[1][2] Szanto's wartime service was covered in Michael J. Lepore's book Life of the Clinician.
Due to discrimination against Jews, he travelled to Vienna to attend medical school, where he met his wife Amalia Szanto.
He fled Austria with his wife and small son, Philip, six weeks after the Nazi Anschluss.
Szanto was the head of the Pathology Department at Cook County Hospital for 26 years.
Szanto authored more than 200 articles in medical journals and won numerous awards for his teaching and research.