MI19 was a section of the British Directorate of Military Intelligence , part of the War Office . During the Second World War it was responsible for obtaining information from enemy prisoners of war .
96-716: The London Cage was an MI19 prisoner-of-war facility during and after the Second World War to mainly interrogate captured Germans, including SS personnel and members of the Nazi Party . The unit, which was located within numbers 6, 7 and 8 Kensington Palace Gardens in London, was itself investigated following accusations that it often used torture to extract information. It was wound down in early 1948. The United Kingdom systematically interrogated all of its prisoners of war. A "cage" for interrogation of prisoners
192-526: A German anti-Nazi who was interrogated to determine if he was acting on behalf of German intelligence. At his war crimes trial, Knöchlein claimed that he was tortured, which Scotland dismisses in London Cage as a "lame allegation". According to Knöchlein, he was stripped, deprived of sleep , kicked by guards and starved. He said that he was compelled to walk in a tight circle for four hours. After complaining to Alexander Scotland, Knöchlein alleges that he
288-641: A captain of the Dutch Army , became the first independent and neutral delegates to work under the symbol of the Red Cross in an armed conflict. The Ottoman government ratified this treaty on 5 July 1865. The Turkish Red Crescent organization was founded in the Ottoman Empire in 1868, partly in response to the experience of the Crimean War (1853–1856), in which disease overshadowed battle as
384-440: A captured German agent at MI5's secret interrogation centre, Camp 020 . The agent was Wulf Schmidt , known by the code name Tate . Liddell said in a diary entry that Scotland was "hitting TATE in the jaw and I think got one back himself." Liddell said: Apart from the moral aspects of the thing, I am convinced that these Gestapo methods do not pay in the long run. Liddell further said that, Scotland turned up this morning with
480-529: A documentary entitled A Visitor from the Living . On 12 March 1945, ICRC president Jacob Burckhardt received a message from SS General Ernst Kaltenbrunner allowing ICRC delegates to visit the concentration camps. This agreement was bound by the condition that these delegates would have to stay in the camps until the end of the war. Ten delegates, among them Louis Haefliger ( Mauthausen-Gusen ), Paul Dunant ( Theresienstadt ), and Victor Maurer ( Dachau ) accepted
576-570: A draft proposal for an additional convention for the protection of the civil population in occupied territories during an armed conflict was adopted by the International Red Cross Conference. Unfortunately, most governments had little interest in implementing this convention, and it was thus prevented from entering into force before the beginning of World War II . The Red Cross' response to the Holocaust has been
672-643: A field surgeon; Appia's friend and colleague Théodore Maunoir , from the Geneva Hygiene and Health Commission; and Guillaume-Henri Dufour , a Swiss army general of great renown. Eight days later, the five men decided to rename the committee to the "International Committee for Relief to the Wounded". From 26 to 29 October 1863, the international conference organized by the committee was held in Geneva to develop possible measures to improve medical services on
768-765: A mark in the history of the committee as its longest-serving president ever. In 1906, the 1864 Geneva Convention was revised for the first time. One year later, the Hague Convention X , adopted at the Second International Peace Conference in The Hague , extended the scope of the Geneva Convention to naval warfare. Shortly before the beginning of the First World War in 1914, 50 years after the foundation of
864-665: A neutral, independent and exclusively humanitarian mandate during such escalations of violence in the Middle East and urged all parties to protect the lives of civilians, to reduce their suffering and protect their dignity. During the violent conflict, the ICRC and the Palestinian Red Crescent Society (PRCS) provided hospitals in the Gaza strip with support through large humanitarian convoys from Egypt , and
960-548: A number overseas. Beginning in 1940, MI19 recorded conversations between German officers held comfortably at Trent Park in North London ; many important secrets were learned from that effort. MI19 operated an interrogation centre in Kensington Palace Gardens , London , commanded by Lt. Col. Alexander Scotland OBE , known as the " London Cage ". It was a subject of persistent reports of torture by
1056-457: A portion of the town's racecourse as a camp, while the Catterick and Loughborough cages were in bare fields. The London Cage, located in a fashionable part of the city, had space for 60 prisoners, was equipped with five interrogation rooms, and staffed by 10 officers serving under Scotland, plus a dozen non-commissioned officers (NCOs) who served as interrogators and interpreters. Security
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#17327733972181152-512: A possible rivalry between the two organizations. The foundation of the League was seen as an attempt to undermine the leadership position of the ICRC within the movement and to gradually transfer most of its tasks and competencies to a multilateral institution. In addition to that, all founding members of the League were national societies from countries of the Entente or from associated partners of
