January 9, 2017 • 28 mins
After witnessing the brutality of a battle first-hand, Swiss-born Dunant dedicated his life to easing the suffering brought by war. But he did so at great cost to his personal life.
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to steph you missed in history class from how
Stuff Works dot Com. Hello, and welcome to the podcast.
I'm Holly Friday and I'm tray Phebe Wilson. UH. Today
we're gonna talk about a man who had some serious
ups and downs in his life, but whose legacy is
(00:22):
really quite immense. Uh. He was a humanitarian almost from birth,
and his life's biggest accomplishment was founding the International Red Cross. UH.
And his name was Alri Donald. And a quick note
on Ari spelled h E n R I in the
classic French way, versus spelled more of the Americanized way,
(00:43):
like Henry with a Y at the end. UH. Everything
I've heard pronunciation wise, says Ari French way. But it
seems that if you look at the written mentions of him,
they favor the Y way. So we will use the
y spelling in the episode title, but we will be
pronouncing it the French way, not to be confusing at all. Correct.
(01:05):
And his his original name was actually hyphenated, and I
have seen that written both with the y. He was
originally Jean Jean Enri, and I've seen that written both
with the Y and the eye. So I don't know
if that's just like because he is a famous person
throughout the world, people have for some reason adopted the
the English speaking world's version of it, because that even
(01:28):
shows up in other foreign languages like foreign language, you know,
articles about him. I'm not sure why that is the case,
but in any case, we're writing it with the using
the French pronunciation right out of the gate, just to
confuse you. Jeen Enri do Not was born in Geneva, Switzerland,
(01:48):
on May eight, into a wealthy family, and he was
the first of five children. His siblings were Sophie and
born in nine Daniel born in eighteen thirty one and
Marie born in eighteen thirty three, and Pierre Louis born
in eighteen thirty four. And as Calvinist parents, Antoinette and
Jean Jacques Dounont were deeply religious, and they were also
(02:11):
deeply dedicated to humanitarian causes into bettering their community. So,
for example, when Alri was eight, his father took him
to visit prisons in Marseilles and Toulon so that his
son might see the suffering there, and he frequently accompanied
his mother as well on regular visits that she made
to the ailing and the poor to offer aid. As
(02:33):
a young man, he was active in both religious and
charitable causes, and he was a member of a group
that offered both religious and material comforts to the poor
called Legal League of Alms. He participated in a popular
movement to unite Christians and Jews, and he regularly visited
city prisons to participate in the reformation of incarcerated people there.
(02:55):
And in his twenties, Alri began serving full time as
a member of the Young Men's Christian Association. That is right,
that's the y m c A, which was actually founded
in Geneva, Switzerland, although it went by a couple of
different names. Uh Donal's work with the y m c
A required that he traveled a great deal as a
young man in Holland, France and Belgium. In terms of
(03:16):
his career do not. Began his professional life in eighteen
forty nine as a banking apprentice after he left secondary
school because he wasn't really doing very well there. Four
years later, in eighteen fifty three, he was promoted to
a management position of the Campani Genevois de Colony Swiss
de Citief. This was a Swiss settlement company headquartered in
(03:38):
algiers that set up that established colonies by setting up
villages and farms and enticing colonists to move there in
form communities. He worked in Sicily and North Africa during
this time, and after four years of work with this
settlement firm, he actually wrote a book about his observations
as a traveler in North Africa titled Notice Juni or
(04:00):
An Account of the Tunisian Regency, and it included a
chapter that was titled Slavery among the Mohammedans and in
the United States of America, and that particular chapter would
later be republished as a standalone document. Do Not next
moved into a new position. He created a new company,
financial and Industrial Company of Monageer Miller Mills, and named
(04:21):
himself as its president. This company, like his previous job,
was focused on settlements in Algeria. Do Not started work
on a wheat mill there, but needed to obtain water
rights if he was going to be able to successfully
develop The large land parcel at the mill was part
of his Initial efforts to obtain the proper paperwork were fruitless. Clearly,
(04:42):
unafraid of making any bold moves, he decided to go
directly to Napoleon the third with his request, and at
this point in time, Napoleon the Third was in the
midst of commanding the French armies who were fighting alongside
Italian soldiers against Austria in an effort to drive Austria's
true from Italy. So Donaut headed to the French leader's
(05:03):
military headquarters that he had set up near Solfarino, Italy.
