André Spitzer

André Spitzer was born in 1945 in Timișoara

Spitzer was born in Timișoara, Romania, on 4 July 1945, to a Jewish family. His parents survived Nazi forced labor camps. His father died when he was 11, and he later moved to Israel with his mother.

He served in the Israeli Air Force and studied fencing at Israel's National Sport Academy. In 1968 he was sent to The Hague in the Netherlands for further fencing training with fencing master Abrahams.

In 1971 he married Ankie, one of his students. Back in Israel he helped found the National Fencing Academy and became chief fencing instructor at the Wingate Institute. Their daughter Anouk Yael was born shortly before the 1972 Olympics.

Spitzer returned to Munich from a visit to the Netherlands 4 hours before Black September members broke into the Israeli quarters and took him hostage with 8 teammates. As the only hostage who spoke German and English, he spoke with the German negotiators, and was struck by a terrorist with a rifle. He was killed during a failed German police rescue attempt and buried at Kiryat Shaul cemetery in Tel Aviv.