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107-834: In 1943, the international section of the British Red Cross was asked by the Headquarters of the Allied Forces to set up a registration and tracing service for missing people. The organization was formalized under the Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Forces and named the Central Tracing Bureau on February 15, 1944. After the war the bureau was moved from London to Versailles , then to Frankfurt am Main , and finally to Bad Arolsen, which

214-602: A basic Emergency Life Support to a three-day First Aid at Work (FAW) course recognised by the Health and Safety Executive . On a community basis, the British Red Cross is also well known as providing many first aid courses across the country to members of the public, as well as reaching out to schools, community groups and minority groups. One of the projects of the British Red Cross is Everyday First Aid, which seeks to provide training to those who would not otherwise get

321-584: A carton of documents related to an escapee program run by the Truman Administration. The AP reporters used these files and declassified US documents to describe how the United States asked the ITS to run background checks on escapees from Eastern Europe. The Central Intelligence Agency reviewed their histories and then recruited some of them to return to their countries of origin, to spy for

428-500: A computer to settle the returns for each bet once the details of the wager have been 'translated' into the system by an employee. The added efficiency of this digital system has ensured that there are now very few, if indeed any, betting offices continuing to use microfilm cameras in the UK. Visa and National City use microfilm (roll microfilm and fiche) to store financial, personal, and legal records. Source code for computer programs

535-505: A disaster appeal scheme and providing telephone support lines in its aftermath. Notably, all services of the British Red Cross can be utilised for the emergency response service, as the situation demands. For example, the therapeutic care service can provide support at a rest centre for survivors, while Ambulances can assist the NHS in caring for the injured. The emergency response service has been present at most types of major emergency such as

642-595: A drawing that is 2.00 × 2.80 metres, that is 79 × 110 in. These films are stored as microfiche. 16 mm or 35 mm film to motion picture standard is used, usually unperforated. Roll microfilm is stored on open reels or put into cassettes. The standard lengths for using roll film is 30.48 m (100 ft) for 35 mm rolls, and 100 ft, 130 ft and 215 feet for 16 mm rolls. One roll of 35 mm film may carry 600 images of large engineering drawings or 800 images of broadsheet newspaper pages. 16 mm film may carry 2,400 images of letter-sized images as

749-399: A format no longer produced, were similar to microfiche, but printed on cardboard rather than photographic film. Equipment is available that accepts a data stream from a computer; this exposes film to produce images as if the stream had been sent to a line printer and the listing had been microfilmed. The process is known as computer output microfilm or computer output microfiche (COM). Using

856-483: A light source; this is the negative of text on paper. COM is sometimes processed normally. Other applications require that image appears as a conventional negative; the film is then reversal processed. This outputs either 16 mm film or fiche pages on a 105 mm roll. Because listing characters are a simple design, a reduction ratio of 50 gives good quality and puts about 300 pages on a microfiche. A microfilm plotter, sometimes called an aperture card plotter, accepts

963-584: A matrix of microimages. All microfiche are read with their text parallel to the long side of the fiche . Frames may be landscape or portrait in orientation . Along the top of the fiche a title may be recorded for visual identification. The most commonly used format is a portrait image of about 10 × 14 mm. Office-size papers or magazine pages require a reduction of 24 or 25 in size. Microfiche are stored in open-top envelopes, which are put in drawers or boxes as file cards or fitted into pockets in purpose-made books. Ultrafiche (also "ultramicrofiche" )

1070-452: A means of keeping compact records of bets taken. Betting shop customers would sometimes attempt to amend their betting slip receipt to attempt fraud, and so the microphotography camera (which also generally contained its own independent time-piece) found use as a definitive means of recording the exact details of each and every bet taken. The use of microphotography has now largely been replaced by digital 'bet capture' systems, which also allow

1177-561: A method to microformat dissertations, and in 1934 the United States National Agriculture Library implemented the first microform print-on-demand service, which was quickly followed by a similar commercial concern, Science Service. In 1935, Kodak's Recordak division began filming and publishing The New York Times on reels of 35 millimeter microfilm, ushering in the era of newspaper preservation on film. This method of information storage received

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1284-637: A novelty was an opinion shared in the 1858 Dictionary of Photography , which called the process "somewhat trifling and childish". Microphotography was first suggested as a document preservation method in 1851 by the astronomer James Glaisher , and in 1853 by John Herschel , another astronomer. Both men attended the 1851 Great Exhibition in London, where the exhibit on photography greatly influenced Glaisher. He called it "the most remarkable discovery of modern times", and argued in his official report for using microphotography to preserve documents. A pigeon post

1391-401: A reduced size. The prints were on photographic paper and did not exceed 40 mm, to permit insertion in a goose-quill or thin metal tube, which protected against the elements. The pigeons each carried a dispatch that was tightly rolled and tied with a thread, and then attached to a tail feather of the pigeon. The dispatch was protected by being inserted in the quill, which was then attached to