And it was because of this desire to plead his
case for water rights that on eighteen fifty nine, when
he was thirty one years old, do not witness the
Battle of Sulfarino, which has been called one of the
bloodiest battles of the nineteenth century. And seeing that battle
(05:23):
play out, claiming so many lives and leaving so many wounded,
Dona was inspired to action. As the number of medical
emergencies quickly outpaced the military staff on hand's ability to
handle them, don created an emergency aid service to assist
wounded Austrian and French soldiers. Local women serving his nurses
to the injured adopted a slogan for this impromptu relief group,
(05:47):
Tucti Fratelli, meaning all Brothers. His time in Sulfarino completely
shifted Donat's focus his business affairs at that point became
secondary to his desire to address the issue of suffering
in wars. Several years after the battle, in eighteen sixty two,
he published a book about the battle and his work
in the aftermath, in a memoir called Souvenir de Soferino.
(06:12):
He had been working on this book since eighteen sixty
and in it he writes about three things. First, he
describes the battle itself and pretty graphic detail. Second, he
describes the aftermath of the battle and how horrifying it was,
and how the wounded were cared for in the nearby
towns of us of Castiglione, as well as an other
small villages. And one thing that stands out in this
(06:35):
section is the sheer numbers of wounded that townspeople were
scrambling to assist. Do Not wrote in his book that
the town of Brescia, which had a population of forty thousand,
took in thirty thousand wounded, converting almost every available building
into makeshift hospitals. This is, not, however, entirely accurate, and
in current reprints of his book they usually notate this.
(06:59):
Later ounts actually put the wounded just under twenty men,
but that's still a rather incredible number, and in that
particular area there were only a hundred and forty doctors
to manage all of those injured people. In that third section,
he makes the case for all countries to have voluntary
relief societies and to provide assistance and when possible, to
(07:20):
prevent suffering during both wartime and times of peace, and
that these societies should dispense with aid without any concern
for creed or race, and his idea suggested a governing
board for each nation's separate relief society that would be
made up of the nation's leaders. And he also stressed
the need for volunteerism to be promoted as something everyone
(07:41):
should participate in and the need to establish training systems
so that every volunteer would have the knowledge to care
for wounded both on the battlefield and after they were
removed from the active battlefield, right through to their recovery.
In addition to making the case for assistant societies, on
You Do Not, also proposed the concept of an international
(08:03):
agreement regarding how people who were wounded during a war
should be treated. And next up, we're gonna discuss how
Donal's writing catalyzed almost immediate action, but first we will
pause for a little sponsor break. So, in response to
(08:24):
the writing that Junal had done about his time at Sulfarino,
the Geneva Society for Public Welfare established a five man
committee on February seven, eighteen sixty three, to make a
dedicated effort to investigate the possibility of making Donal's ideas
a reality and do not what we should mention was
on that five man committee he served as secretary. Also
(08:46):
included where Guillaume Ali Dufu, who was a Swiss general
and topographer who presided over the committee, Gustav Mounier, a
Swiss legal theorist and philanthropist. Dr Louis Appia, a surgeon
specializing in mility, Harry Medicine, and Dr Teodor Monnoir, also
a surgeon. This committee decided that the best plan of
(09:06):
action was to assemble an international conference to make concrete
plans for AID and for the next several months, do
Not on his own dime, visited numerous governments, primarily in Europe,
with the goal of obtaining of obtaining promises of participation
for each of them. Yeah, it's worth noting again that
he was paying for his own travel because money is
(09:27):
going to come up later. Uh So, just a year
after the publication of his book, do Not, as part
of the group assembled by the Geneva Society for Public Welfare,
founded the International Committee for Relief of the Wounded when
the delegates assembled from October nine, eighteen sixty three, so
this would eventually become the International Committee of the Red Cross.
