Walter Kanitz

Birth 1910 Num. 1747. The record is annotated "left Judiasm, 1927."

Immigration:

In 1944, Walter Kanitz entered the U.S. via Philadelphia, in Pennsylvania, Philadelphia Passenger List Index Cards: a dentist, born Vienna 1910/1911. Sailed from Spain. "Accompanied by: four" (see below).

In United States Border Crossings from Canada to United States:

• Walter Kanitz
• Arrival Date 17 Jul 1947
• Arrival Port Buffalo, New York,
• Birth Date 30 Sep 1910
• Birthplace , Vienne
• Birth Country Austria
• Departure Contact Name Wife Margaret Kanitz

Walter Kanitz 1910-1986, and his wife Margaret 1913-1995, are buried in Toronto, Canada FindAGrave. Walter Kanitz was the travel correspondent and host of "Continental Concert" for CKO radio in Toronto (see Wikipedia; see also "Walter Kanitz - Veteran Radio Broadcaster obituary'"): "Born in Vienna, he came to Canada in the early 1940s and settled in Montreal."

This same Walter Kanitz (b. 1910-d. 1986) "had fought in the Spanish Civil War" -- see Nothing On But the Radio: A Look Back at Radio in Canada, page 132. ""About Austrian Music in Canada" states that the radio host came to Canada in 1944.

In 1945 Walter Kanitz was the subject of an article in The Toronto Daily Star (page 31; has photograph). He had opened a toy factory, since he could not practice as a dentist (for which he was trained) in Canada. He had arrived in Canada in 1944 with his wife, son Peter (Pierre), and newborn son Gilbert. He states he also "had to look after my mother, who was 71." Immigration cards for Walter, Margaret, son Pierre, age 4 in 1944, and baby son Gilbert, age 0, are online -- as is that of Charlotte Kanitz, mother of Walter; she was born 1874/75 in Austria.

Walter Kanitz was the author of a book entitled Tales of the Foreign Legion, in which the "well-known Toronto radio personality and former member of the French Foreign Legion tells the vivid and often violent story of the men he lived with" (Canadian historical fiction referenced online). He is quoted, as a French Foreign Legion historian, as saying "only about 5 per cent of those who have joined the Legion live out their five year enlistment." It is his theory that Legion-types have more than average willingness to escape from life. "Those who live to be discharged generally accept transport to France where many may go on a long binge, find themselves unable or unwilling to get work, and reenlist. For most, there is a basic truth to the refrain .of the old marching song: 'My regiment is my only home' " (Oil City (Penna.) Derrick, May 26, 1961, page 13.

Walter Kanitz of Toronto was the author of "The Reluctant Legionnaire: An Escapade" (1956) / The White Kepi: A Casual History of the French Foreign Legion (1956). His work was reviewed in 1975 in Books in Canada, viewable online:

"Kanitz 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. The Nazis, however, put a stop to his literary tamer. Foreseeing the takeover of Austria as imminent and knowing that in such case 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. He managed to stay a step ahead, living for a time in Switzerland before going to France. By 1939 France was beleaguered by thousands of Eastern Europeans and by Spaniards who had come north after the Civil War, all wanting to fight Hitler. The regular army was not equipped to deal with these men, most of whom spoke no French. The solution to the problem was to dispatch them all to that traditional dumping ground for misfits, the Foreign Legion. This is how Kanitz became a Legionnaire . . . .

Kanitz' service with the Legion was terminated in 1942 when he was designated by the Germans under the extradition clause of the Armistice Treaty. He knew that extradition meant the firing squad. Kanitz managed to secure his discharge, and his escape from the Nazis and flight from North Africa provide the most exciting reading in Tales. In his flight he kills a Gestapo agent, is hidden by an Oran prostitute, and smuggles himself on board a ship to Marseilles, which is intercepted by a Nazi patrol boat. This predicament requires Kanitz to exit overboard. His description of the two-mile struggle in the middle of the night through the cold waters of the Gulf of Lyons is a fine piece of writing, a portrait of a man staring death in the face."

The book is also reviewed in The Saturday Review of June 2, 1956; online.

Walter Kanitz free-lanced as a travel writer; one piece appeared in the Los Angeles Times on March 9, 1986 (the year he died); see online.