Walter Spitzer (artist)

Walter Spitzer (14 June 1927 – 13 April 2021) was a Polish-born French artist and painter. He was a survivor of the Holocaust.

Biography[]

Spitzer was born in Cieszyn on 14 June 1927. He lost his father, Samuel,^[1] who died in February 1940 due to illness, and his mother, Gretta, to the Nazis. In June 1940, his family fled to Strzemieszyce Wielkie, where he worked as a photographer and welder. That year, his brother, Harry, was arrested by the Germans.^[2] Walter himself was arrested in 1943 at the age of 16 and was sent to Gross-Rosen. He was then sent to Blechhammer and later Auschwitz, where he was separated from his mother.^[3] He was tattooed with the number 78489. He then participated in the death marches in January 1945 before his liberation by the United States Army.^[4]

After he was freed, Spitzer moved to France and studied at the Beaux-Arts de Paris. He then spent his career as a painter, while continuing to preserve the memory of the Holocaust.

Walter Spitzer died in Paris on 13 April 2021 at the age of 93.^[5]

Works[]

Book[]

• Les Auschwitz : témoignages (2012)^[6]

Lithography[]

• L'Odyssée (1969)

Monuments[]

• Monument aux victimes des persécutions racistes et antisémites (15th arrondissement of Paris, 1995)

References[]

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