Inhabitants of Another World: Refugees, Humanitarians and Emotions in the Suwałki No Man’s Land

Abstract

The article focuses on a lesser-known case of no man’s land on the border of occupied Poland and Lithuania where Jews from the Suwałki region lingered without shelter in cold weather, wind, and rain at the end of 1939. While the case has been discussed based on diplomatic documents and thus from the perspective of governments, this article uses rare testimonies of refugees, reports of humanitarian workers, and the unique diary of Moses Beckelman, an official of the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee. The article argues that no man’s land cannot be fully understood using the conceptual toolbox of the territorial nation-state and examines how stateless spaces formed around the refugees and in interaction with other actors, such as soldiers and humanitarian workers.” This complex geography was co-produced through perceptions, emotions and representations of nature, people, and agency triggered by the border and statelessness.