(09:51):
Over the course of these four days, the Committee members
discussed all the issues at hand, and in addition to
the five men who we named earlier, representatives from philm
topic organizations and sixteen nations including France, Austria, Prussia, Spain
and Great Britain attended and the Assembly agreed on the
need for several action items. These included the creation of
(10:12):
relief societies in every country, the adoption of a universal
armband to identify relief personnel, and neutrality for the wounded
medical personnel, hospitals and ambulances. And that final issue of
neutrality was added at the last minute by Dunon, and
the conference asked the various governments represented there to give
their support and protection to these resolutions. On August eighteen
(10:37):
sixty four, a treaty was signed by twelve nations at
a diplomatic conference. That treaty established official intent to create
relief societies, guaranteed neutrality to medical assistance personnel, expedited the
handling of supplies needed by those personnel, and instituted an
easy to identify emblem for them to use, which was
a red cross on a white background. This treaty, of course,
(10:59):
was the first Geneva convention, and the adoption of that
universal symbol. We really can't understate it was actually incredibly
important because prior to using the red cross arm band
for all medical and assistance personnel, different countries had been
using different colors and symbols on their arm bands to
designate caregivers, and this caused a great deal of confusion
(11:21):
on the battlefield because enemy troops usually did not know
the color coding system that their opponent might be using,
and so it was very difficult for anyone involved to
identify active combatants versus medical helpers. Of note in all
of this, though, is a point about Donot's involvement and
activity within the Committee of Five as that became nicknamed
(11:42):
don who was so comfortable and eloquent making his case
to encourage heads of state to participate in the relief
movement was pretty low key when dealing with the other
four men, due in Part two very large personalities that
were in play among the other members. He took something
of a back seat in these conferences, despite the fact
that he had been the person who initiated these ideas
(12:04):
and catalyzed the conferences happening in the first place. Yeah,
he kind of gets pushed to the background in most
of those dealings, which is kind of fascinating because it
really was all his idea. And unfortunately, while he had
been so busy in these humanitarian and service efforts to others,
Donal had not been taking care of his own personal affairs.
(12:27):
He was still president of the financial and industrial company
of most Mills, and that grant of water rights that
led him to Sulfarino and catalyzed all of this humanitarian
work had never materialized. And while Donal had been very
busy meeting with the leaders of Europe, the duties of
his North African company that he had delegated to others
(12:48):
had been handled really poorly. He lost all of his
money and moreover, most of his friends who had been
invested in the business, as well as a lot of
family members. So in eighteen sixty seven, he left Geneva
completely embarrassed and bankrupt. This is really a scandal. And
due to the scandal Uh and his basically becoming a
(13:10):
social pariah in Geneva, he resigned his post as secretary
with the Red Cross and was expelled from the society
even as a member. He carried a debt of nearly
one million Swiss franks when he declared bankruptcy, and his
businesses were liquidated to try to pay his creditors. When
he first left Switzerland in eighteen sixty seven, he initially
(13:30):
traveled to Paris, where he would often sleep outdoors because
he had no place to live, and he made a
little money here and there working as a journalist just
to try to keep himself fed. Eventually he was actually
invited to the Palais de Chili by Empress Eugenie, and
together do Not and the Empress worked on expanding the
Red Cross in France and its missions. So remember there's
(13:51):
the International Committee and then each country has their own,
uh sort of chapters and so UH. While he was
no longer part of switzerland effort, he was still in
this way involved in the Red Cross as a concept,
and he was made an honorary member of the Red
Cross Societies of several other countries, including Austria, Holland, Prussia
(14:12):
and Spain. This work with Empress Eugenie first helped get
the Geneva Convention wartime protections extended to naval personnel. He
also worked on widening the scope of the Red Cross
to include peacetime relief efforts for instances of natural disaster,
and when the eighteen seventy Franco Prussian War happened, do
(14:33):
Not worked with the many wounded brought to Paris, and
during this time he also came up with the idea
that soldiers should wear some sort of badge at all times,
so if they died in combat, they could be easily identified.
