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The second world war officially started on 1st September 1939, and lasted for next six years. By this time Red cross had turned 75, but it was little prepared for either the scale, nor the modalities of destruction that was to follow. The war not only erased boundaries, and drew new maps, but it also consumed about 85 million human lives. Most of these were civilians, victims of shelling, genocide, nuclear bomb, and even famines. Disproportionate civilian deaths took place in Soviet Union, China, Poland, and Indonesia. Further, more than 25 million were direct military casualties. While red cross was stretched, it accepts the blame, that it could not prevent many a civilian genocides.
Soon after the war broke out, Red Cross initiated with its plans, to evacuate the wounded. It set-up field hospitals, relief supplies to PoW camps, and also taking care of the civilian casualties. This traditional response would later prove to be inadequate. In the next sections, we explore stories of Red Cross response.
Red Cross in occupied and Resistance France
In first year of the war, France was defeated, and was occupied by Germany. By rule, only one red cross society is permitted in each country. The Red Cross was operative in German occupied (Vichy) France. The Free France (Resistance fighters under Charles de Gaul) was operating from Britain, Congo, Cameroon and various other territories. Since Red Cross did not permit a separate society for the Free France, its soldiers when captured by the German had a status of armed insurgents, rather than as PoW. Many such captured soldiers did not get PoW protection.
About 412 Free French Red Cross committees in 42 countries collected local donations to provide care for the resistance (or Allied French) forces. Despite lack of official recognition, these committees continues their work at humanitarian level, for the resistance armies, till liberation of France in 1945. However, those allied French forces that were under British command, were covered by the British Red Cross.
Role of Red Cross Societies, that were away from war theater
Red Cross has its headquarters in Switzerland, a neutral country in the world wars. Another 13 countries were officially neutral. Their Red Cross societies were also engaged in humanitarian efforts during the war. This included the Swedish white busses, that could rescue some Jews from Denmark.
Red Cross Societies, across the world provided a variety of services, even when their armies were not entirely involved in war. For instance Australian Red Cross performed traditional catering, fundraising and medical work, such as vocational training, home help, library services, lorry and ambulance driving.
Red Cross societies in Axis allied countries
In the second world war Germany, Japan and Italy were key Axis countries. German Red Cross (or DRK) was integrated into the Nazi Government structure, as early as 1933. During the world war, it did not report the atrocities in the concentration camps, nor did it allow humanitarian aid in them. International Red Cross (ICRC) failed to act on the information about the Jewish holocaust. ICRC made this admission only in the 1980s, and is officially recorded on its website.
German Red Cross was disbanded in 1945, and reconstituted five years later in 1950 as an independent body. Similarly Japanese Red Cross was partisan, as it cared for its own wounded soldiers, and ignored Geneva conventions for PoWs and civilians in occupied territories of China and South East Asia. However, as the war ended, Japanese Red Cross was the main agency that provided care to civilian survivors in Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
Genocide in “Independent state of Croatia”
In 1941, Germany annexed Yugoslavia. In western part of Yugoslavia, it established The “Independent State of Croatia” (Nezavisna Država Hrvatska, or N.D. Hrvatska). This state included current territory of Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and some parts of Slovenia and Serbia. The governance of N.D. Hrvatska was with a puppet right wing regimen of fascist Ustaše organization.
While this “independent state of Croatia” raised funds through postage stamps for its war effort, as well as for its Red Cross, the country surpassed in atrocities on its own civilian population. It established 22 concentration camps for Serbs, Jews, and Roma ethnic groups. Two of these camps were exclusively for children, who were separated from their families. Some individual humanitarian efforts helped rescue some children, but about half died in the camps or during subsequent transport.
While N.D. Hrvatska issued red cross postage stamps with images of compassion, it also systematically murdered approximately 200,000 to 500,000 Serbs. Another 300,000 Serbs were further expelled and at least 200,000 more Serbs were forcibly converted. Proportional to the population, the NDH was one of the most lethal European regimes.
Providing passage to the persecuted: Romania and Turkey
Romanian Red Cross (RRC) was founded in 1874. While Romania initially supported the Axis countries, under patronage of Queen Elena, RRC established hospitals, transit canteens, and infirmaries for the persecuted. RRC created aid channels (essentially food and medical supplies) for the persecuted people, that passed through the country, on their way to Turkey and then Palestine.
In Muslim world, crescent is a symbol, which is equivalent to the cross. Turkey was the first country that founded a Red Crescent society in 1868. Subsequently, other Muslim countries formed their own crescent symbol societies for humanitarian aid.
During World War II, Turkey remained neutral, blocking Germany’s access to the Middle East. On June 18, 1941 Germany and Turkey signed a treaty of friendship. Thus, while being a major trading partner with Germany, Turkey also maintained its friendly relations with the Allies. Meanwhile, Turkey helped rescue more than 100,000 Jewish refugees, and facilitated their onward passage to Palestine. Red Cross was awarded its second Nobel Prize in 1944.
Relief and reconstruction in the immediate post war Europe
Exactly six years after it began, second world war ended in May 1945 in Europe, and on 2nd September 1945 in Japan. As leaders either died or surrendered, hostilities ended, concentration camps and their mass graves were uncovered, many displaced individuals moved to camps. While a UN agency United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration (UNRRA) was a nodal agency, a lot of efforts were shared by the red cross.
The Red Cross established communication between prisoners of war and their families, inspected prison camps, and organized prisoner exchanges. They also sent parcels of food, medicine, and clothing to prisoners. The prisoner exchange and search for the missing personnel continued for a few years after the war. In order to aid, post war efforts, Red Cross raised funds, through semi-postal and non-postal issues, over the next decade.
A Gallery of Red Cross philately, 1945-60
In 1963, Red Cross was awarded another Nobel Prize for its role in the Second world war. However, in late 1980s, information emerged that Red Cross was well aware of the concentration camps and holocaust. It suppressed the information, so as not to antagonize the German Reich. The Nobel Prize committee notes on its website:
“The Nobel Committee was not aware that the Red Cross was fully informed of the Nazi extermination of Jews. This was not known until the 1980s. It then emerged that in 1942 the organization had adopted a resolution to keep silent. It feared that publication of the atrocities might trigger reprisals against prisoners of war or provoke military action against neutral Switzerland. It was also afraid that the cooperation between the ICRC and the Swiss government might collapse. The Red Cross has since expressed regret for this suppression of the facts.“