Walter Kanitz (September 10, 1910 - February 7, 1986) was an Austrian-born former member of the French Foreign Legion, freelance writer, and veteran Canadian television broadcaster...view moreWalter Kanitz (September 10, 1910 - February 7, 1986) was an Austrian-born former member of the French Foreign Legion, freelance writer, and veteran Canadian television broadcaster.
He began his writing career on newspapers in his native Vienna. At the age of 17 he was “Uncle Walter” and from his column in a woman’s magazine distributed advice to thousands of Austrian children. He had already published two popular children’s books by the time he was 21.
Foreseeing the takeover of Austria by the Nazis as imminent, and knowing he was destined for Dachau (his cousin was a socialist member of the Senate end his brother a playwright who constantly criticized the Nazis), Kanitz fled Austria, living for a time in Switzerland before heading to France. There he enlisted in French Foreign Legion at the outbreak of World War II. Discharged in 1941, he worked actively with the French underground and later escaped to Spain with his family. He moved to Canada in 1944, settling in Montreal, where he began working for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, and also became a freelance writer. Alongside “The White Kepi: A Casual History of the French Foreign Legion,” he was the author of “The Reluctant Legionnaire: An Escapade” and “Tales of the Foreign Legion.”
Kanitz died in 1986 at the age of 75 and is buried in Toronto, Canada.view less