This is an early precursor concept to the dog tag.
After the war ended in May of eighteen seventy one,
he traveled to London and he called for another conference
(14:55):
in eighteen seventy two, this one called Alliance Universal. The
ard at the LA gathering was intended to examine the
issue of international prisoners of war and how they should
be handled. He also wanted to put forth a plan
for legal arbitrary arbitration of international conflicts. Rather than military action,
(15:16):
and so these plans were met with mixed levels of enthusiasm.
They would, however, decades later, become part of the Third
Geneva Convention. Yeah, that idea of prisoners of war became
very important later, but at the time, due to some
some grudges and in fighting, that kind of all fell apart.
But it does speak volumes that even as this van
(15:37):
was organizing the eighteen seventy two conference, he was destitute.
Sometimes he was being helped by friends, sometimes, as I
mentioned earlier, living on the street. But he was still
meeting it with heads of state, even though there were
plenty of times when he could barely find a meal.
In February of eighteen seventy five, the writings that Dounal
had published about slavery inspired an international gathering in London
(16:00):
aimed at abolishing the slave trade, which at that point
had some nations had individually abolished, but this was a
greater effort. Again, even as he was struggling personally he
initiated this gathering. His itinerant life was really starting to
take a toll on his health though, and already kind
of ducked out of the public eye. After that abolitionist gathering,
(16:21):
and we'll discuss a rather nomadic period in his life
right after we pause once again for a sponsor break.
So uh, sometime later in eighteen seventy, after that abolitionist gathering,
a regional basically vanished from society, and for a while
(16:43):
he wandered. He never stayed in anyone place for long,
and he traveled entirely on foot, traveling great distances. He
made his way through Germany, Italy and Alsace, sometimes aided
by friends or charitable organizations to get by. But eventually
he did settle down the village of Hayden, Switzerland, in
eighty seven. And this happened primarily because his health really
(17:05):
took a downturn while he happened to be traveling through there,
and traveling anymore became really difficult. In eighteen ninety one
of the other other citizens of Hayden, a man named
Bill him Saundrager, who realized who do not was excitedly
started spreading the word that this great humanitarian was indeed
alive and well, but nobody really seemed to care very
(17:28):
much at that point. Uh. Two years after sunder Igger's revelation,
Aure's health further declined, and at this point he was
moved into the village hospice and he would live there
for the next eighteen years, the remainder of his life
in Room twelve. Although although his quote discovery in eighteen
ninety had kind of sputtered in another person. This when
(17:50):
a journalist named George Baumberger felt compelled to announce to
the world that the founder of the Red Cross was
living in Hayden. He wrote an article about a Redunt,
the man who had work to save so many lives,
only to find himself destitute and confined to a hospice,
And whether attitudes had changed in that five years since
(18:11):
eight nine and the first time that someone tried to
bring attention to the fact that Donat was there in Haydn,
or if the situation of Donat's failing health really started
to tug at the public's heart strings this time around,
that story of his life actually took off, and the
article that Baumberger wrote was reprinted in papers throughout Europe,
and once again Donat was lauded for his life's work.
(18:34):
Greetings and offers of assistance arrived from old friends all
the way up to Pope Leo the thirteenth, and he
was given a lifetime pension by Empress Consort of Russia
Maria Fyodorovna. Along with the praise came awards and prizes.