1498-412: A simple, inexpensive ($ 2.00 in 1950), monocular microfilm viewing device, known as the "Seidell viewer", that was sold during the 1940s and 1950s. A microfilm printer contains a xerographic copying process, like a photocopier . The image to be printed is projected with synchronised movement on to the drum. These devices offer either small image preview for the operator or full size image preview, when it

1605-414: A single film may be inserted into a dark slide or the camera may be fitted with a roll film holder which after an exposure advances the film into a box and cuts the frame off the roll for processing as a single film. For engineering drawings, a freestanding open steel structure is often provided. A camera may be moved vertically on a track. Drawings are placed on a large table for filming, with centres under

1712-406: A single stream of microimages along the film set so that lines of text are parallel to the sides of the film or 10,000 small documents, perhaps cheques or betting slips, with both sides of the originals set side by side on the film. Aperture cards are Hollerith cards into which a hole has been cut. A 35 mm microfilm chip is mounted in the hole inside of a clear plastic sleeve or secured over

1819-401: A square inch, and that a one-foot cube could contain 1.5 million volumes. In 1906, Paul Otlet and Robert Goldschmidt proposed the livre microphotographique as a way to alleviate the cost and space limitations imposed by the codex format. Otlet's overarching goal was to create a World Center Library of Juridical, Social and Cultural Documentation, and he saw microfiche as a way to offer

1926-554: A stable and durable format that was inexpensive, easy to use, easy to reproduce, and extremely compact. In 1925, the team spoke of a massive library where each volume existed as master negatives and positives, and where items were printed on demand for interested patrons. In the 1920s, microfilm began to be used in a commercial setting. New York City banker George McCarthy was issued a patent in 1925 for his "Checkograph" machine, designed to make micrographic copies of cancelled checks for permanent storage by financial institutions. In 1928,

2033-470: A step and repeat mechanism to advance the film after each exposure. The simpler versions use a dark slide loaded by the operator in a dark room; after exposure the film is individually processed, which may be by hand or using a dental X-ray processor. Cameras for high output are loaded with a roll of 105 mm film. The exposed film is developed as a roll; this is sometimes cut to individual fiche after processing or kept in roll form for duplication. Equipment

2140-689: A storage medium than earlier methods of film information storage, such as the Photoscope, the Film-O-Graph, the Fiske-O-Scope, and filmslides. The year 1938 also saw another major event in the history of microfilm when University Microfilms International (UMI) was established by Eugene Power . For the next half century, UMI would dominate the field, filming and distributing microfilm editions of current and past publications and academic dissertations. After another short-lived name change, UMI

2247-411: A stream that might be sent to a computer pen plotter. It produces corresponding frames of microfilm. These produce microfilm as 35 or 16 mm film or aperture cards. Computer Output Microfiche was used to distribute massive amounts of frequently changed data to institutions or companies which could not afford computer terminals but already used microfiche readers for a variety of reasons. In some cases

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2354-463: Is a scaled-down reproduction of a document, typically either photographic film or paper, made for the purposes of transmission, storage, reading, and printing. Microform images are commonly reduced to about 4% or 1 ⁄ 25 of the original document size. For special purposes, greater optical reductions may be used. Three formats are common: microfilm (reels), microfiche (flat sheets), and aperture cards . Microcards, also known as "micro-opaques",

2461-482: Is an exceptionally compact version of a microfiche or microfilm, storing analog data at much higher densities. Ultrafiche can be created directly from computers using appropriate peripherals. They are typically used for storing data gathered from extremely data-intensive operations such as remote sensing. Microcards are an opaque, non-reversed format, sometimes known as microopaques. They were invented in 1948 by Fremont Rider and described in his book, The Scholar and

2568-402: Is available that accepts a data stream from a mainframe computer. This exposes film to produce images as if the stream had been sent to a line printer and the listing had been microfilmed. Because of the source one run may represent many thousands of pages. The process is known as computer output microfilm or computer output microfiche (COM). Within the equipment character images are made by

2675-400: Is based on an alphabetic-phonetic filing system that was developed especially for ITS. Making the inventory researchable for all historical issues is an urgent responsibilities after opening the archives. To date, the arrangement of the documents having been collected over a period of six decades was subject to the requirements of a tracing service, which brought families together and clarified

2782-581: Is built into a box. In some versions this is for bench top use, other versions are portable. The operator maintains a stack of material to be filmed in a tray, the camera automatically takes one document after another for advancement through the machine. The camera lens sees the documents as they pass a slot. Film behind the lens advances exactly with the image. Special purpose flow cameras film both sides of documents, putting both images side by side on 16 mm film. These cameras are used to record cheques and betting slips. All microfiche cameras are planetary with

