Refugees have always existed, but the establishment of the international community's responsibility to provide protection to and solutions for refugees only dates back to the League of Nations. After the Armenian Genocide of 1915 and the Russian Revolution of 1917, refugees became, for the first time in modern history, an issue for the world community. In 1921 the League of Nations created the Office of the High Commissioner for Refugees, headed by Fridtjof Nansen. He established the "Nansen passport," which provided refugees with an official identity and recognizable status, and enabled them to start afresh. Nansen's mandate was subsequently extended to other groups of refugees, including the Armenians in 1924, and Assyrian, Assyro-Chaldean, and Turkish refugees in 1928. Nansen's successor, the American James McDonald, resigned late in 1935: He believed that a large-scale human tragedy was unfolding in Nazi Germany, one that the Office...