The first Nansen Medal was presented today to Mrs. Eleanor Roosevelt for her services to the humanitarian cause of aiding refugees. The medal was also awarded in consideration of the efforts of her late husband, President Franklin D. Roosevelt, in the same field.
The international award committee took into account her “continuous and unsparing efforts” in behalf of the refugees over many years, particularly her work in the United Nations Human Rights Commission. It also paid tribute to President Roosevelt’s initiative in setting up the Evian Conference in 1938 to consider the possibility of orderly emigration of Jewish refugees from Germany.
The medal is named for Fridtj of Nansen, post-World War I League of Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, whose name was given to passports issued to stateless persons under the auspices of the League.
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