2889-411: Is called a reader printer. Microform printers can accept positive or negative films and positive or negative images on paper. New machines allow the user to scan a microform image and save it as a digital file. 105 × 148 mm flat film is used for microimages of very large engineering drawings. These may carry a title photographed or written along one edge. Typical reduction is about 20, representing

2996-423: Is in use. They may offer a choice of magnifications. They usually have motors to advance and rewind film. When coding blips are recorded on the film a reader is used that can read the blips to find any required image. Portable readers are plastic devices that fold for carrying; when open they project an image from microfiche on to a reflective screen. For example, with M. de Saint Rat , Atherton Seidell developed

3103-705: Is of a sufficiently high standard, that in many areas, along with the other main medical service provider, St John Ambulance , British Red Cross ambulance crews work on behalf of the NHS ambulance services during particularly busy times or whenever requested, responding to 999 calls from members of the public. British Red Cross provide ambulance support for the North East Ambulance Service . The BRC also provide PTS in South East Wales, with paid Ambulance Care Assistants being trained and deployed in house. Specialist units existed within

3210-501: Is provided 16, 35 and 105 mm wide in lengths of 30 metres (100 ft) and longer, and is usually unperforated. Roll film is developed, fixed and washed by continuous processors. Sheet film is supplied in ISO A6 size. This is either processed by hand or using a dental X-ray processor. Camera film is supplied ready mounted in aperture cards. Aperture cards are developed, fixed and washed immediately after exposure by equipment fitted to

3317-414: Is providing help to people in crisis, both in the UK and overseas. The Red Cross is committed to helping people without discrimination, regardless of their ethnic origin, nationality, political beliefs or religion. Queen Elizabeth II was the patron of the society until her death in 2022 , and was replaced by her successor King Charles III , who previously served as president between 2003 and 2024. In

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3424-980: The Eastman Kodak Company bought McCarthy's invention and began marketing check microfilming devices under its "Recordak" division. Between 1927 and 1935, the Library of Congress microfilmed more than three million pages of books and manuscripts in the British Library ; in 1929 the Social Science Research Council and the American Council of Learned Societies joined to create a Joint Committee on Materials for Research, chaired for most of its existence by Robert C. Binkley , which looked closely at microform's potential to serve small print runs of academic or technical materials. In 1933, Charles C. Peters developed

3531-560: The International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement to help people in crisis: The International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement is the largest provider of first aid in the world. The British Red Cross was possibly most recognised in the UK for its work as a leading provider of first aid at public events across the UK. This stopped in 2020, by the British Red Cross, when it announced in 2019 that it would stop all Event First Aid. Thousands of volunteers gave care to

3638-527: The London bombings , Manchester Arena bombing , Grenfell Tower fire , rail crashes, other fires, and floods. The British Red Cross operate this service throughout its territory, available 24 hours a day but, contrary to popular belief, does not send its volunteers abroad, as overseas disasters will be dealt with by the society in the country affected. In addition to this core service, the British Red Cross operates in other areas, both at home and abroad as part of

3745-572: The Pan Am Flight 103 bombing at Lockerbie in 1988, to the 7 July 2005 London bombings . They provide support on all levels, from front line medical provision, to running helplines for worried relatives and long term emotional care for the victims. In July 2008, the Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall hosted a garden party at Buckingham Palace to celebrate the 100th anniversary of

3852-494: The daguerreotype process, John Benjamin Dancer was one of the first to produce microphotographs , in 1839. He achieved a reduction ratio of 160:1. Dancer refined his reduction procedures with Frederick Scott Archer 's wet collodion process , developed in 1850–51, but he dismissed his decades-long work on microphotographs as a personal hobby and did not document his procedures. The idea that microphotography could be no more than

3959-559: The Berlin Agreements from December 2011 and is funded by the government of Germany. The German Federal Archives are the institutional partner for the ITS since January 2013. The organization is governed by an International Commission with representatives from Belgium , France , Germany , Greece , Israel , Italy , Luxembourg , Netherlands , Poland , United Kingdom , and the United States . The Commission draws up

4066-639: The British Red Cross announced to volunteers that it would cease providing Event First Aid services on 31 March 2020. Its Ambulance Support services continue. The British Red Cross is a provider of first aid training in the United Kingdom. It trains people both on a community and a commercial basis. The commercial training teams run nationally recognised First aid courses specifically designed to provide skills for use at work. The British Red Cross have been running these courses for over 25 years and over 120,000 people are trained each year . Courses range from

