Accession Number: 2022.02.7.8

Historical background:

After Hitler became the Fuhrer in 1933, the German Red Cross elected to conform to the Nazi regime. SS general Ernst-Robert Grawitz became the head of the German Red Cross in 1937. German Red Cross nurses were sworn into the Nazi party. The nurses were given Nazi ideology as part of their professional training. The emblem for the German Red Cross became a swastika-adorned German Eagle with a red cross clutched in its talons.

During the Holocaust, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) was based in Switzerland. The racial persecution of the Nazis was viewed as a German internal matter. The ICRC considered prisoners of war from countries that signed the 1929 Geneva Convention as their primary focus. Civilians were not included in the Geneva Convention. The ICRC did provide small scale support where they could for civilians from the beginning of the war in 1939.  In 1942, the ICRC attempted to send supplies to Theresienstadt but was denied by the German Red Cross, claiming that there was sufficient food and supplies at Theresienstadt. The Reich Security Main Office authorized a visit of Theresienstadt for representatives of the ICRC and the Danish Red Cross for June 1944. Before their visit, Theresienstadt received a “beautification”. Prisoners planted gardens, painted housing complexes, and renovated barracks. Thousands of Jewish prisoners were deported to Auschwitz before the Red Cross’s arrival so the camp did not seem as overpopulated as it was.