[5] Tanya Ury was born towards the end of 1951 into a family of Jewish intellectuals in the Marylebone quarter of London,[6] and grew up in the nearby Belsize Park area.

[7] Her maternal grandfather, Alfred H. Unger was a German author and dramatist and also, at one stage, chief dramaturge at Universum Film AG (today: "UFA GmbH") in Berlin.

Her paternal grandfather, Dr. Sigmar Ury, was prevented from receiving treatment for kidney cancer in the city hospital in Ulm because he was Jewish.

In 2009 the building housing the archive collapsed in connection with tunnel construction for the Cologne Stadtbahn ("light rail") network.

[11] In her written and photographic output, and in her installations, performances and video-art, Tanya Ury explores Jewish-German identity, and the way German society deals with its history, along with the role of "subaltern" women in the contexts of migration and racism.

Prominent images are of a young Chinese girl wearing black tights and positioned on a red oriental carpet.

[13] In the 2004 performance-video "Röslein sprach…" ("Little Rose spoke") Tanya Ury used a thin needle and a fine black thread to sew the word "Boss" into the skin on the palm of her hand.

In the background Janet Baker can be heard singing Schubert's song-setting of Goethe's "Heidenröslein" ("Little Meadow Rose ").

The picture series entitled "Art Prize" was part of the 2005 IFA exhibition "Stets gern für Sie beschäftigt…" ("Always glad to be of service...").

The final third consists of nude portraits of Tanya Ury herself, dating from 1996, each of them featuring an original Nazi-era Luftwaffe pilot's leather coat.

[16] Tanya Ury is a longstanding member of the independent Jewish Human Rights Organization Jews for Justice for Palestinians, and also of the German section of the international Federation European Jews for a Just Peace (EJJP, "Jüdische Stimme für gerechten Frieden in Nahost e. V."), which advocates the establishment of an independent and viable Palestinian state.