4173-723: The British Red Cross once again joined with St John to form the Joint War Organisation, again affording the St John volunteers protection under the Red Cross emblem. The organisation once again worked in hospitals, care home, nurseries, ambulance units, rest stations and more, much of which was funded by the Duke of Gloucester's Red Cross and St John appeal, which had raised over £54   million by 1946. The Red Cross also arranged parcels for prisoners of war, following

4280-481: The British Red Cross. Covering most, but not yet all, of the UK, the British Red Cross provide assistance at the request of the local Fire and Rescue Service to those in the immediate aftermath of emergencies such as a house fire or road traffic accident. Typically a team of two volunteers with a customised vehicle will respond to victims and provide them with shelter, food, first aid, clothing, toiletries, washing facilities and moral support. Volunteers will assist with

4387-701: The Future of the Research Library . To create microform media, a planetary camera is mounted with the vertical axis above a copy that is stationary during exposure. High volume output is possible with a rotary camera which moves the copy smoothly through the camera to expose film which moves with the reduced image. Alternatively, it may be produced by computers, i.e. COM (computer output microfilm). Normally microfilming uses high resolution panchromatic monochrome stock. Positive color film giving good reproduction and high resolution can also be used. Roll film

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4494-530: The ICRC, who had to be a Swiss citizen. After some discussion, in 1990 the Federal Republic of Germany renewed its continuing commitment to funding the operations of the ITS. The documents in the ITS archives were opened to public access on November 28, 2007. Tracing missing persons, clarifying people's fates, providing family members with information, also for compensation and pension matters, have been

4601-532: The ITS and the ICRC have consistently refused to cooperate with the International Commission board and have kept the archive closed." In early 2006, several newspaper articles also raised questions about the quality of the ITS' management and the underlying reasons for the existing backlog. In May 2006, the International Commission for the ITS decided to open the archives and documents for researchers use, and to transfer, upon request, one copy of

4708-523: The ITS archives and documents to each one of its member states. This took place once all 11 countries ratified the new ITS Protocol. On November 28, 2007, it was announced that Greece, as the last of the member countries, filed its ratification papers with the German Foreign Ministry. It was then announced that the documents in the archive were open to public access. Associated Press (AP) reporters who were given access to ITS files found

4815-563: The ITS as such is not subject to German law. One accusation raised against Germany and the ITS by critics was that the archive was kept closed out of a desire to repress information about the Holocaust. Critics cited the fact that all eleven governments sitting on the International Commission of the ITS endorsed the Stockholm International Forum Declaration of January 2000 , which included a call for

4922-719: The International Red Cross pool of emergency relief workers. Between 1948 and 1967, the British Red Cross and the St Andrew's Ambulance Association jointly operated the Scottish Ambulance Service , under contract to the National Health Service. NHS Scotland took over full responsibility for the service in 1974. In the UK, the society has been active at many major disasters, from the coal tip slide at Aberfan in 1966,

5029-569: The International Tracing Service. British Red Cross The British Red Cross Society ( Welsh : Y Groes Goch Brydeinig ) is the United Kingdom body of the worldwide neutral and impartial humanitarian network the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement . The society was formed in 1870, and is a registered charity with more than 17,200 volunteers and 3,400 staff. At the heart of their work

5136-638: The Internet (for the time being in the German language only). The documents were indexed according to their origin and content. In view of the volume of the documents to be described, this process will take some years. The International Commission at its May 2007 meeting approved the US Holocaust Memorial Museum's proposal to permit advance distribution of the material, as it is digitized, to the designated repository institutions prior to

5243-533: The Joint War committee and Joint War Organisation . They pooled resources and formed Voluntary Aid Detachments (or VADs) with members trained in First Aid, Nursing, Cookery, Hygiene and Sanitation. These detachments all worked under the protection of the Red Cross, working in hospitals, rest stations, work parties and supply centres. The Joint War Organisation also aided assistance at the front line, supplying

5350-457: The Media (BKM). On November 28, 2007, the ITS archives were made broadly available to the general public. The ITS records may be consulted in person, or by mail, telephone, fax or e-mail; addresses and contact numbers are available on the ITS website. Inquiries can be submitted to the ITS using the online form on the organization's website. The archives are also open for research. After the end of

5457-551: The Second World War the main task of the ITS was initially to conduct a search for the survivors of Nazi persecution and their family-members. Today, this accounts for no more than about three percent of its work. However, a large number of new obligations have been taken on over the course of the decades. These include certification of the forms persecution took, confirmation for pension and compensation payments, allowing victims and their family members to inspect copies of

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5564-465: The United States. The program did not return very much useful intelligence, because these recruits, motivated to impress their handlers, supplied information that was not reliable, and because by 1952, the Soviets had largely exposed these efforts. Many recruits disappeared, presumed dead. A group of students participated from 2013 to 2014 in the project "DENK MAL – Erinnerung im öffentlichen Raum" at

