What had occurred 40 years prior to the Munich Olympics which made the games so important?
The only things I got are the Holocaust, the separation of Israel and Palestine and WW2. Is there anything else that was major?
WW2 is pretty major!
Supposedly there are like 20 major events and i`ve gotten got 3
Find related events within WW2 --
-- liberation of Auschwitz (and you could list the liberation of other major concentration camps, too, I suppose)
-- establishing Israel as a country
-- Hitler's suicide
and many, many others. Read, read, read and add events related to Nazi attitudes regarding anyone who wasn't part of the so-called Aryan race.
Jesse Owens, an African-American Olympic athlete in 1936, was snubbed by Hitler.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jesse_Owens#Berlin_Olympics
Yes, there was another major event that occurred 40 years prior to the Munich Olympics. In 1936, the Summer Olympics were held in Berlin, Germany. These Olympics were significant because they were used by Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party to promote their ideology of Aryan racial superiority and showcase a façade of a peaceful and tolerant Nazi Germany to the world.
The Berlin Olympics were highly controversial, as they provided Hitler with a platform to propagate his dangerous ideologies. The Nazi regime used the Games to project an image of a modern and harmonious Germany, while concealing their oppressive policies and human rights abuses, particularly against Jewish people and other minority groups.
The inclusion and participation of Jewish and non-Aryan athletes was a contentious issue. Many countries debated whether they should boycott the Olympics in protest against the Nazi regime's discriminatory practices. Ultimately, a significant number of nations chose to participate, arguing that the Games should be a platform for athletes to showcase their skills, and that politics should be kept separate from sports.
The memory of the Berlin Olympics and the controversy surrounding them 40 years earlier added an additional layer of significance to the 1972 Munich Olympics. It was seen as an opportunity for Germany to showcase its progress since the Nazi era and demonstrate a new image to the world. Tragically, the Munich Olympics became marred by the terrorist attack carried out by the Palestinian group Black September, leading to the deaths of 11 Israeli athletes and coaches. This horrific incident further contributed to the historical importance of the Munich Olympics.