It was an incredible destiny for a man who repeatedly announced that he was "without ambition." Although he had left school aged fourteen, had no experience of foreign affairs and spoke no languages other than English, in 1929 Sean Lester became the Irish representative to the League of Nations in Geneva. He was soon recognized by his peers as an outspoken and able politician of integrity ready to defend the rules governing civilized society. As the League's High Commissioner in the Free City of Danzig from 1934 to 1936, he tried to resist the Nazi juggernaut. In the early part of the Second World War, Lester took over as Secretary-General of the League of Nations from his disgraced predecessor and for four years fought to keep the institution alive. In his dairies he witnessed many dark chapters of European history in the 1930s and 1940s.

Visionary, explorer, researcher, diplomat, humanist Fridtjof Nansen was no ordinary man. Nansen was a dedicated scientist who made an outstanding contribution to marine zoology and oceanography, an audacious adventurer who pushed our knowledge of the Arctic to new frontiers, and an indefatigable savior of human beings displaced by conflict. As a young man Nansen led two successful polar expeditions and became a national hero, participating in the birth pangs of his country Norway. As a respected international elder statesman he began a new career in 1919 by bringing home hundreds of thousands of prisoners-of-war from the remotest corners of Europe and Siberia. He created the "Nansen Passport" for stateless people under his responsibility and sought to give the Armenian people a secure homeland. For his efforts in favor of prisoners of war, famine relief and Russian refugees, he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1922.