5671-405: The aperture with adhesive tape. They are used for engineering drawings in all engineering disciplines. There are libraries of these containing over 3 million cards. Aperture cards may be stored in drawers or in freestanding rotary units. A microfiche is a sheet of flat film, 105 × 148 mm in size, the same size as the international standard for paper size ISO A6 . It carries

5778-434: The archives of Wehrmacht soldiers killed in action. German War Graves Commission has an online inventory of war graves. The ITS had been criticized before 2008 for refusing to open its archives to the public. The ITS, backed by the German government, had cited German archival law to support their position. The laws mandate a 100-year gap between releasing records in order to protect privacy. However, their critics argued that

5885-608: The camera. Early cut sheet microforms and microfilms (to the 1930s) were printed on nitrate film , which poses high risks to their holding institutions, as nitrate film is chemically unstable and a fire hazard. From the late 1930s to the 1980s, microfilms were usually printed on a cellulose acetate base, which is prone to tears, vinegar syndrome , and redox blemishes. Vinegar syndrome is the result of chemical decay and produces "buckling and shrinking, embrittlement, and bubbling". Redox blemishes are yellow, orange or red spots 15–150 micrometres in diameter created by oxidative attacks on

5992-499: The card. This permits automated reproduction, as well as permitting mechanical card-sorting equipment to sort and select microfilm drawings. Aperture card mounted microfilm is roughly 3% of the size and space of conventional paper or vellum engineering drawings. Some military contracts around 1980 began to specify digital storage of engineering and maintenance data because the expenses were even lower than microfilm, but these programs are now finding it difficult to purchase new readers for

6099-553: The cessation of hostilities, the League of the Red Cross (now the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent societies) was formed, and the role of national societies increased, with a shift of emphasis from wartime relief to focusing on "the improvement of health, the prevention of disease and mitigation of suffering throughout the world". The British Red Cross stayed involved with blood transfusion past

6206-711: The completion of the agreement ratification process officially opening the material. In August 2007, the USHMM received the first installment of records and in November 2007, received the Central Name Index. Materials will continue to be received as they are digitized. One institution is designated for each of the 11 countries to receive a copy of the archive. The following locations have been designated by their respective countries. On May 21, 2019, millions of digitized documents were made available online. Archives on

6313-580: The dispatches onto paper. Additionally, the US Victory Mail , and the British "Airgraph" system it was based on, were used for delivering mail between those at home and troops serving overseas during World War II . The systems worked by photographing large amounts of censored mail reduced to thumb-nail size onto reels of microfilm, which weighed much less than the originals would have. The film reels were shipped by priority air freight to and from

6420-438: The documents are also examples of prominent victims of Nazi persecution like Anne Frank and Elie Wiesel . In addition to this there are smaller sections associated with the work of a tracing service: the alphabetical-phonetic Central Name Index, the child search archives and the correspondence files. The Central Name Index represents the key to the documents. With 50 million references on the fate of over 17.5 million people, it

6527-698: The end of the Voluntary Medical Service Medal being issued to British Red Cross volunteers, much to their dismay, however it is still issued to St Andrew's First Aid volunteers. There are three main areas of Ambulance Support (AS) provided by the BRC: The BRC also provide ambulance services under royal charter during: Within that there are different clinical levels: Ambulance crews undergo national standard training and examination and are then qualified to offer an advanced level of care to sick and injured patients. The training

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6634-525: The fate of 21,909 persons from survivors, family members or researchers. During the compensation phase of Eastern European forced labourers through the "Remembrance, Responsibility and Future" Foundation between 2000 and 2007, around 950,000 enquiries were sent to the Tracing Service. As a result of this flood of enquiries, the ITS was tremendously over-extended. Consequently, this created a gigantic backlog, which temporarily did considerable damage to

6741-517: The fate of prisoners of war exist in Geneva at the ICRC, Central Tracing Agency. Inquiries are dealt with. Other archives deal with missing Germans on occasion of flight and expulsion and with missing German Wehrmacht soldiers. German Red Cross searches for German missing persons except those who were prosecuted by Nazi regime. Kirchlicher Suchdienst has knowledge on population of former eastern regions of Germany. Deutsche Dienststelle (WASt) has

6848-463: The fates of individuals. The Central Name Index was the key to the documents, while the documents were arranged according to victim groups. This principle no longer is sufficient, since historians ask not only for names, but also for topics, events, locations or nationalities. The goal is to compile finding aids that can be accessed and published online and are based on international archival standards. The first series of inventories could be published on

6955-409: The film, and are largely due to poor storage conditions. The simplest microfilm camera that is still in use is a rail mounted structure at the top of which is a bellows camera for 105 x 148 mm film. A frame or copy board holds the original drawing vertical. The camera has a horizontal axis which passes through the center of the copy. The structure may be moved horizontally on rails. In a darkroom

