German Red Cross; Deutsches Rotes Kreuz

After Hitler’s appointment as Chancellor in January 1933, the Nazi Party began to reshape the private charity sector. By July 1933, the “Deutsches Rotes Kreuz,” or DRK, was one of only four non-state aid organizations left in Germany. Its president, Charles Edward, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, was a member of the Nazi Party. In December 1937, the DRK became a unit of the Nazi Party and, by 1938, it was a Social Work Organization within the Ministry of the Interior. The DRK had no relationship with the International Red Cross. It mainly functioned as an aid organization aimed at helping German soldiers in the field and operating recovery hospitals. In 1943, members of the DRK visited the Theresienstadt ghetto. During that visit, the DRK confirmed the delivery of Red Cross supplies and secured permission from the SS that overflows would be sent to other camps, especially to the Auschwitz concentration camp. The DRK was disbanded after the war in 1945.

For more information, please see: Seithe, Horst. Das Deutsche Rote Kreuz im Dritten Reich (1933-1939): Mit einem Abriss seiner Geschichte in der Weimarer Republik. Mabuse-Verlag Wissenschaft 2001.