Humanitarian Initiatives on the Territory of the German Empire during the First World War (on the Examples of Treatment of the Russian Civilians)

Abstract

The article presents the variety of the humanitarian aid to the Russian enemy aliens in Germany during the First World War. Compositional the author distinguishes three categories of enemy aliens: Russian subjects detained at the beginning of the war, who returned to Russia after some months; confined persons, which means detained, deported and restricted male, who stayed in Germany until the end of the war; internees, who were kept in German camps. Officially, the interests of all Russian enemy aliens were represented by the Spanish Embassy. In addition to the support of the Embassy of Spain, three areas of humanitarian assistance to Russian enemy aliens could be specificated: support from the local population and professional communities, humanitarian initiatives of the International and National Committees of the Red Cross and also actions of other philanthropic institutions. The author describes special aspects of the humanitarian aid to each category of enemy aliens. So the first category receive help from the German professional associations, international and national committees of the Red Cross. It was noted that the support of confined persons is some of the most unknown part: they received help mostly from the professional communities and the local population. The help of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), national Red Cross committees from the neutral states, Young Men's Christian Association (YMCA) is applicable to the interned captive civilians. Initiatives by prince Max von Baden also took their part in supporting the internees. The article also shows the support by the English and American internees, who shared their parcels with Russian captive civilians, discovers the humanitarian actions of the Relief Committees in the internment camps. The author highlights that the perception of humanitarian aid by citizens and governments were often in conflict.