7062-486: The first aid provision including the Cycle Response Unit, which allowed trained cyclists with enhanced first aid skills to access areas inaccessible to full ambulance vehicles. This was initially sponsored by Land Rover . The BRC's Fleet Support team, is a group of volunteers that look after the fleet of vehicles used by Ambulance Support (AS) and generally includes the following duties: In October 2019,

7169-460: The first motorised ambulances to the battlefields, which were significantly more efficient than the horse-drawn ambulances they replaced. It was active in setting up centres for recording the wounded and missing. Red Cross volunteers searched towns, villages and hospitals where fighting had occurred, noting names of the missing, the injured and the dead. This formed the basis of the international Message and Tracing service, still running today. Amongst

7276-585: The following years, King George V , King George VI and Queen Elizabeth II assumed the position of patron, while Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother served as presidents. King Charles III , who was the society's president between 2003 and 2024, was named patron in May 2024. Following the start of the Great War in 1914, the British Red Cross joined forces with the Order of St John Ambulance to form

7383-562: The formation of the National Blood Service and it retained an ancillary role until 1987. The British Red Cross was instrumental in starting overseas societies throughout the British Empire and Commonwealth , most of which are now independent national societies. In 1924, the British Red Cross started its youth movement, helping to promote its values to a younger generation. After the declaration of war in 1939,

7490-655: The granting of the society's royal charter. The British Red Cross is recognised by the UK Government as one of three Voluntary Aid Societies, the other two being St John Ambulance and St. Andrew's First Aid . It is the sole Red Cross Society for the United Kingdom and the British Overseas Territories . Overseas branches are located in: Former overseas branches: The British Red Cross, as with all IFRC member societies, operate first and foremost an emergency response service, which supports

7597-533: The guidelines for the work to be carried out by the ITS and monitors these in the interests of the former victims of persecution. The director of the ITS is appointed by the International Commission and is accountable directly to the commission. Since January 2016, Floriane Azoulay is the director. There are about 240 staff employed by the ITS. The institution is funded by the German Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and

7704-494: The historical record. Since 2015, the digitized material is gradually being published on the archive's Digital Collection Online platform. The inventory is split up into three main areas: incarceration, forced labour and displaced persons. The variety of documents is enormous. They include list material and individual documents, such as registration cards , transport lists , records of deaths , questionnaires, labour passports , health insurance and social insurance documents. Among

7811-431: The home fronts, sent to their prescribed destinations for enlarging at receiving stations near the recipients, and printed out on lightweight photo paper. These facsimiles of the letter-sheets were reproduced about one-quarter the original size and the miniature mails were then delivered to the addressee. Use of these microfilm systems saved significant volumes of cargo capacity needed for war supplies. An additional benefit

7918-537: The injured at events of all sizes including Premiership football games, concerts and large-scale running events such as the Great North Run . The training undertaken by Event First Aid Service volunteers varied, and advanced training was available to those volunteers who wished to undertake it, which included rising to the level of Ambulance Crew, or even undertaking training to become a qualified Ambulance technician . The closure of Event First Aiders also saw

8025-491: The islanders were helped to avoid starvation with food parcels brought by the Red Cross ship SS Vega . The immediate priorities for the British Red Cross following the war, were the huge number of displaced civilians caused by forced migration during the war. The Red Cross provided much relief for these people, including basic supplies, and helping to reunite people through the Messaging and Tracing Service. This work led to

8132-414: The lens. Fixed lights illuminate the copy. These cameras are often over 4 metres (13 ft) high. These cameras accept roll film stock of 35 or 16 mm. For office documents a similar design may be used but bench standing. This is a smaller version of the camera described above. These are provided either with the choice of 16 or 35 mm film or accepting 16 mm film only. Non adjustable versions of

8239-499: The microphotograph was reattached to a glass frame and was then projected by magic lantern on the wall. The message contained in the microfilm could then be transcribed or copied. By 28 January 1871, when Paris and the Government of National Defense surrendered, Dagron had delivered 115,000 messages to Paris by carrier pigeon. The chemist Charles-Louis Barreswil proposed the application of photographic methods with prints of

8346-535: The more innovative activities of the Red Cross in the war was the training of Airedale Terrier dogs to search for wounded soldiers on battlefields. Christie's auction house in Britain held an auction each year from 1915 to 1918 to benefit the Red Cross. People all across the United Kingdom donated their jewelry to help raise money. In 1918 one of the auctioned pieces was the Red Cross diamond . In 1919, after

8453-400: The office camera are provided. These have a rigid frame or an enveloping box that holds a camera at a fixed position over a copy board. If this is to work at more than one reduction ratio there are a choice of lenses. Some cameras expose a pattern of light, referred to as blips, to digitally identify each adjacent frame. This pattern is copied whenever the film is copied for searching. A camera

