Gérard Blitz

Born in Antwerp, he was the son of Maurice Blitz and nephew of Gérard Blitz, both members of the Belgian water polo national team who won Olympic medals. Taking a Bronze in Water Polo, his Uncle Gerard, was one of only around eight Jewish athletes to win a medal in the 1936 Berlin Summer Games hosted by Nazi Germany.

He was apolitical during the 1930s, but joined the French Resistance in World War II and showing a rebellious streak and strong anti-Fascist sentiments was briefly a member of the Communist Party, ending the association when he felt the organization's structure became more important than the individual. After the war, he founded Club Med.

On 27 April 1950, Gérard Blitz officially founded the Club Méditerranée association, having submitted its statute to the Paris Police Prefecture earlier in February. In the same year, he created Club Med as a non-profit, bringing the first group of vacationers to Alcudia on the Northern Coast of Majorca in the Baleric Islands South of Spain.

Ironically, Blitz's first idea for what would become a luxurious resort for vacationers may have come in 1945, when he opened a village to rehabilitate Belgian survivors of Nazi concentration camps.