The "Nansen Passport" was the name for a series of documents used during the period between World Wars I and II as identification and travel papers for refugees, initially given only to Russians fleeing the civil war that ultimately solidified Bolshevik power, but was eventually distributed to many refugee communities. The passport was named after Dr. Fridtjof Nansen, a chemist and explorer who had been named High Commissioner for Refugees by the League of Nations, and is cited as both founding modern refugee regimes as well as helping to solidify the "monopoly of movement" by states.
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Front Page of French Nansen Passport
The Problem of Statelessness
The Passport Prior to WWI
The Refugee Crisis
Fridtjof Nansen and the High Commission for Refugees
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Opening of the League of Nations. Nansen is seated second from the left in the fourth row.
Successes and Failures
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Early Nansen Passport of farm laborer Niktin Constantin- note that the form directly refers to the bearer's Russian citizenship
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First three pages of a blank French Nansen Passport, which is now folded into a booklet and contains more categories to be used for identifying information.
Legacy
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Affidavit of Identity in Lieu of Passport for Hannah Arendt. While not technically a Nansen Passport, these Affidavits allowed many refugees fleeing Nazi oppression to emigrate to the United States, including Arendt and her husband.
Death, Media and the Document
The Trouble of Definition, or Lincoln's Ax
Death of a Document, the Form of a Form
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Nansen's Funeral Procession in Olso
Problematic Problematics
