The 1938 Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to the Nansen International Office for Refugees, part of the League of Nations, for its work in aiding refugees. The office was established in 1930, after the death of Laureate Fridhof Nansen and, at the time, was mainly charged with resettling the more than one million people still displaced by the Russian Revolution. In the ensuing years it took on more refugee populations, including “. . . .several hundred thousand Armenians. As everyone knows, the Armenian people had lost home and country as a result of the deportations and massacres which they suffered both during and after the war. (pictured above)” The question hanging over the assembly was, “But what will happen when the Spanish Civil War comes to an end? The situation there is already frightening.” At the end of 1938, only weeks after the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded, the office was disbanded and replaced by the Office of the High Commissioner for Refugees.
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.