Both the Medical Congress of Moscow and the Swiss Confederation
awarded him prizes for his life's work, but he remained
(18:57):
in the hospice, spending none of the money and insisting
that he had everything he needed. And of course, most
notable among Donald's accolades was winning the first Nobel Peace Prize,
which was awarded jointly to Donalt and French economist Frederic
Passi in nineteen o one. Donald's health was too poor
at this point for him to travel to the award ceremony,
(19:18):
so the medal and the prize money were sent to him,
along with a message from the International Committee of the
Red Cross, which read quote, there is no man who
more deserves this honor, For it was you, forty years
ago who set on foot the international organization for the
relief of the wounded on the battlefield. Without you, the
Red Cross, the supreme humanitarian achievement of the nineteenth century,
(19:40):
would probably never have been undertaken. There was prior to
the Nobel being awarded to not an effort on the
part of Gustave Moigner to haven't have the International Committee
of the Red Cross nominated rather than do not himself.
It successfully made this move prior with other prizes, but
it didn't work in this case. In later years, the
(20:02):
Red Cross as an organization would win the Nobel Prize. However, Yeah,
that kind of ties back into that whole issue that
we mentioned earlier, where he really was not the dominant
personality in that committee and he kind of got pushed out.
This was sort of more of the same thing going on. Uh.
And when Juno died on October nineteen ten in the
(20:25):
Hyden Hospice, there was no big funeral. His final wish
was to be carried to his grave simply quote like
a dog, which I don't think is is quite the
negative that we would associate with it, but merely he
didn't want any fuss made over him, and he was
interred in Zurich on November two. The money from the
Nobel Prize and the other awards that he earned in
(20:47):
the later years of his life, he remained a humanitarian
to the very end. He bequeathed some of the Moneys
who was caregivers, and he also set up a provision
for a permanent bed in the hospital at hid It
was to be used to care for the village poor.
He donated the remainder of his estates of various charities
in Switzerland and Norway. And as for Donal's book, A
(21:10):
Memory of sulfurin no it has, according to the Red
Cross quote, been translated into so many languages and reprinted
so many times that it is difficult to know how
many versions exist throughout the world. Today, the Red Cross
is the world's largest humanitarian network, operating in a hundred
and fifty different countries, and his birthday May eight is
(21:30):
now celebrated as World Red Cross Day, and the hospice
where Donal spent his final years now houses the a
regional museum, which features a permanent exhibition on his life,
as well as special exhibitions related to Donal's work. Like
I think right now they're they're either have started or
about to open one that is about um the women's
(21:51):
contributions to the relief efforts. Because he wrote very kindly
about women, I have to point out, particularly after his
his experience in Sulfurino, were so many of the village
women just jumped in as nurses and did all kinds
of hard work they had never been trained or prepared
to do. So. Uh yeah, they do a lot of
cool stuff. We should point out because because this is
(22:14):
mentioning so much of the Red Cross that we're talking
specifically when we talk about donal uh And and the
awards that the Red Cross won as a consequence of
his work about the International Committee of the Red Cross
versus all of the sub committees that are held at
the separate nation level. Right, so there have been very
(22:36):
public problems in some cases that are are still being debated,
but this is sort of the separate story apart from right,
I think, I think just because you and I are American,
we can we're probably most familiar with like the recent
criticisms about basically not knowing so much how the American
Red Cross has spent relief money and a lack of
(22:57):
transparency and at which has been recent enough and big
enough news that I would feel remiss not making the
distinction that we are talking about the founding of the
International Committee, not specifically the American Red Cross in operations today. Correct, Yeah, yeah,
(23:19):
so that is the story of ari. Do you know
