The Dutch Red Cross has set up an independent committee to look into the organisation’s actions during World War II, particularly its failure to help Dutch Jews in concentration camps.

The organisation also sacked Jewish staff and stopped Jews from giving blood, in line with the dictates of the Nazi regime.
News of the probe was given by director Cees Breederveld in weekly magazine Nieuw Israelitisch Weekblad. ‘The Red Cross failed in a terrible way to live up to its constitution,’ Breederveld told the NIW. ‘It is impossible to understand why the Dutch Red Cross allowed itself to be dictated to by the government … and did not dare to say it disagreed.’
It is not yet clear who will carry out the investigation, which should be completed within five years, when the Red Cross will be 150 years old.