Emanuel Tanay (March 5, 1928 – August 5, 2014) was a Polish-American physician, a forensic psychiatrist, and a Jewish

Holocaust survivor Holocaust survivors are people who survived the Holocaust, defined as the persecution and attempted annihilation of the Jews by Nazi Germany and Collaboration with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy, its collaborators before and during World War II ...

Early life

Tanay was born in

Wilno Vilnius ( , ) is the capital of and List of cities in Lithuania#Cities, largest city in Lithuania and the List of cities in the Baltic states by population, most-populous city in the Baltic states. The city's estimated January 2025 population w ...

, Poland on March 5, 1928, but the family soon moved to

Miechów Miechów is a town in Poland, in Lesser Poland Voivodeship, about north of Kraków. It is the capital of Miechów County. Population is 11,852 (2004). Miechów lies on the Miechówka river, along European route E77. The area of the town is , a ...

, a small community just north of

Kraków , officially the Royal Capital City of Kraków, is the List of cities and towns in Poland, second-largest and one of the oldest cities in Poland. Situated on the Vistula River in Lesser Poland Voivodeship, the city has a population of 804,237 ...

.
Emanuel Tanay - March 16, 1987, Voice/Vision Holocaust Survivor Oral History Archive. His mother, Betty Tenenwurzel, was both a physician and dentist and his father, Bunim Tenenwurzel, was a dentist. He survived by being hidden in the Catholic monastery of Mogila in Kraków, Poland. In 1943 Tanay escaped from occupied Poland with his mother and sister to Slovakia and then Hungary. They were liberated in January 1945 in Budapest. He immigrated to the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

after

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

. He did his psychiatric residency at

Elgin State Hospital The Elgin Mental Health Center (formerly Elgin State Hospital & the Northern Illinois Hospital and Asylum for the Insane) is a mental health facility operated by the State of Illinois in Elgin, Illinois. Throughout its history, Elgin's mission ha ...

Elgin, Illinois Elgin ( ) is a city in Cook County, Illinois, Cook and Kane County, Illinois, Kane counties in the U.S. state of Illinois. It is located northwest of Chicago along the Fox River (Illinois River tributary), Fox River. As of the 2020 United Stat ...

Career

Tanay was Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at the

Wayne State University Wayne State University (WSU) is a public university, public research university in Detroit, Michigan, United States. Founded in 1868, Wayne State consists of 13 schools and colleges offering approximately 375 programs. It is Michigan's third-l ...

Medical School in

Detroit Detroit ( , ) is the List of municipalities in Michigan, most populous city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is situated on the bank of the Detroit River across from Windsor, Ontario. It had a population of 639,111 at the 2020 United State ...

Michigan Michigan ( ) is a peninsular U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest, Upper Midwestern United States. It shares water and land boundaries with Minnesota to the northwest, Wisconsin to the west, ...

.
Virginia Tech Mass Murder: A Forensic Psychiatrist's Perspective, Emanuel Tanay, MD, J Am Acad Psychiatry Law 35:2:152-153 (2007).

Death

Tanay died on August 5, 2014, following a lengthy battle with prostate cancer. He was 86.

Books

*
American Legal Injustice
Behind the Scenes with an Expert Witness.'' 2010, Jason Aronson. *
Passport to Life
Autobiographical Reflections on the Holocaust.'' 2004, Forensic Press. *
The Murderers
'' 1976, Bobbs-Merrill.

Hoax

A fictional report "A German's View on Islam" falsely attributed to Dr. Tanay is often quoted in relation to Islamist terrorism.

External links

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Tanay, Emanuel 1928 births 2014 deaths Polish Holocaust survivors 20th-century Polish Jews Polish emigrants to the United States American forensic psychiatrists Deaths from prostate cancer