1248-677: A syringe containing some drug or other, which it was thought would induce the prisoner [Tate] to speak. Schmidt subsequently became a double agent against the Germans as part of the Double Cross System of double agents operated by MI5. In 1943, allegations of mistreatment at the London Cage resulted in a formal protest by MI5 director Maxwell Knight to the Secretary of State for War . The allegations were made by Otto Witt,
1344-520: Is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . This United Kingdom military article is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . This article related to the politics of the United Kingdom , or its predecessor or constituent states, is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Red Cross Green: The Red Crescent Blue: The Red Star of David (The Red Crystal outside of Israel) Maroon: Red Cross Society that
1440-483: Is not part of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies The organized International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement is a humanitarian movement with approximately 16 million volunteers , members, and staff worldwide. It was founded to protect human life and health, to ensure respect for all human beings, and to prevent and alleviate human suffering . Until
1536-455: The 2023 Israel–Hamas war Israeli authorities required Palestinian ambulances to undergo thorough searches when passing through checkpoints, saying the policy was driven by Palestinian organizations using ambulances to transport terrorists and armaments. The Israeli Ministry of Health said that: "The Red Crescent closely cooperated with the MDA ( Magen David Adom ) until April 2002. At that time,
1632-490: The American Red Cross was founded through the efforts of Clara Barton . More and more countries signed the Geneva Convention and began to respect it in practice during armed conflicts. In a rather short period of time, the Red Cross gained huge momentum as an internationally respected movement, and the national societies became increasingly popular as a venue for volunteer work. When the first Nobel Peace Prize
1728-581: The Geneva Conventions of the 1907 revision and forwarded complaints about violations to the respective country. When chemical weapons were used in this war for the first time in history, the ICRC mounted a vigorous protest against their use. Even without having a mandate from the Geneva Conventions, the ICRC tried to ameliorate the suffering of civil populations. In territories that were officially designated as "occupied territories",
1824-510: The International Committee of the Red Cross adopted a change in its policy regarding the selection of new members. Until then, only citizens from the city of Geneva could serve in the committee. This limitation was expanded to include all Swiss citizens. As a direct consequence of World War I, a treaty was adopted in 1925 which outlawed the use of suffocating or poisonous gases and biological agents as weapons. Four years later,
1920-689: The Oriental Republic of Uruguay , the United States of Venezuela ), Asia (the Republic of China , the Empire of Japan and the Kingdom of Siam ), and Africa ( Union of South Africa ). With the outbreak of World War I , the ICRC found itself confronted with enormous challenges that it could handle only by working closely with the national Red Cross societies. Red Cross nurses from around
2016-549: The Russian Red Cross Society and later the society of the Soviet Union , constantly emphasizing the ICRC's neutrality. In 1928, the "International Council" was founded to coordinate cooperation between the ICRC and the League, a task which was later taken over by the "Standing Commission". In the same year, a common statute for the movement was adopted for the first time, defining the respective roles of
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#17327733972182112-642: The UN General Assembly granted the ICRC observer status for its assembly sessions and sub-committee meetings, the first observer status given to a private organization. The resolution was jointly proposed by 138 member states and introduced by the Italian ambassador, in memory of the organization's origins in the Battle of Solferino. An agreement with the Swiss government signed on 19 March 1993 affirmed
2208-732: The United States , the Empire of Brazil and the Mexican Empire to attend an official diplomatic conference. Sixteen countries sent a total of 26 delegates to Geneva. On 22 August 1864, the conference adopted the first Geneva Convention "for the Amelioration of the Condition of the Wounded in Armies in the Field". Representatives of 12 states and kingdoms signed the convention: The convention contained ten articles, establishing for
2304-473: The 1923 earthquake in Japan which killed about 200,000 people and left countless more wounded and without shelter. Due to the League's coordination, the Red Cross society of Japan received goods from its sister societies reaching a total worth of about $ 100 million. Another important new field initiated by the League was the creation of youth Red Cross organizations within the national societies. A joint mission of
