Ref. hist-03095-29
World War II. Rawa-Ruska, Stalag 325. ICRC delegates speaking with prisoners of war. During the Second World War, only Latin America and five neutral European countries (Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and Turkey) were spared by the fighting. For the first time in history, aviation made it possible to bombard enemy territory over hundreds of square kilometres; for the first time too, the number of victims was higher among civilians than among soldiers. From the very beginning, Hitler's regime waged a racial war aimed at subjugating the Slavic peoples and wiping out all Jews and gypsies.
At the time, international humanitarian law comprised rules governing the treatment of prisoners of war (Geneva Convention of 27 July 1929), but not that of the civilian population. The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) was therefore able to carry out activities to protect and assist prisoners of war, whereas its work for certain categories of civilians -- in particular, civilians held in concentration camps -- was to be very limited, or even non-existent.
See also the site of the International Tracing Service in Arolsen.


Key document
I. General introduction Introduces the sujects of ICRC delegates, prisoners of war, and ICRC activities to help the civilian population during the Second World War (About the ICRC\History\Second World War) | 7-5-2003 Includes Photo |
III. ICRC activities in the Far East A brief account of events related to ICRC activites related to the war in the Pacific during the Second World War (About the ICRC\History\Second World War) | 8-4-1998 Includes Photo |
II. The ICRC and the holocaust A brief account of events related to the holocaust and to ICRC activites during the Second World War (About the ICRC\History\Second World War) | 7-4-1998 Includes Photo |

Photos
Hiroshima 1945 Two images of Hiroshima after the explosion
of the atom bomb
(About the ICRC\History\Second World War) | 15-1-1998 Includes Photo |

Reference

Publications

ICRC publication
L'étoile jaune et la Croix-Rouge : le Comité international de la Croix-Rouge et l'Holocauste,1939 - 1945 This book (The Yellow Star and the Red Cross: the International Committee of the Red Cross and the Holocaust, 1939-1945), a summary of historical research into the Second World War, aims to provide the layperson with an overview of the debate on how to apportion responsibility for the tragedy of the Holocaust. It describes what assistance and protection mechanisms were set up during the War and draws attention to the ambiguous nature of the Allied nations' stance on humanitarian law, then as now the only possible basis for ICRC action on behalf of the victims of conflict. Marc-André Chargueraud (Info resources\ICRC catalogue\Publications\About the ICRC) | 31-12-1999 ICRC publication
|
Warrior without weapons An account of Dr Junod's experiences between 1935 and 1945 on missions which took him first to Abyssinia and air raids with mustard gas bombs, then to Spain, Poland, Germany and lastly to Japan, where he was one of the first foreign doctors to observe the horrific effects of the atom bomb dropped on Hiroshima.
Through Dr Junod's narrative, the reader discovers the difficult and sometimes dangerous, but always fascinating, work of an ICRC delegate. Marcel Junod (Info resources\ICRC catalogue\Publications\About the ICRC) | 31-12-1982 ICRC publication
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International Review of the Red Cross

Press article
Hiroshima 1945: a day in August that changed the world Original title: Regard sur Hiroshima, un mois après la bombe - press article by Richard Werly published in Le Temps (Switzerland) on 14 August 2003; how the ICRC, focussed on the fate of prisoners, came to learn about the atom bomb attack on Hiroshima, and the action it took. (About the ICRC\History) | 14-8-2003 Press article Includes Photo |

More in this section
Marcel Junod (1904-1961): centenary of a "warrior without weapons" He fought off looters with his bare hands as Addis Ababa fell to Italian forces, bargained the exchange of hostages in Spain's civil war, was arrested by the Gestapo in Berlin as a spy and became the first foreign doctor to help atom bomb victims at Hiroshima. Close-up of a remarkable ICRC delegate. (About the ICRC\History) | 13-5-2004
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Friedrich Born The ICRC and the Second World War (About the ICRC\History\Second World War) | 6-4-1998 Includes Photo |
Relief work in Greece The ICRC and the Second World War (About the ICRC\History\Second World War) | 6-4-1998 Includes Photo |