obits
Holocaust Survivor, Psychiatrist
Henri Parens Dies at 93
ANDY GOTLIEB | JE EDITOR
H olocaust survivor and psy-
chiatry professor Dr. Henri
Parens died on Feb. 19 of
congested heart failure in Minneapolis.

The former Wynnewood resident was
93. Parens served as a professor of psy-
chiatry at Thomas Jefferson University,
a research professor of psychiatry at
the Medical College of Pennsylvania
and an analyst at the Psychoanalytic
Center, and also was a prolific author.

A native of Lodz, Poland, Parens
(born Henri Pruszinowski on Dec. 18,
1928) escaped by himself at the age of
12 from a French detention camp in
France, making his way to the United
States a year later. He never saw his
parents, older brother or other relatives
again, detailing his experiences to the
Louie B. Nunn Center for Oral History
at the University of Kentucky Libraries.

Upon arrival in the U.S., Parens lived
with two foster families in Pittsburgh.

The nascent singer earned a bache-
lor’s degree in music at Pittsburgh’s
Carnegie Tech (now Carnegie Mellon
University), in 1952. Son Erik Parens
noted that his father had a beautiful
singing voice and was paid as a cantor
for a time.

After two years in the Army as a
medic, he earned a medical degree at
Tulane University Medical School in
1959, his first step in a lengthy profes-
sional career.

But his Holocaust-era experiences
influenced his career and “he dedicated
the rest of his life to helping children, par-
ents and others understand and manage
despair, prejudice, aggression and other
Dr. Henri Parens
destructive behavior,” the Philadelphia
Inquirer wrote in its obituary.

He drew inspiration from his mother,
who encouraged him to try to escape,
as well as those who helped him during
his long journey.

Erik Parens said that while his father
spoke of his childhood experiences to
his children, he didn’t speak publicly
about it until somewhat later in life.

“He became very deeply committed
to speaking in schools,” Erik Parens
said, “It became enormously important
to him ... His dream was to educate
people so it wouldn’t happen again.”
Erik Parens said his father was
strongly impacted by his mother’s
death at the hand of the Nazis, par-
ticularly since he was able to survive
because his mother encouraged him
to escape.

He also wrestled with the question of
how good and evil could co-exist in the
world. Erik Parens described how his
father was impressed by his first foster
family — led by a poor bread truck
driver who already had three children.

“‘How could people be full of such
generosity’?,” he asked.

Parens joined the faculty of the
28 MARCH 17, 2022 | JEWISHEXPONENT.COM
Courtesy of “Zaida”
Medical College of Pennsylvania in
1969, moving on to Jefferson in 1992.

He retired in 2017.

Parens worked as a private psychia-
trist and psychoanalyst for more than
a half-century, specializing in treating
children with psychological trauma.

His work included lectures, work-
shops and research on family rela-
tionships. He served with the United
Nations and other global organizations
to combat ethnic hatred and genocide.

As an author, he published a dozen
books, while writing, editing and con-
tributing to nearly 300 books, as well as
a multitude of media projects.

His 1995 textbook “Parenting for
Emotional Growth” was adopted by
schools in the Philadelphia area and
nationwide. Dr. Salman Akhtar’s career inter-
sected with Parens’ life for decades,
starting in late 1979 or early 1980 when
the former was the latter’s student. A
decade later, they co-wrote “Beyond
the Symbiotic Orbit,” the first of a half-
dozen works together. And Akhtar
took advantage of his colleague’s
singing voice, having him sing at his
wedding.