Nansen passport

The end of World War I saw significant turmoil, leading to a refugee crisis. Numerous governments were toppled, and national borders were re-drawn, often along generally ethnic lines. Civil war broke out in some countries. Many people left their homes because of war or persecution or fear thereof. The upheaval resulted in many people being without passports, or even nations to issue them, which prevented much international travel, often trapping refugees. The precipitating event for the Nansen passport was the 1921 announcement by the new government of the Soviet Union revoking the citizenship of Russians living abroad, including some 800,000 refugees from the Russian civil war.[2] The first Nansen passports were issued following an international agreement reached at the Intergovernmental Conference on Identity Certificates for Russian Refugees, convened by Fridtjof Nansen in Geneva from July 3, 1922, to July 5, 1922,[3] in his role as High Commissioner for Refugees for the League of Nations.[4] By 1942, they were honoured by governments in 52 countries.

In 1933, the Nansen arrangement was broadened to also include Armenian, Assyrian, and Turkish refugees.[5] Approximately 450,000 Nansen passports were provided[6] to stateless people and refugees who needed travel documents but could not obtain one from a national authority.

Following Nansen's death in 1930, the passport was handled by the Nansen International Office for Refugees within the League of Nations. At that point the passport no longer included a reference to the 1922 conference, but were issued in the name of the League. The office was closed in 1938; passports were thereafter issued by a new agency, the Office of the High Commissioner for Refugees under the Protection of the League of Nations in London.[7][8]

German-issued Nansen passport for a Jewish man fleeing to the UK.

• 
  Nansen passport cover,
  Police office, Prague, 1930
• 
  Nansen passport renewal stamp,
  Nansen International Office for Refugees
• 
  Memorial Plaque (partial view),
  outside wall,
  City Hall, Oslo, Norway

The Nansen International Office for Refugees was awarded the 1938 Nobel Peace Prize for its efforts to establish the Nansen passports.[9][10]

While Nansen passports are no longer issued, existing national and supranational authorities, including the United Nations, issue travel documents for stateless people and refugees, including certificates of identity (or "alien's passports") and refugee travel documents.

• Robert Capa
• Sergiu Celibidache
• Princess Vera Constantinovna of Russia
• Marc Chagall[11][12]
• Françoise Frenkel
• Alexander Galich
• Zuzanna Ginczanka
• Alexander Grothendieck[13]
• G. I. Gurdjieff
• Anatol Heintz[11][12]
• Ze'ev Jabotinsky[14]
• Youri Messen-Jaschin - artist Op art, Switzerland
• Vladimir Nabokov – fictionally, Timofey Pnin, the protagonist in Pnin, migrated to the United States on a Nansen passport
• Aristotle Onassis
• Krikor Pambuccian
• Anna Pavlova[11][12]
• Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna of Russia (1890–1958)
• St. Grigol Peradze[15]
• Jadwiga Piłsudska
• Sergey Rakhmaninov[11][12]
• Dimitri Riabouchinsky
• Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson
• Otto Skorzeny
• Igor Stravinsky[12][11]
• Dries Riphagen
• King Alfonso XIII of Spain

• World Passport

• Fridtjof Nansen Memorial Lecture Series United Nations University
• The Nansen Passport New York University Department of Media, Culture, and Communication's Media Archaeology's Dead Media Archive