The 1922 Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to Fridtjof Nansen, of Norway, for his work in aiding the millions in Russia struggling against famine and his work for the refugees in Asia Minor and Thrace. This, from the presentation speech by the head of the Nobel Committee bears repeating:
“The human mind cannot visualize this enormous activity any more than it can grasp astronomical figures. One starving person, one human being lying like forgotten wreckage on a street corner, wasting away bit by bit — this we understand; here our feeling is so strong it becomes compassion. One refugee, even a crowd of refugees, if you like, pushing their children and their possessions in wheelbarrows in front of them — this we understand. But millions of these, hunted like game from country to country, behind them the fires of their burning homes, before them the emptiness of a future over which they have no control — here our minds stop dead; instead of producing images, they merely play back the statistics presented to them. Charity on an intimate scale, even charity on a larger scale, for our countrymen or for our provinces — this is within our reach; this we understand. But a program whose aim is to rescue a continent’s millions from misery and death — this presents proportions so immense and involves such a myriad of jumbled details that we give up and allow our minds to rest.”
The Nobel Peace Prize is one of the five Nobel Prizes created by the Swedish industrialist, inventor, and armaments manufacturer Alfred Nobel. Since 1901 it has been awarded annually (with some exceptions) to those who have “done the most or the best work for fraternity between nations, for the abolition or reduction of standing armies and for the holding and promotion of peace congresses” Over the next few months we’ll be introducing you to the past Nobel laureates, leading up to the award of the 2016 prize in October.
