would apply to everybody, but in fact only a small number of refugees were summoned and handed such passports. In consequence, those refugees went to several localities near Lvov, but nobody wanted to register them, so they complained to the station heads about being unable to settle anywhere and asked to be told [2] where to go. They either heard, “You have to leave because you are forbidden to stay here in Lvov with such a passport. And where you go is your own problem”, or were sent to another locality, where the local station heads said, “By what right does Lvov send you here? They gave you a passport, so they should keep you” when they learned that the refugees had been sent over from Lvov. And a paradoxical situation ensued, causing utmost panic among the refugees, as those zealous ones who had collected their passports after being summoned discovered that they had no right to live in Lvov and no possibility of settling anywhere else, because nobody would register them there. Luckily, that pertained [3] to the unusual cases of the refugees being summoned to collect their passports. Furthermore, many of the refugees summoned totally ignored the order. Finally, even those who received passports with §11 and were refused registration everywhere returned with those passports to Lvov to stay for the time being, as the authorities had not introduced repressions.
Refugees and passport control among locals. As “passportisation” was coming to an end (for a deadline of about two months had been set), individual constables and tenement superintendents went from flat to flat to check to see if all the residents already had their passports. On such occasions, the refugees living in some of the flats said, “I do not have a passport because I am a refugee”. Most of the time that statement satisfied the constables, but some of them pointed out that it was no justification and that the refugees should also have come to the station for a passport, particularly when it was revealed during the conversation that a given refugee worked in a factory or school. On such occasions the constables would say, “Well, you work, so you should go for a passport”.
Passports with §11 for refugees and the obligation to leave Lvov. Consequently, a large number of the refugees went to police stations to submit their documents and collected their passports a few days later. However, drawing on the experience of the refugees [4] who had received passports with §11 and could not register anywhere in the provinces, they informed themselves in advance, that is, before collecting their passports and acknowledging
LVO V AN D SOUTH EASTERN REGIONS [ 33 ] 471