who is uh sort of uh, you know, it's sort
of sad in some ways, but also sort of wonderful,
uh and a little inspiring. Well. And I didn't realize that, Like,
I didn't realize that the use of dog tags was
nearly that recent. Yeah, I mean, I think it was
(23:41):
really World War One where an actual metal dog tang
first came into play. Don't quote me on that. I'm
literally pulling that from hazy memory, but yeah, it really
wasn't going on consistently before then, So you can imagine
how difficult it would be to sort out who was
who on a battlefield. Uh. And it seems painfully obvious
(24:02):
once I read it, But I had not thought about
the lack of an international consistency in identifying relief personnel
and how confusing that must have made any given situation. Well,
in setting international standards about uh, having during times of war,
especially like medical personnel, are supposed to be exempt being targets, right, Yeah,
(24:29):
or at least that's how it's supposed to work. Yeah,
in theory, that is how it doesn't always play out
that way, but that is the theoretical. I heard you
have some listener mailed I do so So because we
have just passed the holidays, and because I was out
of the office for a lot of that, I went
on a lovely vacation and then I was back, but
(24:50):
mostly teleworking, so I wasn't in the physical office. So
I came back to loads and loads of gifts, which
was lovely because our listeners are amazing, and so I
wanted to talk about two of them because Tracy hasn't
seen them, so it's kind of like gift show and
tell for me too. So the first one is from
our listener Melissa. She says, Hi, Holly and Tracy, Merry Christmas,
Happy New Year. I wanted to send you both, uh
(25:11):
the ornaments that I make for the Maker's Mark distillery.
I love your show and I often listen when I'm
dipping the ornaments in the red wax. You both keep
me entertained. Thank you for being amazing, Love Melissa. So
these are the cutest little things. There is like a
little um, you know, ball ornament, but it looks like
it borrows from makers the Maker's Mark bottling, and that
(25:36):
it has these cute little scrolls within it like shavings,
and then the whole thing is sealed with wax like
a bottle of Maker's Mark would be. And it is
adorable and we each got one. I kind of want
to have a year round tree for stuff like that.
The second one is going to make Tracy chuckle chuckle chuckle. Uh.
It is from our listener Kristen, and she writes, dear
(25:58):
Holly and Tracy, happy holidays. I'm a long time listener
from Grand Rapids, Michigan. I have relatives there, so yeah
uh and instantly thought of the enclosed gift when you
mentioned the mitten the other day. We love our hand shaped,
we love our land shaped like a hand for if
nothing else, it's an easy map. Thank you so much
for all you do. I look forward to every episode.
And what she sent us, Tracy, are these awesome window
(26:20):
stickers or you can put them on a laptop. Can
you see it? And it says smitten with the Mitten
and it is a lovely little graphic of Michigan and
how it does indeed resemble a mission mitten not a
mission well and after our whole number of episodes talked
about Michigan and the mitten came out there, there's a
(26:42):
whole bit on recent ish Welcome to Night night Vale
about Michigan, except he keep saying Michigan and then pronouncing
Mitten in the very, uh, the very enunciated way that
we're like kitten and mitten are pronounced. Welcome to night Mail.
(27:04):
Uh yeah. So those are two of the lovely gifts
we've gotten. I will never be able to get through
all of them and mention them all on air because
it would take us in the next Christmas, I think.
But thank you so so much for thinking of us.
It's such a delight. I always say it, but I
can't stress it enough. It is a delight in an
honor that people would take time out of their lives,
particularly during the very busy holiday season, to send us stuff.
(27:26):
It's just very heartwarming and lovely. So thank you. If
you would like to write to us, you can do
so at History Podcast at house to works dot com.
You can also find us on Twitter at missed in History,
at Facebook dot com slash missed in History, on Instagram
is at missed in History, and on pinterest dot com
slash missed in History. We're also at missed in History
dot tumbler dot com. If you would like to learn
(27:48):
a little bit more about what we talked about today.
You can go to our parents site, how stuff Works.