2400-568: The Agency accumulated about 7 million records from 1914 to 1923. The card index led to the identification of about 2 million POWs and the ability to contact their families. The complete index is on loan today from the ICRC to the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Museum in Geneva. The right to access the index is still strictly restricted to the ICRC. During the entire war, the ICRC monitored warring parties' compliance with
2496-572: The Entente. The original statutes of the League from May 1919 contained further regulations which gave the five founding societies a privileged status and, due to the efforts of Henry Davison, the right to permanently exclude the national Red Cross societies from the countries of the Central Powers , namely Germany, Austria, Hungary, Bulgaria and Turkey, and in addition to that the national Red Cross society of Russia. These rules were contrary to
2592-449: The ICRC achieved permission to send parcels to concentration camp detainees with known names and locations. Because the notices of receipt for these parcels were often signed by other inmates, the ICRC managed to register the identities of about 105,000 detainees in the concentration camps and delivered about 1.1 million parcels, primarily to the concentration camps Dachau , Buchenwald , Ravensbrück , and Sachsenhausen . Maurice Rossel
2688-497: The ICRC and the League in the Russian Civil War from 1917 to 1922 marked the first time the movement was involved in an internal conflict, although still without an explicit mandate from the Geneva Conventions. The League, with support from more than 25 national societies, organized assistance missions and the distribution of food and other aid goods for civil populations affected by hunger and disease. The ICRC worked with
2784-488: The ICRC and the League within the movement. During the Abyssinian war between Ethiopia and Italy from 1935 to 1936, the League contributed aid supplies worth about 1.7 million Swiss francs. Because the Italian fascist regime under Benito Mussolini refused any cooperation with the Red Cross, these goods were delivered solely to Ethiopia. During the war, an estimated 29 people died while being under explicit protection of
2880-480: The ICRC and the adoption of the first Geneva Convention, there were already 45 national relief societies throughout the world. The movement had extended itself beyond Europe and North America to Central and South America ( Argentine Republic , the United States of Brazil , the Republic of Chile , the Republic of Cuba , the United Mexican States , the Republic of Peru , the Republic of El Salvador ,
2976-513: The ICRC could assist the civilian population on the basis of the Hague Convention 's "Laws and Customs of War on Land" of 1907. This convention was also the legal basis for the ICRC's work for prisoners of war. In addition to the work of the International Prisoner-of-War Agency as described above, this included inspection visits to POW camps. A total of 524 camps throughout Europe were visited by 41 delegates from
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3072-569: The ICRC decided to remain in the country to continue its mission to assist and protect victims of conflict. Since June 2021, ICRC-supported facilities have treated more than 40,000 people wounded during armed confrontations there. Among the ten largest ICRC deployments worldwide has been the mission in Ukraine , where the organization has been active since 2014, working closely with the Ukrainian Red Cross Society . At first,
3168-467: The ICRC through the end of the war. Between 1916 and 1918, the ICRC published a number of postcards with scenes from the POW camps. The pictures showed the prisoners in day-to-day activities such as the distribution of letters from home. The intention of the ICRC was to provide the families of the prisoners with some hope and solace and to alleviate their uncertainties about the fate of their loved ones. After
3264-572: The ICRC was active primarily in the disputed regions of Donbas and Donetsk , assisting persons injured by armed confrontations there. When Russia invaded Ukraine on 24 February 2022 , the fighting moved to more populated areas in East, North, and South Ukraine. The head of the ICRC delegation in Kyiv warned on 26 February 2022 that neighborhoods of major cities were becoming the frontline with significant consequences for their populations, including children,
3360-506: The IDF claimed that Red Crescent ambulances were being used to carry terrorists. The Red Crescent personnel involved in this violation were interrogated." In October 2023, the ICRC responded to the 2023 Israel–Hamas war that has resulted in the deaths of thousands of civilians. The ICRC has called the violence "abhorrent" and implored both sides to reduce the suffering of civilians. The ICRC, working closely with their Red Crescent partners, has
3456-491: The International Committee. The controversy surrounding Dunant's business dealings and the resulting negative public opinion, combined with an ongoing conflict with Gustave Moynier, led to Dunant's expulsion from his position as a member and secretary. He was charged with fraudulent bankruptcy and a warrant for his arrest was issued. Thus, he was forced to leave Geneva and never returned to his home city. In
