Search

The site of an international conference in July 1938, which had as its subject the refugee crisis unleashed by the National Socialist persecution of German and Austrian Jews. The conference, which had been convened on the initiative of the American president Franklin D. Roosevelt in the French resort town on Lake Geneva, and in which representatives from 32 countries took part, was to sound out their readiness to accept refugees. It led to no appreciable results. This was due to the int…

International travel document introduced in 1922 on the initiative of the well-known Norwegian polar explorer and then High Commissioner for Refugees of the League of Nations, Fridtjof Nansen (1861–1930). Originally intended for refugees from the former Russian Empire, the Nansen passport became the travel and identity document for Jews and other refugees who had become stateless due to wars and political upheaval. Until 1946 around 450,000 Nansen passports were issued and recognized by 52 state…