Red Cross Provides Important Communications Link for Separated Families

Using the vast resources of the International Committee of the Red Cross and the Red Cross network, we connect families separated by war, civil disturbance, natural disasters or changing world conditions. The Red Cross sends messages, assists in emigration, issues travel documents, provides casework services and obtains information on the health and welfare of close relatives.

ARC/GNY’s Project Search Tracing program helps thousands of people still searching for what happened to relatives lost during the Holocaust. The search can reveal the date of a family member's death, provide certification for reparations and/or pensions to civilian survivors and, in some special cases, can even reunite family members separated during World War II.

Niece United with Uncle She Never Knew

Recently, the Red Cross helped Joseph Kupiec find his niece, Jan, who was separated from the rest of Joseph’s sister's family in Germany in 1956 at the age of nine.  Joseph had come to the U.S. shortly after the war and was reunited with his sister, and her husband and three daughters, in 1958 by the Red Cross. 

Joseph and his sister, both Polish Catholics, had been seized by the Germans to do forced labor during WWII.  One of his sister’s children, Jan, was born at the end of the war and the families were separated in the postwar confusion. No one ever knew what happened to the little girl.  At the time of Joseph’s sister’s death in 1998, one of her daughter's discovered the passport, baptismal record and birth certificate of the missing Jan. 

Joseph contacted the Red Cross and we initiated a search for Jan. We were able to locate her and she was recently united with her aunt, uncle and many other family members.  Later, Jan called the Red Cross to say that she felt like royalty after meeting her new family members and was thankful for our help.

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