3552-540: The League of Nations "High Commissioner for Refugees". Nansen, who invented the Nansen passport for stateless refugees and was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1922, appointed two delegates from the ICRC as his deputies. A year before the end of the war, the ICRC received the 1917 Nobel Peace Prize for its outstanding wartime work. It was the only Nobel Peace Prize awarded in the period from 1914 to 1918. In 1923,
3648-463: The Netherlands , Kingdom of Prussia , Russian Empire , Kingdom of Saxony , Kingdom of Spain , United Kingdoms of Sweden and Norway , and United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland . Among the proposals written in the final resolutions of the conference, adopted on 29 October 1863, were: Only a year later, the Swiss government invited the governments of all European countries, as well as
3744-489: The Red Cross principles of universality and equality among all national societies, a situation which furthered the concerns of the ICRC. The first relief assistance mission organized by the League was an aid mission for the victims of a famine and subsequent typhus epidemic in Poland. Only five years after its foundation, the League had already issued 47 donation appeals for missions in 34 countries, an impressive indication of
3840-494: The additional protocols of 8 June 1977 were intended to make the conventions apply to internal conflicts such as civil wars. Today, the four conventions and their added protocols contain more than 600 articles, while there were only 10 articles in the first 1864 convention. In celebration of its centennial in 1963, the ICRC, together with the League of Red Cross Societies , received its third Nobel Peace Prize. On 16 October 1990,
3936-556: The aftermath of what became known as the " Great Escape ". The London Cage closed in 1948. Alexander Scotland wrote a postwar memoir entitled London Cage , which was submitted to the War Office in 1950 for purposes of censorship. Scotland was asked to abandon the book, and threatened with a prosecution under the Official Secrets Act, and officers from Special Branch raided his home. The Foreign Office insisted that
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4032-414: The aid of which he might try to wriggle from the net." During his last nights at the cage, Scotland states, Knöchlein, began shrieking in a half-crazed fashion, so that the guards at the London Cage were at a loss to know how to control him. At one stage the local police called in to enquire why such a din was emanating from sedate Kensington Palace Gardens. At a trial in 1947 of eighteen Germans accused in
4128-505: The already long-standing policy of full independence of the committee from any interference by Switzerland. The agreement protects the full sanctity of all ICRC property in Switzerland including its headquarters and archive, grants members and staff legal immunity, exempts the ICRC from all taxes and fees, guarantees the protected and duty-free transfer of goods, services, and money, provides the ICRC with secure communication privileges at
4224-656: The armed opposition. They regularly visit detainees under the custody of the Afghan government and the international armed forces, but have also occasionally had access since 2009 to people detained by the Taliban . They have provided basic first aid training and aid kits to both the Afghan security forces and Taliban members because, according to an ICRC spokesperson, "ICRC's constitution stipulates that all parties harmed by warfare will be treated as fairly as possible". In August 2021, when NATO -led forces retreated from Afghanistan,
4320-522: The assignment and visited the camps. Louis Haefliger prevented the forceful eviction or blasting of Mauthausen-Gusen by alerting American troops. Friedrich Born (1903–1963), an ICRC delegate in Budapest who saved the lives of about 11,000 to 15,000 Jewish people in Hungary . Marcel Junod (1904–1961), a physician from Geneva was one of the first foreigners to visit Hiroshima after the atomic bomb
4416-488: The battlefield of Solferino. He called for the development of an international treaty to guarantee the protection of medics and field hospitals for soldiers wounded on the battlefield. In 1863, Gustave Moynier , a Geneva lawyer and president of the Geneva Society for Public Welfare, received a copy of Dunant's book and introduced it for discussion at a meeting of that society. As a result of this initial discussion,
4512-484: The battlefield. The conference was attended by 36 individuals: eighteen official delegates from national governments, six delegates from non-governmental organizations, seven non-official foreign delegates, and the five members of the International Committee. The states and kingdoms represented by official delegates were: Austrian Empire , Grand Duchy of Baden , Kingdom of Bavaria , French Empire , Kingdom of Hanover , Grand Duchy of Hesse , Kingdom of Italy , Kingdom of
4608-434: The book be suppressed altogether, as it would help persons "agitating on behalf of war criminals". An assessment of the manuscript by MI5 listed how Scotland had detailed repeated breaches of the 1929 Geneva Convention , including instances of prisoners being forced to kneel while being beaten about the head, forced to stand to attention for up to 26 hours, and threatened with execution and "an unnecessary operation". The book
