The International Red Cross: Lending a Helping Hand or Turning a Blind Eye?

Throughout WWII, the International Red Cross (IRC) basically looked the other way when it came to Nazis persecuting Jews. From Septermber 1939 until June 22, 1941, while the International Red Cross was supposed to be delivering aid (such as food packages) to those who were under control of the Nazis, the Germans convinced the International Red Cross that the people in the ghettos and camps “constituted a threat to the security of the Reich, and therefore, were not allowed to receive aid from the International Red Cross.” From June 22, 1941 until the summer of 1944, Jewish organizations pleaded to the International Red Cross for help, but the International Red Cross still declined their request for help. The International Red Cross refused to intervene. Had the International Red Cross spoken out again the Nazis and brought aid to those in camps, they would have been marked “detrimental” to society, and most likely, would have been shut down by the Nazis. However, in the International Red Cross’s defense, they did try and send secret food packages to those being persecuted by the Nazis, whose addresses they did have. Also, some camps and ghettos, such as Ghetto Thereseinstadt, even went through all the trouble of setting up decoys to try and get the International Red Cross to believe that everything there was fine. They set up playgrounds, music rooms, and many other things. When the International Red Cross came to inspect the camps and check around, the Nazi soldiers told them that everything was fine and showed them the kids playing on playgrounds and how they just built a music room for enjoyment; when, in reality, the Nazis were slaughtering the people in this camp by hundreds.
In order to make the “beautification” seem convincing, the Nazis built cafés, banks, playgrounds, and second-hand clothing stores. The Nazis worked extremely hard to make sure that every detail of their racist annihilation of the Jews was covered up with something pleasant and humane for when the members of the International Red Cross came to inspect the ghetto. The Nazis thought they did such an outstanding job, however, they even made a movie about it. They called it, “Der Führer schenkt den Juden eine Stadt,” or “The Leader give the Jews a town as a gift.” This just shows the sheer audacity of the Nazis and how confident they were that they would never be found out for the mass killing of the Jews. The last step of the “beautification” of Thereseinstadt was to get rid of the overcrowding in that ghetto so that the International Red Cross wouldn’t realize that there actually were inhumane and horrible for the Jews. So, in order to have a smaller population of inmates, the Nazis sent seven transports of Jews, or 17,517, to be put to death at Auschwitz. From these seven transports, the Czech Jews were sent to a “family camp” at Auschwitz II, called Birkenau. Birkenau was different from Auschwitz because the prisoners were allowed to wear normal clothes, live with their families, and send letters back to the prisoners at Thereseinstadt. The inmates at Auschwitz, however, had to wear blue and grey striped prison uniforms, they lived alone in fenced off areas, and they were treated extremely horribly. During the inspection at Thereseinstadt, the Nazis had an orchestra play classical music for the International Red Cross inspectors, while at the very same moment on a different side of the ghetto, prisoners were being marched into the gas chambers.
Although Thereseinstadt passed the inspection of the International Red Cross due to the foolery and disguising done by the Nazi guards, the International Red Cross does not have an excuse for passing inspection on any other camp they investigated. No other camp even tried to hide the cruel and grotesque things they did to the Jews. One of the most infamous concentration camps, Buchenwald, made lamp shades out of the skin of its prisoners. This is one of many reasons why the International Red Cross should take partial, if not full, responsibility for letting the concentration camps get away with what they did. The International Red Cross may have been fooled at Thereseinstadt, but there is no reason for why they let the dozens of other camps get away with the dehumanization, exploitation, and pure annihilation of the Jews in the concentration camps.