8560-796: The old formats. Microfilm first saw military use during the Franco-Prussian War of 1870–71. During the Siege of Paris , the only way for the provisional government in Tours to communicate with Paris was by pigeon post . As the pigeons could not carry paper dispatches, the Tours government turned to microfilm. Using a microphotography unit evacuated from Paris before the siege, clerks in Tours photographed paper dispatches and compressed them to microfilm, which were carried by homing pigeons into Paris and projected by magic lantern while clerks copied

8667-610: The opening of various Holocaust-era archives. However, since the Declaration was made, there had been little practical change in the operations of the ITS, despite repeated negotiations between the ITS, ICRC, and various Jewish and Holocaust survivor advocacy groups. A critical press release from the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum written in March 2006 charged that "In practice, however,

8774-399: The opportunity to undertake such training, such as people with disabilities. First aid training programmes delivered by the Red Cross are renowned for giving participants both the skills and confidence to use what they have learnt, with a combination of theoretical knowledge and practical sessions. Formerly known as Fire Victim Support, this service is one of the more recent to be started by

8881-415: The original documents and enabling the following generations to find out what happened to their forebears. More than 70 years after the end of World War II, the ITS receives more than 1,000 inquiries every month from all around the world. Most of them now come from younger generations who are seeking information about the fate of their family members. In 2015, the ITS received around 15,500 requests regarding

8988-657: The outbreak of the Franco-Prussian War (1870–1871), and a move across Europe to form similar societies. The society was founded as the British National Society for Aid to the Sick and Wounded in War at a public meeting chaired by Robert Loyd-Lindsay in London on 4 August 1870. It assisted in providing aid to both warring armies in the Franco-Prussian War and subsequent 19th-century conflicts, under

9095-463: The principal tasks of the ITS since its beginning. Since the opening of the archives, new tasks such as research and education and the archival description of the documents gain more importance in relation to the tasks of tracing and clarifying fates. Since these new activities are not part of its humanitarian mission, the ICRC withdrew from the management of the ITS in December 2012. The Bonn Agreement

9202-502: The process of dealing with local authority housing departments or insurance companies to enable rehousing. In addition, these teams are frequently called out to major incidents to provide support to the firefighters and other emergency services, from simply making refreshments available, to providing a confidential listening service for those members of the emergency services traumatised by what they have just seen. They also are key in many local authorities' emergency plans and may be given

9309-591: The protection of the Red Cross Emblem. The society was one of several British volunteer medical organisations to serve in the war . Queen Victoria was the organisation's first patron. In 1905, 35 years after its formation, the society was reconstituted as the British Red Cross Society, and was granted its first royal charter in 1908 by King Edward VII , who became the patron. His consort, Queen Alexandra , became its president. In

9416-596: The provisions in the 1949 Fourth Geneva Convention to protect civilians caught up in war. Since then, the British Red Cross has provided relief to people worldwide, including during the Hungarian Revolution of 1956 , in Vietnam in 1976, Famine in Africa in the 1980s and the 1999 Armenia, Colombia earthquake . Whilst the society no longer sends its volunteers abroad, it is a leading contributor of delegates to

9523-524: The provisions of the third Geneva convention in 1929, which laid out strict rules for the treatment of PoWs. The Joint War Organisation sent standard food parcels, invalid food parcels, medical supplies, educational books and recreational materials to prisoners of war worldwide. During the conflict, over 20 million standard food parcels were sent. During the German occupation of the Channel Islands ,

9630-421: The quantities involved justified getting a microfiche reader just to read COM fiche. The first COM devices date back to around 1955 and were used in scientific programming as substitutes for paper-based plotters . Then during the 1960s, business applications sought to use COM. This was part of the effort to find alternatives to paper-based reports in dealing with the information explosion . By 1969, some of

9737-430: The role of helping at or running survivor reception centres, setting up friends and family reception centres and providing first aid at them, and sometimes the providing first aid at the incident site (such as during the London bombings on 7/7) – thus freeing up more highly trained Paramedics. The Red Cross also are able to set up a number of help lines in connection with major incidents. Microfiche A microform

9844-776: The sanction of the American Library Association at its annual meeting in 1936, when it officially endorsed microforms. In 1937 Herman H. Fussler of the University of Chicago set up an exhibition of microform at the World Congress of Universal Documentation . Harvard University Library was the first major institution to realize the potential of microfilm to preserve broadsheets printed on high-acid newsprint and it launched its "Foreign Newspaper Project" to preserve such ephemeral publications in 1938. Roll microfilm proved far more satisfactory as