4704-480: The book to leading political and military figures throughout Europe, and people he thought could help him make a change. His book included vivid descriptions of his experiences in Solferino in 1859, and he explicitly advocated the formation of national voluntary relief organizations to help nurse wounded soldiers in the case of war, inspired by Christian teaching regarding social responsibility and his experience after
4800-491: The center of Jerusalem outside a shoe store on the busy main shopping street Jaffa Road . The explosion she caused killed her and Pinhas Tokatli (81), and injured more than 100 others. In the 2000s, the ICRC has been active in the Afghanistan conflict areas and has set up six physical rehabilitation centers to help land mine victims. Their support extends to the national and international armed forces, civilians and
4896-458: The conventions. During the war, the ICRC was unable to obtain an agreement with Nazi Germany about the treatment of detainees in concentration camps , and the ICRC eventually abandoned applying pressure, saying later it did so in order to avoid disrupting its work with POWs. The ICRC was also unable to obtain a response to reliable information about the extermination camps and the mass killing of European Jews, Roma , et al. After November 1943,
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#17327733972184992-600: The end of the war, between 1920 and 1922, the ICRC organized the return of about 500,000 prisoners to their home countries. In 1920, the task of repatriation was handed over to the newly founded League of Nations , which appointed the Norwegian diplomat and scientist Fridtjof Nansen as its "High Commissioner for Repatriation of the War Prisoners". His legal mandate was later extended to support and care for war refugees and displaced persons when his office became that of
5088-412: The end of the war, the Agency had transferred about 20 million letters and messages, 1.9 million parcels, and about 18 million Swiss francs in monetary donations to POWs of all affected countries. Furthermore, due to the intervention of the Agency, about 200,000 prisoners were exchanged between the warring parties, released from captivity and returned to their home country. The organizational card index of
5184-557: The end of the war. Sporrenberg was sentenced to death by a Polish court in Warsaw in 1950 and hanged on 6 December 1952. Other war criminals passing through the London Cage after the war included Sepp Dietrich , an SS general accused of but never prosecuted for the murder of British prisoners in 1940. Alexander Scotland participated in the investigation of the SS and Gestapo men who murdered 50 escaped prisoners from Stalag Luft III in 1944, in
5280-415: The exchange of messages regarding prisoners and missing persons. By the end of the war, 179 delegates had conducted 12,750 visits to POW camps in 41 countries. The Central Information Agency on Prisoners-of-War ( Agence centrale des prisonniers de guerre ) had a staff of 3,000, the card index tracking prisoners contained 45 million cards, and 120 million messages were exchanged by the Agency. One major obstacle
5376-464: The existing two Geneva Conventions were adopted. An additional convention "for the Amelioration of the Condition of Wounded, Sick and Shipwrecked Members of Armed Forces at Sea", now called the second Geneva Convention, was brought under the Geneva Convention umbrella as a successor to the 1907 Hague Convention X . The 1929 Geneva convention "relative to the Treatment of Prisoners of War" may have been
5472-484: The first time legally binding rules guaranteeing neutrality and protection for wounded soldiers, field medical personnel, and specific humanitarian institutions in an armed conflict. Directly following the establishment of the Geneva Convention, the first national societies were founded in Belgium, Denmark, France, Oldenburg , Italy, Prussia, Spain, and Württemberg. Also in 1864, Louis Appia and Charles van de Velde ,
5568-494: The following years, national societies were founded in nearly every country in Europe. The project resonated well with patriotic sentiments that were on the rise in the late-nineteenth-century, and national societies were often encouraged as signifiers of national moral superiority. In 1876, the committee adopted the name "International Committee of the Red Cross" (ICRC), which is still its official designation today. Five years later,
5664-453: The guards who had a somewhat humane feeling advised me not to make any more complaints, otherwise things would turn worse for me. Other prisoners, he alleged, were beaten until they begged to be killed, while some were told that they could be made to disappear. Scotland said in his memoirs that Knöchlein was not interrogated at all at the London Cage because there was sufficient evidence to convict him, and he wanted "no confusing documents with
5760-513: The headquarters for questioning suspected war criminals. Among the German war criminals confined at the London Cage was SS Obersturmbannführer Fritz Knöchlein , who was in charge of the murder of 97 British prisoners who had surrendered at Le Paradis , France, in May 1940. Knöchlein was convicted and hanged in 1949. Alexander Scotland participated in the interrogation of General Kurt Meyer , who
