On this day, 140 years ago, Clara Barton is said to have established the American Red Cross in Dansville, New York [Barton…held its first official meeting at her I Street apartment in Washington, DC, May 21, 1881.]. Barton’s inspiration for starting an American chapter came after her first-hand experience working with the International Red Cross in Geneva, Switzerland during the Franco-Prussian War.
Neutrality can be useful during war. Switzerland, although a neutral nation during World War I, played a significant role in the nursing and treatment of soldiers serving both sides. With the agreement of the warring parties and assistance by the Red Cross, sick and wounded soldiers were transferred to the Swiss mountain villages to recover. Many of the soldiers were brought to Switzerland because of a shortage of nurses in POW camps. It also had a mutually beneficial effect: the war devastated the tourism industry, so countries paid hotels to house the soldiers as a means of keeping the hospitality business alive.
The article above, featured in the May 21, 1915 Perth Amboy Evening News., shows hundreds of Red Cross and prisoners of war agency volunteers preparing supplies, handling records and correspondence from war captives, and answering inquiries about missing persons. The International Agency for Prisoners of War was founded in Geneva by Edouard Audeoud. The movement continued to expand: in the beginning of 1915, there were 800 volunteers; there were 1400 volunteers by the time this article was published.
(Contributed by Kristi Chanda)
Source:
Foulkes, Imogen. “Switzerland’s Forgotten Role in Saving World War One Lives.” BBC News, BBC, 30 May 2016, www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-36391241#:~:text=Between%201916%20and%201918%2C%20Switzerland,to%20sit%20out%20the%20war.