Part I. Introduction and Context beginning of the 20th century.318 While fleeing war, many of these people had lost their identification documents. This could result in statelessness later, because they could not prove their identity and former country of residence.319 Furthermore, states deliberately excluded people and made them ‘stateless’. Relevant in the context of World War I was the withdrawal of nationality to ‘punish’ an individual for disloyalty or otherwise. Both Miriam Rürup and Marc Vishniak provide examples of this deprivation of nationality, for instance for accepting an official post in a foreign state, evasion of military service or serving in a foreign military, but also for the failure of an official abroad to comply with their superior’s orders to abandon his position.320 Furthermore, many European countries practiced ‘denaturalization’ on grounds of national security, such as fraud, residence abroad, etc.321 In the context of the War, many foreigners or non-citizens in countries involved in the War, such as (former) Germans in the UK, were (mis)labelled as ‘enemy aliens’, and were denied naturalization, but could also be subjected to internment. They had for instance renounced their nationality or severed their links with their (former) country of nationality or had been denationalized. They therefore wanted to claim a status as a person with no nationality – stateless. The Stoeck case that is described by Mira Siegelberg illustrates this issue.322 She says: “In the years immediately following the war, individuals […] across Europe sought recognition from the courts that they did not possess any national status. After the victors of World War I set out the punitive terms of the Versailles Peace Treaty, there was an even greater clamor among former subjects of enemy powers – including Germany, Austria and Hungary – residing in the British Empire to be formally recognized as stateless in order to avoid the Versailles penalties.”323 The actions of states against their own nationals did certainly cause statelessness, but after the conclusion of World War I, statelessness increased so massively that more was evidently happening.324 Indeed, big changes were made to the map of Europe – empires collapsed and new states emerged, which resulted in the creation of ‘new’ ethnic minorities. Inconsistent nationality laws of the different (new) countries in Europe had the consequence that some people were left without a nationality or a nation to belong 318 319 320 321 322 323 324 62 Claudena M Skran, Refugees in Inter-War Europe. The Emergence of a Regime (Clarendon Press 1995) 13–14. Marc Vishniak, ‘The Legal Status of Stateless Persons’ in AG Duker (ed), Pamphlet Series: Jews and the Post-War World (No. 6, American Jewish Committee 1945) 15; also cf John Torpey, The Invention of the Passport. Surveillance, Citizenship and the State (Cambridge University Press 2000) 123. Miriam Rürup, ‘Lives in Limbo. Statelessness after Two World Wars’ (2011) 49 Bulletin of the German Historical Institute 113, 118–119; Marc Vishniak, ‘The Legal Status of Stateless Persons’ in AG Duker (ed), Pamphlet Series: Jews and the Post-War World (No. 6, American Jewish Committee 1945) 13–14. William E Conklin, Statelessness. The Enigma of the International Community (Hart Publishing 2015) 107. Mira L Siegelberg, Statelessness. A Modern History (Harvard University Press 2020) 12–25. Ibid. See also ILC, ‘Report on Nationality, Including Statelessness by Mr Manley O Hudson, Special Rapporteur’ (1952) A/CN.4/50, 19. Intersentia