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prisoners of war, should be revised; and second, that
a new convention should be drafted with directions
for the treatment of civilian populations in wartime.
During the First and Second World Wars there
were no conventions regulating the treatment of
civilian internees. In consequence of this, neither the
International Committee, nor other neutral
organizations have had any control whatsoever over
concentration camps. If the drafted proposal is accepted by
the International Red Cross Conference in Stockholm
in 1948, it will mean that all civilian internees will
have the same status as prisoners of war have had
hitherto. Of course, this proposal will also have to
be approved by a diplomatic conference and finally
ratified by the respective governments. This would
make it the wartime duty of every country to send
lists of names to the large center of the International
Committee of the Red Cross in Geneva, and to
permit neutral representatives to inspect the camps.
Furthermore, the internees should have the
opportunity to correspond at certain intervals with their
families at home and be permitted to receive food
parcels from home. It is evident how extraordinarily
important these regulations would be in the event
of another war.
On a short visit to Germany, a few months later,
I realized how pressing were the above mentioned
problems of reform. I happened to get some idea of
existing conditions in English and American
internment camps. A German who had lived in Sweden for
a long time, and who had enjoyed the confidence ot
the Allies during the war, looked me up in Hamburg
and told me about the conditions, which, in his
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