9951-555: The school. The students, including the author Tariq Abo Gamra , erected a plaque at the entrance of the school in remembrance of the murdered and prosecuted Jewish students in Nazi Germany . A commemoration ceremony took place on November 10, 2014. The project received letters from German Chancellor Angela Merkel and the German President Joachim Gauck congratulating them. The project was supported by

10058-450: The standing of the institution. Especially enquiries, which had no direct bearing on the foundation, remained unprocessed. ITS's total inventory comprises 26,000 linear metres of original documents from the Nazi era and post-war period, 232,710 meters of microfilm and more than 106,870 microfiches . Work is under way to digitize the files, both for purposes of easier search and for preserving

10165-470: The status of occupation of Germany was repealed in 1954, the ICRC took over the administration of the ITS. The Bonn Agreement of 1955 (which stated that no data that could harm the former Nazi victims or their families should be published) and their amendment protocols dating from 2006 provided the legal foundation of the International Tracing Service. The daily operations were managed by a director appointed by

10272-418: The statutory and governmental emergency services in times of crisis, in accordance with the duty of Red Cross and Red Crescent national societies to be auxiliaries in the humanitarian services of their governments. The British Red Cross provides a wide range of services to assist the emergency services and statutory authorities, ranging from first aid support and distribution of aid during a crisis to managing

10379-513: The strapline 'refusing to ignore people in crisis'. In fulfilling this mission, all volunteers and staff must abide by the seven fundamental principles of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement, which are: The British Red Cross also has four values, which guide the way they work. These are: The British Red Cross was formed in 1870, just seven years after the formation of the international movement in Switzerland . This followed

10486-423: The tail feather. The developments in microphotography continued through the next decades, but it was not until the turn of the century that its potential for practical usage was applied more broadly. In 1896, Canadian engineer Reginald A. Fessenden suggested microforms were a compact solution to engineers' unwieldy but frequently consulted materials. He proposed that up to 150,000,000 words could be made to fit in

10593-401: The year ending December 2022, the charity's income was £439 million, which included £37M from government contracts and £44M from government grants. It spent £367M (82%) of its income delivering its charitable activities. The mission of the British Red Cross is to mobilise the power of humanity so that individuals and communities can prepare for, deal with and recover from a crisis, summed up by

10700-459: Was also a space-saving measure. In his 1945 book, The Scholar and the Future of the Research Library , Fremont Rider calculated that research libraries were doubling in space every sixteen years. His suggested solution was microfilming, specifically with his invention, the microcard. Once items were put onto film, they could be removed from circulation and additional shelf space would be made available for rapidly expanding collections. The microcard

10807-595: Was considered a central location among the areas of Allied occupation and had an intact infrastructure unaffected by war. On July 1, 1947, the International Refugee Organization took over administration of the bureau, and on January 1, 1948, the name was changed to International Tracing Service . In April 1951, administrative responsibilities for the service were placed under the Allied High Commission for Germany . When

10914-411: Was in operation during the Siege of Paris (1870-1871). René Dagron photographed pages of newspapers in their entirety which he then converted into miniature photographs. He subsequently removed the collodion film from the glass base and rolled it tightly into a cylindrical shape which he then inserted into miniature tubes that were transported fastened to the tail feathers of the pigeons. Upon receipt

11021-452: Was made a part of ProQuest Information and Learning in 2001. Systems that mount microfilm images in punched cards have been widely used for archival storage of engineering information. For example, when airlines demand archival engineering drawings to support purchased equipment (in case the vendor goes out of business, for example), they normally specify punch-card-mounted microfilm with an industry-standard indexing system punched into

11128-413: Was printed to microfiche during the 1970s and distributed to customers in this form. Additionally, microfiche was used to write out long casework for some proofs such as the four color theorem . The medium has numerous characteristics: Desktop readers are boxes with a translucent screen at the front on to which is projected an image from a microform. They have suitable fittings for whatever microform

11235-465: Was replaced on December 9, 2011, when the eleven member states of the International Commission signed two new agreements in Berlin on the future tasks and management of the ITS. ITS was founded as an organization dedicated to finding missing persons, typically lost to family and friends as a result of war, persecution or forced labour during World War II . The service operates under the legal authority of

11342-567: Was superseded by microfiche. By the 1960s, microfilming had become standard policy. In 1948, the Australian Joint Copying Project started; the intention to film records and archives from the United Kingdom relating to Australia and the Pacific. Over 10,000 reels were produced, making it one of the largest projects of its kind. Around the same time, Licensed Betting Offices in the UK began using microphotography as

11449-455: Was that the small, lightweight reels of microfilm were almost always transported by air, and as such were delivered much more quickly than any surface mail service could have managed. Libraries began using microfilm in the mid-20th century as a preservation strategy for deteriorating newspaper collections. Books and newspapers that were deemed in danger of decay could be preserved on film and thus access and use could be increased. Microfilming

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