At the 1972 Munich Olympics, the Israeli team was attacked and taken hostage by a group of Palestinian terrorists who eventually killed all of their captives. Dan Alon -- an Israeli fencer -- escaped the attack, but not the heartache of collecting the belongings of his slain teammates.

"That was one of the saddest days of my life," Alon said. "Everything was covered with blood. The saddest part was gathering the dolls and toys they had bought to take back for their babies."

Alon, a resident of Tel Aviv, Israel, told his story before an audience of about 20 people in the Osmond Lab on Friday.

Alon began telling his story in 2005 after the premiere of the movie Munich. After hearing Alon was a survivor of the Munich attack, a Chabad rabbi convinced him to speak at Oxford and later at Yale. Among the 300-person audience at Yale was his family, who heard his story for the first time.

With a thick accent, he began his speech Friday by giving the background of his life before the Olympics. He incorporated the story of the Olympics by describing the Israeli team's residence.

The building that the Israeli contingent was staying in housed four apartments, two of which were raided by terrorists. Alon's residence was not one of the two breached.

Awakened at 4:30 a.m. by the sound of gunfire and a bullet going through the wall above his head, Alon said the men in apartment two escaped by jumping over a balcony on the first floor and running through a garden.

The escapees were taken to a safe place where the German police informed them that they were planning to rescue the other Israelis. The rescue attempt failed, and all the hostages were killed by the Palestinian terrorists.

"For me, the Olympic idea was damaged," Alon said. "People are coming there to win gold medals in sport, not in politics."

He said he never went back to the Olympics after Munich.

Four years ago, he said, he was in Munich on business and revisited the building where he had stayed.

" I felt, really, a déjà vu," he said. "Everything came back to me."

Alon blamed the attacks on a lack of security in the Olympic Village.

"That's why I am full of anger," he said. "It was the only attack on the Olympics in history."

He added that it is important "not to forget, and to prevent," things of this nature from recurring.

Alon concluded with a statement of gratitude.

"One thing I have to tell is to thank you from the bottom of my heart," he said of America's support of Israel. "I hope we will succeed in the end."

Brett Slakoff (senior-media studies) said Alon's speech "put a face on a Hollywood movie."

"I thought it was very pointed and offered a personal perspective into a story that we all know," he said.

The speech was sponsored by Chabad of Penn State and the Chabad Jewish Student Organization.