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In WWII, as never before, civilians became the target of violence and persecution.
During the Second World War, only Latin America and a number of neutral European countries 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.
Key document
ICRC in WW II: the Holocaust A brief account of events related to the holocaust and to ICRC activities during the Second World War (About the ICRC\History\Second World War)
2-2-2005 Includes Photo
ICRC in WW II: overview of activities The conflicts of the 1920s and 1930s had shown how warfare was evolving – notably the effects of modern technology and the deliberate targeting of civilians. Nothing, however, could have prepared the ICRC for the challenges it was to face between 1939 and 1945. (About the ICRC\History\Second World War)
2-2-2005 Includes Photo
ICRC in WW II: activities in the Far East Apart from the logistical problems to be overcome in such a vast area, the ICRC was to face immense difficulties in reaching prisoners of war held by Japan. (About the ICRC\History\Second World War)
2-2-2005 Includes Photo
Reference
ICRC in WW II: bibliography Proposals for further reading on the ICRC's work during the second world war. (About the ICRC\History\Second World War)
Traces The International Tracing Service (ITS) in Arolsen, Germany, was set up in 1943 in London to collect information on civilian victims of the Nazi regime. Half a century later, the ITS is in possession of 44 million documents and is still updating its files and replying to enquiries. The story of the ITS (administered by the ICRC since 1955) is told through the personal accounts of four survivors who speak of their harrowing experience in the camps and explain how the ITS was able to help them. (Info resources\ICRC publications and films\Films\Protection)
31-12-1988 ICRC film
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 publications and films\Publications\About the ICRC)
International Tracing Service: ICRC reply to US Holocaust Memorial Museum Open letter to Ms Sara Jane Bloomfield, Executive director, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (USHMM) from Mr François Bugnion, Director for International Law, International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) (About the ICRC\History\Second World War)
28-3-2006 Official Statement
International Tracing Service and historical research Since 1955 the ICRC has been managing the International Tracing Service in Arolsen, Germany. Striving to help people who were persecuted under the Nazi regime, including victims of the Holocaust, the ITS works with a purely humanitarian mandate derived from the Bonn Agreements of 6 June 1955. (About the ICRC\History\Second World War)
21-3-2006 Official Statement
Commemorating the liberation of Auschwitz On 27 January the world commemorated the liberation of the Auschwitz concentration camp sixty years ago. Auschwitz, which represents the greatest failure in the ICRC's history, remains a powerful symbol of the horrors committed by the Hitler regime and serves to remind humanity that it must act in the face of future threats of genocide. (About the ICRC\History\Second World War)
27-1-2005 Official Statement Includes Photo
ICRC appeal: "Mankind is faced with a problem of supreme gravity..." Full text of the statement issued by the ICRC on 5 September 1945, in the light of the nuclear attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki which brought the war to an end. (About the ICRC\History\Second World War)
5-9-1945 Official Statement
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
Stories from the field
Sixty years on: tracing victims of the Second World War Every year, the ICRC and National Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies receive tens of thousands of tracing requests relating to the Second World War. The work of the ICRC and Red Cross/Red Crescent tracing officers still reunites families torn apart during the six-year conflict. Marcin Monko, of the ICRC's regional delegation in Budapest, sent this report. (About the ICRC\History\Second World War)
6-5-2005 Stories from the field Includes Photo
More in this section
ICRC in WW II: the Central Agency for Prisoners of War As in the first world war, one of the ICRC's first steps after hostilities broke out in 1939 was to establish a clearing house for information on prisoners. (About the ICRC\History\Second World War)
ICRC in WW II: working on the Atlantic coastline How the ICRC helped the population of the German-occupied Channel Islands and civilians in German-controlled coastal towns after D-Day (About the ICRC\History\Second World War)
4-2-2005
ICRC in WW II: relief work in Greece How the ICRC helped civilians in Greece during the occupation and afterwards, when thousands of tonnes of food were needed each month to keep people alive. (About the ICRC\History\Second World War)
Geneva honours memory of atom bomb victims Memorial plaque unveiled, special edition of Marcel Junod's booklet The Hiroshima Disaster – events on 13 September 2005. (About the ICRC\History\Second World War)
13-9-2005
The Hiroshima disaster – a doctor's account Extracts from the journal written by the ICRC's Dr. Marcel Junod, the first foreign doctor to reach Hiroshima after the atom bomb attack on 6 August 1945, and to treat some of the victims. (About the ICRC\History\Second World War)
12-9-2005
The International Tracing Service – 50 years on The International Tracing Service came into being in its present form through the Bonn Agreements of 6 June 1955. It has the mammoth task of gathering, filing, preserving and processing the personal records of civilians who were persecuted under the Third Reich.
(About the ICRC\History\Second World War)
3-6-2005
ICRC in WW II: allegations by the OSS In 1996 serious allegations were made on the basis of hitherto secret US intelligence files, concerning some ICRC staff during World War II. The ICRC's response. (About the ICRC\History\Second World War)
1-2-2005
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
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. François Bugnion(About the ICRC\History\Second World War)
Key document
