Missing: The Fate of the Nazi Concentration Camp Archives

 

Posted On: May 12, 2015

Don’t miss the final Holocaust Living History Workshop (HLHW) of the 2014-2015 academic year on Wednesday, June 3, 2015 in the Seuss Room of the Geisel Library from 5:00 – 7:00 p.m.
The workshop, The Fate of the Nazi Concentration Camp Archives, will feature J.J. Surbeck, a Swiss-educated attorney who served 16 years with the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).
The ICRC was founded in 1863 as a private Swiss organization, striving to ensure protection and assistance for victims of armed conflict and help reunite POWs and uprooted civilians with their families. In 1864, it persuaded governments to adopt the first Geneva Convention, the treaty that required armies to care for wounded soldiers, whatever side they were on.
With the Nazi conquest of most of Europe resulting in the displacement of millions of individuals, the British Red Cross and the ICRC began working together to trace victims of incarceration, forced labor, and relocation in 1943. This effort eventually led to the establishment of the
International Tracing Service (ITS), which is now a massive archive in Bad Arolsen, Germany containing 30 million records on the survivors and victims of the Nazi concentration camps.
Surbeck will discuss the inter-workings and history of the ICRC and the role it played in WWII. This event is free and open to the public. No reservation necessary. Refreshments will be served.
For more information about the HLHW, which is sponsored by the UC San Diego Library and Judaic Studies Program, please contact Susanne Hillman at hlhw@ucsd.edu or 858-534-7661.