The Red Cross And The Holocaust

The Geneva-based International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) is one of the world's oldest, most prominent, and revered aid organizations. But at the end of World War II things could not have looked more different. Under fire for its failure to speak out against the Holocaust or to extend substantial assistance to Jews trapped in Nazi camps across Europe, the ICRC desperately needed to salvage its reputation in order to remain relevant in the post-war world. Indeed, the whole future of Switzerland's humanitarian flagship looked to hang in the balance at this time. Torn between defending Swiss neutrality and battling Communist critics in the early Cold War, the Red Cross leadership in Geneva emerged from the world war with a new commitment to protecting civilians caught in the crossfire of conflict. Yet they did so while interfering with Allied de-nazification efforts in Germany and elsewhere, and coming to the defence of former Nazis at the Nuremberg Trials. Not least, they provided the tools for many of Hitler's former henchmen, notorious figures such as Joseph Mengele and Adolf Eichmann, to slip out of Europe and escape prosecution - behaviour which did little to silence those critics in the Allied powers who unfavourably compared the 'shabby' neutrality of the Swiss with the 'good neutrality' of the Swedes, their eager rivals for leadership in international humanitarian initiatives. However, in spite of all this, by the end of the decade, the ICRC had emerged triumphant from its moment of existential crisis, navigating the new global order to reaffirm its leadership in world humanitarian affairs against the challenge of the Swedes, and playing a formative role in rewriting the rules of war in the Geneva Conventions of 1949. This uncompromising new history tells the remarkable and intriguing story of how the ICRC achieved this - successfully escaping the shadow of its ambiguous wartime record to forge a new role and a new identity in the post-1945 world.

This book presents a startling assessment of the role of the Red Cross in the Holocaust.

"Under fire for its failure to speak out against the Holocaust or to extend substantial assistance to Jews trapped in Nazi camps across Europe, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) was desperatel to salvage its reputation. ... The organization emerged from the world war with a new commitment to protecting civilians caught in the crossfire of conflict. But it did so while defending former Nazis at the Nuremberg Trials and issuing travel papers to many of Hitler's former henchmen. ... In spite all of this, by the end of the decade, the ICRC had emerged triumphant from its moment of existential crisis, navigating the new global order to reaffirm its leadership in world humanitarian affairs..."-- Book jacket.

"With a Yellow Star and a Red Cross is a description of Arnold Mostowicz's experiences in the Lodz ghetto and Nazi concentration camps. As a physician in the ghetto, and intermittently in the camps, he was a witness to and participant in events that have received little attention. For example, the book contains an account of a workers' demonstration in 1940 and a description of the Gypsy camp that the Nazis created on the edge of the ghetto. Mostowicz describes the antagonism between the Lodz Jews and the German and Czech Jews who were deported to the Lodz ghetto, and the ways in which some members of the Jewish underworld attempted to continue their illicit activities in ghetto conditions. He challenges many accepted views, particularly those of the survivors and historians who condemn Rumkowski, the 'Eldest of the Jews', as a Nazi collaborator. His memoir has the courage to confront a number of controversial issues, including ethical dilemmas that arose in the ghetto and camps. He questions the morality of his own actions in situations where the fate of others depended on his admittedly very limited power to make decisions. Through the unusual device of writing in the third person, Mostowicz invites readers to bear witness to his own and others' actions without consigning them to an absolute point of view."--BOOK JACKET.

This is the story of how Nazi war criminals escaped from justice at the end of the Second World War by fleeing through the Tyrolean Alps to Italian seaports, and the role played by the Red Cross, the Vatican, and the Secret Services of the major powers in smuggling them away from prosecution in Europe to a new life in South America. The Nazi sympathies held by groups and individuals within these organizations evolved into a successful assistance network for fugitive criminals, providing them not only with secret escape routes but hiding places for their loot. Gerald Steinacher skillfully traces the complex escape stories of some of the most prominent Nazi war criminals, including Adolf Eichmann, showing how they mingled and blended with thousands of technically stateless or displaced persons, all flooding across the Alps to Italy and from there, to destinations abroad. The story of their escape shows clearly just how difficult the apprehending of war criminals can be. As Steinacher shows, all the major countries in the post-war world had 'mixed motives' for their actions, ranging from the shortage of trained intelligence personnel in the immediate aftermath of the war to the emerging East-West confrontation after 1947, which led to many former Nazis being recruited as agents turned in the Cold War.

Reconstructs the postwar strategy of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), which was under attack for its failure to help the victims of Nazi concentration camps.Uncovers the political objectives of the ICRC's members in the context of the wording of the Geneva Conventions and in the statutes of the International Red Cross and its finances.

Careful review of the Holocaust material published so far still leaves scholars and the public wondering: How could this tragedy ever have happened?; How was such a world-wide collapse of values possible?; Why was the Holocaust so terribly successful? These crucial questions are finally answered in 'The Holocaust Conspiracy'. By combining existing research with previously unknown findings, Dr Perl draws the inescapable conclusion that it was not apathetic inaction of the worlds powers that made the Holocaust and the Final Solution so tragically ineffective. Using extensive documentation, he convincingly proves it was deliberate action on the part of many nations that kept millions prisoner in a hostile Europe. These deliberate actions are conclusively shown to be the result of conspiracies within individual governments and between governments. Here, also, a comprehensive analysis of the Holocaust policies of powers that until now have received relatively little attention or blame: Switzerland, The Soviet Union, Latin America, and the International Red Cross. The Holocaust Conspiracy sheds shocking new light on the plots and discreet actions of world powers to effectively support the Nazi genocide programs. You will alter your perceptions of many nations after reading this work.