The Red Cross’s greatest challenge – and failure – came during the Second World War. None of the then three Geneva Conventions (the fourth was added in 1949) was designed to deal with mass incarceration and murder of civilians, and the Red Cross failed to adapt its policies and procedures to the reality of concentration camps. Another problem was the relationship between the Red Cross and Switzerland, both officially neutral. The former feared that any intervention in Germany would be seen as taking sides, so embarrassing its host nation, and undermine the organisation’s work, limited as it
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