ABSTRACT
This chapter shows instead the development of a certain public image and historical interpretation that surrounded the hunt for the Nazis among the emigres. During the investigation and prosecution of war criminals, Latvian refugees with their highly controversial history and explicitly anticommunist and pro-Republican position became entangled in the American political conflicts. Latvian refugees brought to the US a difficult, convoluted and painful history, particularly in regard to the Holocaust in Latvia during the World War II. The journalists and researchers seemed more interested in promoting an image of suspicious emigre groups with connections to the US government than revealing historical truth. Although the trend of silencing debates about the World War II period was quite strong, the tensions in the American Latvian community that were raised by the American Nazi hunt could not be contained. The Latvian community in the US was also greatly influenced by the ideological tendencies in the American context.
