so one of the things about hans asperger was that he believed that autism was very, very common. that once you recognize the distinctive traits of autism, you would see them everywhere. >> brangham: asperger and his colleagues documented the range of patients they classified as having autism, but as adolph hitler came to power and invaded austria, the work ceased and several of asperger's colleagues fled to the united states. >> they had to leave. otherwise, they would have been sent to a concentration camp. they were rescued by a guy named leo kanner in baltimore. leo kanner was one of the first child psychiatrists in america. kanner framed autism very, very differently than asperger had done. whereas asperger saw it was common and a lifelong condition, leo kanner saw it as a very, very rare form of childhood psychosis. later he was quoted in time magazine saying that parents caused autism, by being too caught up in their own careers and too unloving and he called them "refrigerator parents" basically. by blaming parents, that opened the door for psychologists to come in and say