Britain and the International Committee of the Red Cross, 1939–1945

Any person who does any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages. James Crossland's work explores the tumultuous relationship that existed during the Second World War between a neutral, impartial humanitarian organization -- the International Committee of the Red Cross -- and the British government, one of the conflict's key belligerents. Unlike the Red Cross, whose mandate was to provide immediate succour to any and all war victims wherever they were found, Britain's wartime humanitarian policy was that victory would have to come before relief - unfettered humanitarian action within Hitler's domain would have to wait for the arrival of Allied troops on European shores. Tracing the struggle of the International Committee of the Red Cross to work within the confines of this policy, this book tells the untold story of one of the more unusual battles of the Second World War: the battle fought within the corridors of power in Whitehall and Geneva and the camps of the Third Reich and the Far East between Swiss humanitarians and British war-makers Front Matter....Pages i-xiv Introduction....Pages 1-12 Front Matter....Pages 13-13 Britain and the Red Cross, 1864–1929....Pages 15-36 Grandeur, Tribulation, Apocalypse, 1919–40....Pages 37-53 Front Matter....Pages 55-55 Prisoners and Parcels, 1940–1....Pages 57-81 Dependence and Divergence, 1941–2....Pages 82-103 Civilians and Ships, 1940–3....Pages 104-130 Prestige and Credibility, 1942–3....Pages 131-156 Humanity and Götterdämmerung, 1944–5....Pages 157-179 Relief and Redundancy, 1945–6....Pages 180-195 Conclusion....Pages 196-207 Back Matter....Pages 208-269 James Crossland's work traces the history of the International Committee of the Red Cross' struggle to bring humanitarianism to the Second World War, by focusing on its tumultuous relationship with one of the conflict's key belligerents and masters of the blockade of the Third Reich, Great Britain. "Traces the history of the International Committee of the Red Cross' struggle to bring humanitarianism to the Second World War, by focusing on its tumultuous relationship with one of the conflict's key belligerents and masters of the blockade of the Third Reich, Great Britain."--Publishers website