A West German television journalist has accused the International Red Cross of doing little during World War II to help Jews in concentration camps, and of facilitating, as a result of negligence, the escape of Nazi war criminals after World War II.
The charges were leveled by Heiner Lichtenstein, correspondent for a West German television network, who is also author of a book attacking the Red Cross. His allegations were published Monday in La Suisse and La Tribune de Geneve.
Asked to respond, Fritz Steinman, spokesman for the Geneva-based International Committee of the Red Cross, defended the humanitarian agency’s conduct during and after the war.
“If three war criminals did get away, hundreds of thousands of innocent war victims got documents from the ICRC which saved their lives,” Steinman said.
He said Geneva University historian Jean-Claud Favez will publish a book this fall about the ICRC’s work on behalf of war prisoners. He said the ICRC opened its secret archives to him, which it has never done before.
In his book, Lichtenstein charged that although it has claimed otherwise, the ICRC in Geneva was well aware of Nazi atrocities during the war. He said rumors were circulating in 1941 of genocide in Nazi death camps, but the Red Cross “closed their eyes.”
Lichtenstein also charged that in 1945 when it was possible to help concentration camp inmates, the ICRC neglected Jewish prisoners from Poland or Germany in favor of those from the Allied nations.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
