Emigrant psychoanalysts in the USA and the FBI archives.

Interest in the fate of the German psychoanalysts who had to flee Hitler's Germany and find refuge in a new nation, such as the United States, has increased. The "émigré research" shows that several themes recur: (1) the theme of "loss" of one's culture, homeland, language, and family; and (2) the ambivalent welcome these émigrés received in their new country. We describe the political-social-cultural context that existed in the United States during the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s.