Beyond his revolutionary clinical research, Kanner's concern for the mentally ill through social activism was also what many people remembered him for. In the 1930s, a group of lawyers and judges arranged for 166 state-institutionalized, mentally ill residents to be released and assigned as unpaid domestic servants for affluent families around Baltimore. The release of these patients was justified through the Habeas Corpus writs and the claim to familial rights. Out of his own concern, Kanner decided to track down the 166 patients and found them plagued with a variety of dreadful outcomes such as STDs, tuberculosis, prostitution, imprisonment, institutionalization, and even death. Kanner reported that the 166 released patients had a total of 165 children, many of whom became orphans or died due to neglect. Kanner's report on these patients, "Scheme to Get Morons to Work in Homes Free Charged," made the headlines of "The Baltimore Sun" and "The Washington Post" in 1938. The publicity helped spark community action and led to the better treatment of the mentally ill. Apart from his social activism for the mentally ill, during the run-up to World War II, Kanner was instrumental in rescuing hundreds of Jewish physicians from the horrors of the Nazis by relocating them to work in the United States. He and his wife opened their home to many of these European refugees.