5856-726: The main cause of death and suffering among Turkish soldiers. It was the first Red Crescent society of its kind and one of the most important charity organizations in the Muslim world. In 1867, the first International Conference of National Aid Societies for the Nursing of the War Wounded was convened. Also in 1867, Jean-Henri Dunant was forced to declare bankruptcy due to business failures in Algeria , partly because he had neglected his business interests during his tireless activities for
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#17327733972185952-425: The massacre of fifty Allied prisoners who escaped from Stalag Luft III , the Germans alleged starvation, sleep deprival, "third degree" interrogation methods, and torture by electric shock. Scotland describes these in his memoir as, fantastic allegations [... .] At more than one stage in those fifty days of courtroom wrangling, a stranger to such peculiar affairs might have suspected that the arch-criminal of them all
6048-513: The middle of the nineteenth century, there were no organized or well-established army nursing systems for casualties, nor safe or protected institutions, to accommodate and treat those who were wounded on the battlefield. A devout Calvinist , the Swiss businessman Jean-Henri Dunant traveled to Italy to meet then-French emperor Napoleon III in June 1859 with the intention of discussing difficulties in conducting business in Algeria , which at that time
6144-402: The need for this type of Red Cross work. The total sum raised by these appeals reached 685 million Swiss francs, which were used to bring emergency supplies to the victims of famines in Russia, Germany, and Albania; earthquakes in Chile, Persia , Japan, Colombia, Ecuador, Costa Rica, and Turkey; and refugee flows in Greece and Turkey. The first large-scale disaster mission of the League came after
6240-400: The only international rallying point that still remained. Isolated, like stormy petrels , came the first inquiries for missing relatives; then these inquiries themselves became a storm. The letters arrived in sackfuls. Nothing had been prepared for dealing with such an inundation of misery. The Red Cross had no space, no organization, no system, and above all no helpers. However, by the end of
6336-437: The original Convention was revised and the second Geneva Convention "relative to the Amelioration of the Condition of Wounded, Sick and Shipwrecked Members of Armed Forces at Sea" was established. The events of World War I and the respective activities of the ICRC significantly increased the reputation and authority of the Committee among the international community and led to an extension of its competencies. As early as in 1934,
6432-413: The original intent of his trip and for several days he devoted himself to helping with the treatment and care of the wounded. He took part in organizing an overwhelming level of relief assistance with the local villagers to aid without discrimination. Back at his home in Geneva , he decided to write a book entitled A Memory of Solferino , which he published using his own money in 1862. He sent copies of
6528-419: The prisoners confined there, which included war crimes suspects from the SS and Gestapo held in the facility after the war. The BBC reported that MI-19 staff were sent to the Channel Islands in 1945 to look for evidence of collaboration during the German occupation . The intent may have been to silence speculation. This article related to government in the United Kingdom or its constituent countries
6624-420: The remaining hostages. In 1919, representatives from the national Red Cross societies of Britain, France, Italy, Japan, and the US came together in Paris to found the "League of Red Cross Societies" (IFRC). The original idea came from Henry Davison , who was then president of the American Red Cross . This move, led by the American Red Cross, expanded the international activities of the Red Cross movement beyond
6720-427: The same level as foreign embassies, and simplifies Committee travel in and out of Switzerland. At the end of the Cold War , the ICRC's work became more dangerous. In the 1990s, more delegates died than at any point in its history, especially when working in local and internal armed conflicts. These incidents often demonstrated a lack of respect for the rules of the Geneva Conventions and their protection symbols. Among
6816-411: The second Geneva Convention from a historical point of view (because it was actually formulated in Geneva), but after 1949 it came to be called the third Convention because it came later chronologically than the Hague Convention. Reacting to the experience of World War II, the Fourth Geneva Convention , a new Convention "relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War", was established. Also,
6912-402: The sick, and elderly. The ICRC urgently called on all parties to the conflict not to forget their obligations under international humanitarian law to ensure the protection of the civilian population and infrastructure, and respect the dignity of refugees and prisoners of war . In response to events in the conflict, the organisation issued rule of engagement for civilian hackers . Prior to
