Follow Us on Google
Thousands of families in Germany are still looking to find out about their missing relatives from World War II, a study conducted by the German Red Cross (DRK) has found.
“The end of World War II is now 74 years ago, but the interest of German families to learn about the fate of their missing relatives is still incredibly high,’’ DRK President, Gerda Hasselfeldt, said on Thursday.
The study found that between January and July this year, 4,778 such requests were filed by German families at the Red Cross’ service for people looking for lost family members.
In 2018, the DRK registered 8,939 such requests.
Hasselfeldt said the Red Cross estimates that by the end of this year, there will be 9,000 more requests.
The DRK’s search service was able to locate the missing relatives in only one-fourth of all cases, where they could at the very least provide the place and date of the individual’s death.
“Many people in an older generation want to have clarity at the end of their lives, to know what really happened to their father or siblings,’’ Hasselfeldt said.
Other News
World War II claimed at least 55 million lives in Europe and Asia, many of which were civilians.
With more than 26 million dead, the Soviet Union suffered some of the biggest losses.
Germany counted around 6.3 million dead, of which 5.2 million were soldiers.
In addition, the Nazis murdered six million Jews during the war.
The German Red Cross also has requests relating to the present.
In 2018, there were around 2,300 requests from refugees, who were looking for lost relatives. (dpa/NAN)
