Prevent Genocide has a nice collection of identity documents from around the world. They’ve focused on how these documents have enabled genocide or racial/religious hatred toward minorities.

Check out the USSR travel permit and compare it to what we have today in the USSA: “A valid propiska was required in order to work, get married or gain access to education or social services. Individuals were required to present their passports and propiska for internal travel or on demand by authorities or employers.”

And read the chilling “Sources” — news stories about how mobs, cops, or soldiers stopped ordinary people, demanded to see their IDs, and then used the ID information to kill or imprison those people — in country after country.