7008-479: The situation at the Geneva headquarters of the ICRC: Hardly had the first blows been struck when cries of anguish from all lands began to be heard in Switzerland. Thousands who were without news of fathers, husbands, and sons in the battlefields, stretched despairing arms into the void. By hundreds, by thousands, by tens of thousands, letters and telegrams poured into the little House of the Red Cross in Geneva,
7104-471: The slain delegates were: On 27 January 2002, Palestinian Red Crescent volunteer paramedic and suicide bomber Wafa Idris was transported to Jerusalem, Israel, by a Red Crescent ambulance, whose driver was part of the plot, and killed herself while committing the Jaffa Street bombing . Idris, wearing a Red Crescent uniform, detonated a 22-pound (10 kilogram) bomb made up of TNT packed into pipes, in
7200-450: The society established an investigatory commission to examine the feasibility of Dunant's suggestions and eventually to organize an international conference about their possible implementation. The members of this committee, which has subsequently been referred to as the "Committee of the Five", aside from Dunant and Moynier were physician Louis Appia , who had significant experience working as
7296-469: The strict mission of the ICRC to include relief assistance in response to emergency situations which were not caused by war (such as man-made or natural disasters). The ARC already had great disaster relief mission experience extending back to its foundation. The formation of the League, as an additional international Red Cross organization alongside the ICRC, was not without controversy for a number of reasons. The ICRC had, to some extent, valid concerns about
7392-426: The subject of significant controversy and criticism. As early as May 1944, the ICRC was criticized for its indifference to Jewish suffering and death—criticism that intensified after the end of the war, when the full extent of the Holocaust became undeniable. One defense to these allegations is that the Red Cross was trying to preserve its reputation as a neutral and impartial organization by not interfering with what
7488-632: The team of the ICRC started a multi-day operation to facilitate the release and transfer of hostages held in Gaza and of Palestinian prisoners to the West Bank. In early December, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken insisted that the Red Cross delegation must have access to the remaining hostages. The ICRC is not a negotiating power but the ICRC chief had direct talks with senior Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Qatar in November, demanding direct access to
7584-472: The toughest creatures of the Hitler regime. While denying "sadism", Scotland said things were done that were "mentally just as cruel". One "cheeky and obstinate" prisoner, he said, was forced to strip naked and exercise. This "deflated him completely" and he began to talk. Prisoners were sometimes forced to stand "round the clock", and "if a prisoner wanted to pee he had to do it there and then, in his clothes. It
7680-539: The world, including the United States and Japan, came to support the medical services of the armed forces of the European countries involved in the war. On 15 August 1914, immediately after the start of the war, the ICRC set up its International Prisoners-of-War Agency (IPWA) to trace POWs and to re-establish communications with their respective families. The Austrian writer and pacifist Stefan Zweig described
7776-734: The year, the Agency already had some 1,200 volunteers who worked in the Musée Rath of Geneva, amongst them the French writer and pacifist Romain Rolland . When he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature for 1915, he donated half of the prize money to the Agency. Most of the staff were women, some of whom – like Marguerite van Berchem , Marguerite Cramer and Suzanne Ferrière – served in high positions as pioneers of gender equality in an organisation dominated by men. By
7872-427: Was a British Army intelligence officer known as Colonel Alexander Scotland. Scotland denied the allegations at the trial. In London Cage he says he was, greatly troubled [...] by the constant focus on our supposed shortcomings at The Cage, for it seemed to me that these manufactured tales of cruelty toward our German prisoners were fast becoming the chief item of news, while the brutal fate of those fifty RAF officers
7968-429: Was accused of participating in a massacre of Canadian troops . Meyer was eventually sentenced to death, although the sentence was not carried out. Scotland observed that Meyer received milder treatment after news of the atrocity had grown "cold". SS and police leader Jakob Sporrenberg was interrogated at the cage after the war, which helped to establish his responsibility for the deaths of 46,000 Jews in Poland toward
8064-596: Was awarded in 1901, the Norwegian Nobel Committee opted to give it jointly to Jean-Henri Dunant and Frédéric Passy , a leading international pacifist . More significant than the honor of the prize itself, this prize marked the overdue rehabilitation of Jean-Henri Dunant and represented a tribute to his key role in the formation of the Red Cross. Dunant died nine years later in the small Swiss health resort of Heiden . Only two months earlier his long-standing adversary Gustave Moynier had also died, leaving
