American Psychiatric Association. Biographical directory of the fellows and members of the American Psychiatric Association, as of October 1, 1977 New York, N.Y. : Bowker, 1977. (OCoLC) 3787223 Karl Kalman Targownik (June 17, 1915 – January 2, 1996) was a

psychiatrist A psychiatrist is a physician who specializes in psychiatry, the branch of medicine devoted to the diagnosis, prevention, study, and treatment of mental disorders. Psychiatrists are physicians and evaluate patients to determine whether their sy ...

and

Holocaust The Holocaust, also known as the Shoah, was the genocide of European Jews during World War II. Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered some six million Jews across German-occupied Europe; a ...

survivor. Dr. Karl Targownik was born in

Budapest, Hungary Budapest (, ; ) is the capital and most populous city of Hungary. It is the ninth-largest city in the European Union by population within city limits and the second-largest city on the Danube river; the city has an estimated population of ...

. His parents were Polish Jews who fled to Hungary to escape the Russian invasion during World War I. Soon after the War was over they returned to Poland and settled in the small village of Bochnia, located in the Southwest of Poland near Kraków. While studying in

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populous ...

to become a medical doctor, Targownik was captured and sent to a

concentration camp Internment is the imprisonment of people, commonly in large groups, without charges or intent to file charges. The term is especially used for the confinement "of enemy citizens in wartime or of terrorism suspects". Thus, while it can simply ...

. For a period of time, Targownik was a prisoner at the infamous

Auschwitz Auschwitz concentration camp ( (); also or ) was a complex of over 40 concentration and extermination camps operated by Nazi Germany in occupied Poland (in a portion annexed into Germany in 1939) during World War II and the Holocaust. It con ...

camp. At 29 years old and a mere 80 pounds (36 kg), Targownik was liberated on April 29, 1945 from the

Dachau , , commandant = List of commandants , known for = , location = Upper Bavaria, Southern Germany , built by = Germany , operated by = ''Schutzstaffel'' (SS) , original use = Political prison , construction ...

camp. Soon after liberation, Targownik obtained his medical degree and practiced in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

. In 1952, Targownik moved to

Topeka, Kansas Topeka ( ; Kansa language, Kansa: ; iow, Dópikˀe, script=Latn or ) is the Capital (political), capital city of the U.S. state of Kansas and the County seat, seat of Shawnee County, Kansas, Shawnee County. It is along the Kansas River in the ...

, to work at the

Menninger Clinic The Menninger Foundation was founded in 1919 by the Menninger family in Topeka, Kansas. The Menninger Foundation, known locally as Menninger's, consists of a clinic, a sanatorium, and a school of psychiatry, all of which bear the Menninger name. ...

, a popular treatment center for the mentally ill. He developed a friendship with

Karl Menninger Karl Augustus Menninger (July 22, 1893 – July 18, 1990) was an American psychiatrist and a member of the Menninger family of psychiatrists who founded the Menninger Foundation and the Menninger Clinic in Topeka, Kansas. Biography Menn ...

, and soon rose through the ranks to become one of the institution's top psychiatrists. Targownik frequently spoke to groups about his Holocaust experience, and gained recognition throughout the state of

Kansas Kansas () is a state in the Midwestern United States. Its capital is Topeka, and its largest city is Wichita. Kansas is a landlocked state bordered by Nebraska to the north; Missouri to the east; Oklahoma to the south; and Colorado to the ...

and much of the

Midwest The Midwestern United States, also referred to as the Midwest or the American Midwest, is one of four Census Bureau Region, census regions of the United States Census Bureau (also known as "Region 2"). It occupies the northern central part of ...

. He was named Kansan of the Year in 1976 by the newspaper of Topeka, Kansas. Dr. Targownik worked and led the Kansas Reception & Diagnostic Center, a State Prison outside of Topeka. It was one of the few remaining institutions for new, incoming state prisoners, where they could be evaluated medically, psychologically and educationally. A team of clinicians would then recommend the level of placement in the state prison system. This Reception & Diagnostic concept followed from Dr. Karl Menninger's philosophy of criminal rehabilitation, as written about in his book, "The Crime of Punishment" Targownik continued to speak and give interviews through the end of his life, which was complicated by

Alzheimer's Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a neurodegenerative disease that usually starts slowly and progressively worsens. It is the cause of 60–70% of cases of dementia. The most common early symptom is difficulty in remembering recent events. As t ...

and

Parkinson's Parkinson's disease (PD), or simply Parkinson's, is a long-term degenerative disorder of the central nervous system that mainly affects the motor system. The symptoms usually emerge slowly, and as the disease worsens, non-motor symptoms becom ...

diseases. He died at 80 on January 2, 1996, at his Topeka home.

References

1915 births 1996 deaths American people of Hungarian-Jewish descent American psychiatrists Auschwitz concentration camp survivors Dachau concentration camp survivors Deaths from Parkinson's disease Hungarian emigrants to the United States Hungarian Jews Hungarian psychiatrists People from Topeka, Kansas 20th-century American physicians Neurological disease deaths in Kansas {{US-physician-stub