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The American Red Cross Holocaust and War Victims Tracing Center hopes to resolve an additional 17,000 requests in the next three years. |
| Shilpika Das |
The Baltimore-based tracing center has been working on behalf of Holocaust survivors since 1990 and has conducted more than 40,000 searches for family members sent to concentration and forced labor camps during the Holocaust or separated from their loved ones during the aftermath of the war. Linda Klein, director of the tracing center, estimates that more than 14,000 requests have been resolved so far and more than 1,300 people have been reunited with their relatives.
A Valuable Resource
These number are sure to increase with the world's largest archive of war records in Bad Arolsen, Germany, recently opening its doors to the public. It will share digitized copies of documents – containing details of more than 17 million people who went through the concentration camp – with the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum and other institutions around the globe.
 | | The International Tracing Service, in Bad Arolsen, Germany, is the single largest repository of original Nazi documents in the world. (<) |
"This has resulted in an extraordinary number of new requests to our Baltimore Tracing Center because it is currently the only agency in the United States with complete access to these valuable records – even those not yet digitized" says Klein. "This means that aging survivors need the services of the Holocaust and War Victims Tracing Center right now."
Lending a hand
Boosting the efforts of tracing specialists and volunteers working to provide closure to Holocaust survivors is a $75,000 grant, gifted by the Joseph and Harvey Meyerhoff Family Charitable Funds. "We appreciate this important work the American Red Cross is doing and it is a pleasure for us to be among your supporters," says Terry M. Rubenstein, executive vice president, in a letter to the Tracing Center.
The grant will go a long way in supporting the efforts of the center's capital campaign. "With additional funds for the staff needed, we can, over the next three years resolve over 17,000 searches for survivors who have already asked for help and others who may come forward," says Melanie Sabelhaus, member of the American Red Cross Board of Governors and Chairperson of the Philanthropy Committee who helped secure the grant.
Finding solace with answers
More than 60 years after World War II, many in the shrinking survivor community are still looking for answers. Tracing specialists are doubling their efforts, helping aging survivors find the peace that truth can bring – even if it means delivering sad news.
"When someone's family is suddenly taken away with no resolution, it causes the most extreme pain," says Klein. "To actually find someone alive and reunite them with family is a miracle we all treasure."
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