Andre Spitzer
(1945 - 1972)
Andre Spitzer (1945 – September 6, 1972) was a fencing master and coach of Israel's 1972 Summer Olympics team. He was one of 11 athletes and coaches taken hostage and subsequently murdered by Palestinian extremists, in an event known as the Munich Massacre.
Spitzer was born in Rumania, but emigrated to Holland in 1964 to coach fencing. He and one of his students, a woman named Ankie, fell in love and were married in 1971. They moved to Israel, where Andre helped to found the national fencing academy. Their daughter Anouk was born only a few months before the Olympic Games. The Spitzers went to Munich with the rest of the Israeli team, but young Anouk was left in Holland, in the care of her grandparents.
Ankie Spitzer recalled her husband's idealism and attitude towards the Olympics:
(While strolling in the Olympic Village)... he spotted members of the Lebanese team, and told (me) he was going to go and say hello to them... I said to him, "Are you out of your mind? They're from Lebanon!" Israel was in a state of war with Lebanon at the time. "Ankie," Andre said calmly, "that's exactly what the Olympics are all about. Here I can go to them, I can talk to them, I can ask them how they are. That's exactly what the Olympics are all about." So he went... towards this Lebanese team, and... he asked them "How were your results? I'm from Israel and how did it go?" And to my amazement, I saw that the (Lebanese) responded and they shook hands with him and they talked to him and they asked him about his results. I'll never forget, when he turned around and came back towards me with this huge smile on his face. "You see!" said Andre excitedly. "This is what I was dreaming about. I knew it was going to happen!" (Reeve 2001, pgs. 52-53)
Midway through the Olympics, the Spitzers were summoned to Holland - their daughter had been hospitalized with an incessant bout of crying. After they arrived, they were told by the doctors that everything was fine and that Andre could rejoin his teammates at the Olympics. Andre missed his train, but his wife drove him at breakneck speed to the station in Eindhoven, where he boarded the train without a ticket. Ankie did not realize that she had waved her final goodbye to her husband.
Spitzer arrived in Munich about four hours before the terrorists broke into the Israeli quarters, killed coach Moshe Weinberg and weightlifter Yossef Romano, and took Spitzer and eight of his teammates hostage. Spitzer was seen once during the hostage crisis, standing at a window in a white tank top and his hands tied in front of him, talking to the negotiators. At one point, when Spitzer tried to give the negotiators some information that the terrorists didn't want them to have, one of the terrorists clubbed Spitzer in the head with the butt of an AK-47 assault rifle and pulled him away from the window. That was the last time most people saw Spitzer alive.
After 20 hours of tense negotiations, the hostages and terrorists were flown by helicopter to Fürstenfeldbruck airbase where, the terrorists believed, they would be flown by jet to a friendly Arab nation. Instead, the Bavarian border patrol and Munich police attempted an ill-prepared ambush/rescue operation. After a fierce two-hour gunfight, all of the hostages were machine-gunned by the terrorists, and the bodies of four were incinerated when a grenade was detonated inside their helicopter (Spitzer was not in the chopper that was blown up). Five of the terrorists and a Munich police brigadier were also killed in the gunfight.
Andre Spitzer was buried along with four of his teammates at Kiryat Shaul Cemetery in Tel Aviv, Israel. Ankie Spitzer, although remarried, led the fight to get the German government to admit their culpability in the failed rescue of Andre and the others. In 2003, a financial settlement was reached between the German government and the families of the Munich victims.
Courtesy of:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andre_Spitzer
Spitzer, Andre
Sport:
Fencing
Country Represented:
Israel
Years Competed:
1972
Olympic Info:
Spitzer was killed by Arab terrorists at the 1972 Munich Games. He was a member of the Israeli delegation as a fencing referee and coach. He was 45 years old.
Career Highlights:
Originally from Romania, Spitzer emigrated to Israel from the Netherlands in 1971. He was an outstanding fencer for Maccabi Ramat Gan after emigrating to Israel. The National team fencing coach, Spitzer also coached at the Wingate Institute coaches school.
Courtesy of:
http://www.jewsinsports.org/olympics.asp?sport=olympics&ID=409