Josef Romano

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Josef Romano ( Hebrew יוסף רומנו; * April 15, 1940 in Benghazi , Libya ; † September 5, 1972 in Munich ) was an Israeli weightlifter who was murdered by Palestinian terrorists in the Munich Olympic attack .

Career

Romano left Libya, the country of his birth, in 1946 at the age of six. In Israel he completed an interior decorating apprenticeship and met his wife Ilana, with whom he had three daughters. In 1967 he took part in the Six Day War. He started lifting weights at the Hapoel Tel Aviv club , for which he also worked as a coach. Before he took part in the 1972 Olympic Games , he was Israeli middleweight champion (up to 75 kg) ten times in a row.

However, the competition in Munich on August 31, 1972 was unfortunate for him. In Hall 7 at the Munich Exhibition Center , he failed three times in the pushing discipline, which was held for the last time, due to his starting weight of 137.5 kilograms. He suffered a torn tendon in his knee, which prevented him from taking part in the other two disciplines, tearing and thrusting . He therefore intended to return to Israel on September 6th for an operation in his home country.

It shouldn't come to that. In the early morning hours of September 5, 1972, Palestinian terrorists from the Black September organization broke into the Israeli crew's quarters. They took several athletes hostage and let coach Mosche Weinberg lead them to one of the apartments , which housed other Israeli athletes, including Romano. Weinberg, who was already injured in the face after a scuffle, grabbed one of the terrorists' weapons, who reacted immediately and shot him. Romano, who hobbled out of his room on crutches due to his injury , tried shortly afterwards to seize the AK-47 of the hostage taker who was closest to him. One of the other terrorists fired a shot on his body, causing Romano to collapse, seriously injured. The hostage-takers would not let a doctor into the building to help him. He was bleeding to death in front of his comrades. Nine other Israeli athletes who fell into the violence of the terrorists died about 19 hours later in an unsuccessful rescue attempt at the Fürstenfeldbruck airfield .

Josef Romano was buried in Israel. His wife Ilana Romano and Ankie Spitzer, André Spitzer's widow , were the driving force behind the construction of a memorial for the victims of the Olympic attack in September 2017.

See also

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Yossef Romano, Weightlifter ( Memento from September 26, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) The 1972 Israeli Olympic Athletes Tribute (accessed December 6, 2009)
  2. ^ When the Terror Began ( October 24, 2006 memento on the Internet Archive ) Sports Illustrated, August 26, 2002
  3. ^ Josef Romano in the database of Sports-Reference (English; archived from the original ), accessed on December 6, 2009
  4. ↑ Simon Reeve: One day in September. The full story of the 1972 Munich Olympics massacre and the Israeli revenge operation "Wrath of God" . Arcade, New York 2000, pp. 7-9, 105-124.
  5. ↑ Stroh, Kassian: "It's the first time that I laugh in Munich" at sueddeutsche.de, September 6, 2017 (accessed on September 7, 2017).
personal data
SURNAME Romano, Josef
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Israeli weightlifter, murder victim of Palestinian terrorists
DATE OF BIRTH April 15, 1940
PLACE OF BIRTH Benghazi
DATE OF DEATH 5th September 1972
Place of death Munich