Tajfel, Henri

Henri Tajfel was born in Poland in 1919, but due to anti‐Jewish educational restrictions, left to study chemistry at the Sorbonne. At the outbreak of World War II he joined the French army and was taken prisoner by the Germans one year later. Tajfel survived in a prisoner of war camp, despite having admitted to being Jewish. After the war he returned home to find that his family and most of his friends were dead. As a result of these experiences, he developed a life‐long interest in prejudice, group identity, and the role that context plays in affecting psychological processes. Immediately after the war, Tajfel worked with a variety of international relief organizations to assist concentration camp survivors and orphans. He moved to England and in 1951 began studying psychology at London University. After receiving his doctoral degree he taught at the University of Durham and at Oxford University. During his time at Oxford, he conducted research on cognitive aspects of prejudice, social judgment, and nationalism. In 1967, he became chair of social psychology at the University of Bristol where he remained until he died of cancer in 1982.