Amitzur Shapira

Amitzur Schapira ( born July 9, 1932 in Tel Aviv, † September 6, 1972 in Fürstenfeldbruck) was an Israeli athletics coach who was murdered by Palestinian terrorists at the Munich hostage-taking.

In the 1950s, Shapira was one of the best sprinters of his country. After his playing career, he worked at the Wingate Institute, Israel's Sports University in Netanya, as a trainer and lecturer. Before the Olympic Games in Munich, he prepared discovered by him at the age of 14 years as a great talent sprinter Esther Shachamorov (later Roth) prior to the competitions.

Shachamorov presented in the flow of the 100 -meter competition in 11.45 seconds a new Israeli record and received congratulations from their manager still in the outlet. Shortly after they had reached the semi-finals on September 4, 1972 on the 100-meter hurdles in a new personal best, Schapira wrote an article for the newspaper Maariw in which he predicted the runner a bright future.

However, the publication of the article should not live to see Schapira. In the early morning hours of September 5, 1972, Palestinian terrorists of the organization Black September broke into the quarters of the Israeli team and killed the coach Moshe Weinberg and weightlifter Joseph Romano to. They took Schapira and eight other members of the Israeli delegation hostage. About 21 hours later, Schapira died in a chaotic carried out rescue attempt on the airfield Fürstenfeldbruck. Here, one of the terrorists threw a hand grenade into the fully fueled helicopter, in which there were Schapira and four other hostages.

After learning that her coach had been murdered, Esther Shachamorov left at once to Israel. Amitzur Schapira left behind his wife and four children. He was with four other athletes on the Kiryat Shaul cemetery in Tel - Aviv, Israel, buried.