Humanitarians at War

The Red Cross in the Shadow of the Holocaust

Gerald Steinacher

How the International Committee of the Red Cross emerged shaken from the dark days of World War II - to forge a new identity and a new role in the post-1945 world
The intriguing and remarkable story of one of the world's oldest, most prominent, and most revered aid institutions - and how it survived its ambiguous relationship with the Nazis
From the brink of dissolution in 1945 to the successful reform of the Geneva Conventions in 1949, a tale encompassing the Nuremberg Trials, runaway Nazis, and furious battles with Communist critics on the eve of the Cold War

Humanitarians at War

The Red Cross in the Shadow of the Holocaust

Gerald Steinacher

Description

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 defense 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-behavior which did little to silence those critics in the Allied powers who unfavorably 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 intact 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 - trying to escape the shadow of its ambiguous wartime record to forge a new role and a new identity in the post-1945 world.

Humanitarians at War

The Red Cross in the Shadow of the Holocaust

Gerald Steinacher

Introduction
1. The Birth of an Idea
2. The Silence on the Holocaust
3. Intervention and Opportunism
4. The Red Cross in Crisis
5. Between Geneva and Nuremberg
6. The ICRC and Aid Politics in Ruins
7. The Humanitarians and the Nazis
8. A Window of Opportunity
9. Towards the Geneva Conventions
Conclusion
Bibliography
Notes
Index

Humanitarians at War

The Red Cross in the Shadow of the Holocaust

Gerald Steinacher

Author Information

Gerald Steinacher is an Associate Professor of History and the Hymen Rosenberg Professor of Judaic Studies at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. He is the author of numerous publications on German and Italian twentieth-century history, most recently Nazis on the Run: How Hitler's Henchmen Fled Justice (2010), also published by Oxford University Press, which was awarded a National Jewish Book Award by the Jewish Book Council in 2011.

Humanitarians at War

The Red Cross in the Shadow of the Holocaust

Gerald Steinacher

Reviews and Awards

"A knowledgeable, stringent return to the record and scrutiny of 'good neutrality.'"--Kirkus

"Riveting... An important book that, for the first time, greatly details how the ICRC operated, especially during and after World War II."--Library Journal

"[Gerald Steinacher] is an excellent historian with a good nose for archives." --Wall Street Journal

"Steinacher tracks the record of Carl J. Burckhardt and Paul Ruegger and... reviews the big picture in a critical view."--David Forsythe, Journal of Human Rights

"Humanitarians at War presents a compelling picture of how the policy of sovereign states and those of a private organization exerted a reciprocal influence on life-and-death decisions about humanitarian aid provision and international law."--Kimberly A. Lowe, H-Diplo, H-Net Reviews

"One of the sorry backstories of World War II is found in what the Red Cross did - or, more precisely, failed to do - during the Holocaust. The pointed question was asked aloud by one survivor in May 1945 - 'Where, above all, was the International Red Cross Committee?' - and now it is answered with authority and in compelling detail in Humanitarians at War."--The Jewish Journal

"Steinacher, a historian and professor of Judaic studies, aims his book Humanitarians at War at the 1944-1950 challenges to the ICRC and its recovery, but it is very much about Jews. It indicts ICRC and Swiss conduct early in the war."--The American Jewish World

"Humanitarians at War is a highly welcome addition to the growing literature about humanitarianism and the International Committee of the Red Cross. Based on impressive archival work and careful attention to the secondary literature, the book helps to piece together the puzzle that is the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) at a particularly critical moment in its history... Fascinating."--Michael Barnett, Journal of Interdisciplinary History

Humanitarians at War

The Red Cross in the Shadow of the Holocaust

Gerald Steinacher

From Our Blog

The Red Cross in Nazi Germany

Built on the Geneva Conventions of 1949, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) was founded to protect the lives and dignity of victims of armed conflict and violence and to provide them with assistance. But despite being one of the world's most revered aid organizations, the ICRC has a complicated and unsettling history.

Posted on July 29, 2017

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