27 January is the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz in 1945. For the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), it also marks a failure, the failure to help and protect the millions of people who were exterminated in the death camps.

Nov 26, 2018 · On September 1 st 1939 the invasion of Poland by the Nazi troops marked the onset of the Second World War. Pursuing its mission to alleviate the sufferings of war victims, the International Committee of the Red Cross immediately responded to the outbreak of hostilities.

First World War: visit the ICRC's digital archives on individuals from the First World War. Spanish Civil War and Second World War: more information on how to seek informations about a person - military or civilian - detained during the Spanish Civil War or the Second World Wa r.

Mar 17, 2015 · The ICRC successfully applied the 1929 Geneva military convention in order to gain access to civilian internees held in Central and Western Europe by the Germany authorities. By contrast, the ICRC was unable to gain any access to the Soviet Union, which had failed to ratify the Convention.

In the summer of 1942, alarmed by the drift towards total war, the ICRC had considered launching an appeal on the conduct of hostilities. The proposed appeal singled out four points that appeared particularly serious:

We look beyond the risks faced by ICRC delegates working in Germany to show how difficult the organisation found it to carry out a humanitarian operation for concentration-camp detainees in the very particular circumstances that prevailed in Europe at that time.

Aug 11, 2012 · of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) during the Second World War. The aim of this text is to scrutinize the ICRC’s humanitarian operations for detainees of Nazi concentration camps during the final phase of the war in Europe. We look beyond the risks faced by ICRC delegates working in Germany to show

Following allegations that appeared in the press last summer, calling into question the actions of some of its delegates during the Second World War, the ICRC resolved to shed full light on that period in its history.

Apr 1, 2018 · Dialogue with the past: the ICRC and the Nazi death camps – François Bugnion, the ICRC’s Director for International Law and Cooperation within the Movement, reflects* on the organization’s failure to react vigorously to the persecution of Jews by the Third Reich.

May 8, 2018 · The role of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement during the Second World War remains largely unknown to the wider public, but the results of this humanitarian organization are not to be neglected.