Jewish Refugees and the International Community Between the Two World Wars — Debate

Published immediately before the conference, Giuseppe Motta's new study draws on extensive archival research in the records of the League of Nations and the Joint Distribution Committee to examine the displacement of Jewish populations in East-Central Europe and the international response to the Jewish refugee crisis between the two world wars.

The book follows the refugee question from the aftermath of the First World War through the rise of Nazism and the Évian Conference of 1938. Particular attention is given to the relationship between refugee crises, newly drawn state borders and national sovereignty, the development of international humanitarian law and international institutions, the emergence of the refugee as a legal category, statelessness, humanitarian assistance, Jewish migration, and the work of international and Jewish organisations.

The conference event is conceived as a live scholarly debate around these historical problems and around the broader question raised by the book's subtitle, Beyond the State: how refugee protection, international law, humanitarianism, and human rights developed in a political system still fundamentally organised around sovereign states.

Motta's research examines the humanitarian dimension of international relations, especially the historical development of international protection for minorities and refugees and the role of international institutions in shaping modern concepts of human rights. His Sapienza research has also addressed Italy and the Middle East from the League of Nations mandate system to the United Nations.