8160-402: Was doused in cold water, pushed down stairs, and beaten. He claimed he was forced to stand beside a hot gas stove before being showered with cold water. He claimed that he and another prisoner were forced to run in circles while carrying heavy logs. Knöchlein wrote, Since these tortures were the consequences of my personal complaint, any further complaint would have been senseless. [...] One of
8256-648: Was dropped. In 1944, the ICRC received its second Nobel Peace Prize. As in World War I, it received the only Peace Prize awarded during the main period of war, 1939 to 1945. At the end of the war, the ICRC worked with national Red Cross societies to organize relief assistance to those countries most severely affected. In 1948, the Committee published a report reviewing its war-era activities from 1 September 1939 to 30 June 1947. The ICRC opened its archives from World War II in 1996. On 12 August 1949, further revisions to
8352-621: Was established in 1940 in each command area of the United Kingdom, manned by officers trained by Alexander Scotland , the head of the Prisoner of War Interrogation Section (PWIS) of the Intelligence Corps (Field Security Police) . The prisoners were sent to prison camps after their interrogation at the cages. Nine cages were established from southern England to Scotland, with the London Cage also being "an important transit camp". The cages varied in facilities. The Doncaster Cage used
8448-425: Was eventually published in 1957 after a seven-year delay, and after all incriminating material had been redacted. In London Cage , Scotland claimed that confessions were obtained by seizing upon discrepancies in the accounts of prisoners, and stated: We were not so foolish as to imagine that petty violence, nor even violence of a stronger character, was likely to produce the results hoped for in dealing with some of
8544-540: Was in danger of becoming old history. 51°30′31″N 0°11′29″W / 51.5087°N 0.1914°W / 51.5087; -0.1914 MI19 It was originally created in December 1940 as MI9a, a sub-section of MI9 . A year later, in December 1941, it became an independent organisation, though still closely associated with its parent. MI19 had Combined Services Detailed Interrogation Centres (CSDIC) at Beaconsfield , Wilton Park, and Latimer, as well as
8640-575: Was occupied by France . He arrived in the small town of Solferino on the evening of 24 June after the Battle of Solferino , an engagement in the Austro-Sardinian War . In a single day, about 40,000 soldiers on both sides died or were left wounded on the field. Dunant was shocked by the terrible aftermath of the battle, the suffering of the wounded soldiers, and the near-total lack of medical attendance and basic care. He completely abandoned
8736-703: Was provided by soldiers from the Guards regiments selected "for their height rather than their brains." Many of the British NCOs were fluent in German, and were skilled in persuading prisoners to reveal information. Some wore Soviet uniforms due to the Germans' fear of the Russians. After the war, the PWIS became known as the War Crimes Investigation Unit (WCIU), and the London Cage became
8832-671: Was sent to Berlin as a delegate of the International Red Cross; he visited Theresienstadt Ghetto in 1944. The choice of the inexperienced Rossel for this mission has been interpreted as indicative of his organization's indifference to the "Jewish problem", while his report has been described as "emblematic of the failure of the ICRC" to advocate for Jews during the Holocaust. Rossel's report was noted for its uncritical acceptance of Nazi propaganda . He erroneously stated that Jews were not deported from Theresienstadt. Claude Lanzmann recorded his experiences in 1979, producing
8928-480: Was seriously affected by numerous aerial attacks on medical facilities and ambulances. The ICRC said in November that civilians have "overwhelmingly borne the brunt" civilians the fighting in the Palestinian enclave and Israel so far. Israeli forces have killed over 25,000 people, including civilians, Israeli nationals, and Hamas members in a devastating bombing campaign and ground offensive. In late November,
9024-400: Was surprisingly effective." Scotland refused to allow Red Cross inspections at the London Cage, on the grounds that the prisoners there were either civilians or "criminals within the armed services." In September 1940, Guy Liddell , director of MI5's counterintelligence B Division, said that he had been told by an officer present at the interrogation that Scotland had punched the jaw of
9120-460: Was that the Nazi -controlled German Red Cross refused to cooperate with the Geneva statutes, including blatant violations such as the deportation of Jews from Germany, and the mass murders conducted in the Nazi concentration camps . Two other main parties to the conflict, the Soviet Union and Japan, were not party to the 1929 Geneva Conventions and were not legally required to follow the rules of
9216-534: Was viewed as a German internal matter. The Red Cross also considered its primary focus to be prisoners of war whose countries had signed the Geneva Convention . The Geneva Conventions in their 1929 revision formed the legal basis of the work of the ICRC during World War II. The activities of the committee were similar to those during World War I: visiting and monitoring POW camps , organizing relief assistance for civilian populations , and administering
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