7 - ICRC Relations with Bern

Summary

While the last chapter examines primarily the interplay between the ICRC and the RC Movement, this chapter examines ICRC links with the Swiss federal authorities in Bern. The chapter shows that historically relations have been very close, with early ICRC leaders failing to recognize that their humanitarian neutrality was different, or should be different, from Swiss political neutrality as directed by Bern. This failure accounts for a big reason, but not the only reason, why the ICRC compiled a defective record in responding to the Holocaust in the Nazi era. But the problem of too much Swiss nationalism, and lack of independence, in ICRC policymaking was evident before then, as in dealing with Mussolini.