civilian clothes came into the store to interrogate me that I thought of something." A price tag on the bags had led the investigators to the Bock sports store.
For many years she spoke only to close confidants about the event.
"I blamed myself," Mair explains, "and carried it around with me for years." One question still haunts her today: "Should I have noticed something?"