Walter Spitzer

Walter Spitzer Biography

Walter Spitzer, born June 14, 1927 in Cieszyn, Poland, on the border with Czechoslovakia and died April 13, 2021 in Paris, is a French painter, lithographer and sculptor, of Polish origin, survivor and witness of the Shoah.
The son of Samuel Spitzer, a liquor manufacturer, and Margaret (Gretta) Spitzer, a railroad employee, Walter Spitzer had an older brother, Harry Spitzer. The family was not very religious but observed Jewish religious holidays.
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In February 1940, Walter's father, Samuel Spitzer, died of illness after surgery. In June 1940, Jews were banned from Cieszyn and the family fled to Strzemieszyce Wielkie (now Dąbrowa Górnicza), where Walter worked as a photographer and welder. In 1940, his brother Harry was arrested by the Germans.

In 1943, at the age of 16, Walter Spitzer was deported to the Gross-Rosen concentration camp and then to Blechhammer, a labor camp attached to Auschwitz. At Auschwitz, he was tattooed with the number 78489 and was separated from his mother, who was executed after an escape attempt. In January 1945, he took part in a death march from Auschwitz to Buchenwald and, upon liberation, served as an interpreter for a U.S. Army unit.

Towards the end of 1945, Walter Spitzer immigrated to France, spent some time in Moissac with his friend Jules Fainzang, and studied at the Beaux-Arts in Paris. He devoted his life to the memory of the Shoah. He had four children: Catherine, Anne, Benjamin and Eva.

Walter Spitzer died on April 13, 2021 at Saint-Joseph Hospital in Paris, after battling coronavirus disease for a week.