Československý červený kříž, Londýn

In November 1939, the activities of the Czechoslovak Red Cross (hereafter CSRC) were effectively stopped in the Protectorate. It was brought to the attention of the Board of the Society that the CSRC had to be incorporated into the German Red Cross. The society was officially dissolved in August 1940. The Czechoslovak government in London decided to establish the CSČK in Great Britain on 30 August 1940. The CSRC Abroad was founded on 1 September 1940 and was a direct successor to the Czechoslovak Home Society and the Czechoslovak Aid Association, which had been founded at the beginning of the war to care for Czechoslovak soldiers and refugees. Its activities were under the control of the Ministry of National Defence and the Ministry of Social Welfare. Outside Great Britain it was handled by individual delegations. According to a government resolution of 4 April 1945, the health and social care of Czechoslovak refugees in all countries was entrusted to Czechoslovak repatriation missions and embassies. During May-July 1945, the agenda of the CSRC headquarters in London was gradually liquidated and the headquarters staff, warehouses and fonds were transferred to Prague. The fonds documents the activities of the CSCC abroad from its founding in 1940 until its gradual liquidation and transfer of activities to the domestic organization. It contains, among other things, materials relating to the assistance to prisoners in Nazi concentration camps and labour camps in Czechoslovakia, Poland and Germany. For more details see: inv.no. 193 - lists of Czechoslovak Jews interned in the Edersgrün camp near Karlovy Vary, in Terezín, Slovakia and Poland; inv.no. 208 - assistance to Czechoslovak refugees in Sweden - list of Czechoslovak Jews; inv.no. 401 - search for Czechoslovak members of the Jewish religion - correspondence, requests.