Type in the words red Cross you'll get all kinds
of information you can look at. If you would like
to visit us online, you can do that at miss
in history dot com m where you will find show
notes for every episode that Tracy and I have worked
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(28:10):
the very short ones in the beginning, long before Tracy
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works dot com
Welcome to steph you missed in history class from how
Stuff Works dot Com. Hello, and welcome to the podcast.
I'm Holly Friday and I'm tray Phebe Wilson. UH. Today
we're gonna talk about a man who had some serious
ups and downs in his life, but whose legacy is
(00:22):
really quite immense. Uh. He was a humanitarian almost from birth,
and his life's biggest accomplishment was founding the International Red Cross. UH.
And his name was Alri Donald. And a quick note
on Ari spelled h E n R I in the
classic French way, versus spelled more of the Americanized way,
(00:43):
like Henry with a Y at the end. UH. Everything
I've heard pronunciation wise, says Ari French way. But it
seems that if you look at the written mentions of him,
they favor the Y way. So we will use the
y spelling in the episode title, but we will be
pronouncing it the French way, not to be confusing at all. Correct.
(01:05):
And his his original name was actually hyphenated, and I
have seen that written both with the y. He was
originally Jean Jean Enri, and I've seen that written both
with the Y and the eye. So I don't know
if that's just like because he is a famous person
throughout the world, people have for some reason adopted the
the English speaking world's version of it, because that even
(01:28):
shows up in other foreign languages like foreign language, you know,
articles about him. I'm not sure why that is the case,
but in any case, we're writing it with the using
the French pronunciation right out of the gate, just to
confuse you. Jeen Enri do Not was born in Geneva, Switzerland,
(01:48):
on May eight, into a wealthy family, and he was
the first of five children. His siblings were Sophie and
born in nine Daniel born in eighteen thirty one and
Marie born in eighteen thirty three, and Pierre Louis born
in eighteen thirty four. And as Calvinist parents, Antoinette and
Jean Jacques Dounont were deeply religious, and they were also
(02:11):
deeply dedicated to humanitarian causes into bettering their community. So,
for example, when Alri was eight, his father took him
to visit prisons in Marseilles and Toulon so that his
son might see the suffering there, and he frequently accompanied
his mother as well on regular visits that she made
to the ailing and the poor to offer aid. As
(02:33):
a young man, he was active in both religious and
charitable causes, and he was a member of a group
that offered both religious and material comforts to the poor
called Legal League of Alms. He participated in a popular
movement to unite Christians and Jews, and he regularly visited
city prisons to participate in the reformation of incarcerated people there.
(02:55):
And in his twenties, Alri began serving full time as
a member of the Young Men's Christian Association. That is right,
that's the y m c A, which was actually founded
in Geneva, Switzerland, although it went by a couple of
different names. Uh Donal's work with the y m c
A required that he traveled a great deal as a
young man in Holland, France and Belgium. In terms of
(03:16):
his career do not. Began his professional life in eighteen
forty nine as a banking apprentice after he left secondary
school because he wasn't really doing very well there. Four
years later, in eighteen fifty three, he was promoted to
a management position of the Campani Genevois de Colony Swiss
de Citief. This was a Swiss settlement company headquartered in
(03:38):
algiers that set up that established colonies by setting up
villages and farms and enticing colonists to move there in
form communities. He worked in Sicily and North Africa during
this time, and after four years of work with this
settlement firm, he actually wrote a book about his observations
as a traveler in North Africa titled Notice Juni or
(04:00):
An Account of the Tunisian Regency, and it included a
chapter that was titled Slavery among the Mohammedans and in
the United States of America, and that particular chapter would
later be republished as a standalone document. Do Not next
moved into a new position. He created a new company,
financial and Industrial Company of Monageer Miller Mills, and named
(04:21):
himself as its president. This company, like his previous job,
was focused on settlements in Algeria. Do Not started work
on a wheat mill there, but needed to obtain water
rights if he was going to be able to successfully
develop The large land parcel at the mill was part
of his Initial efforts to obtain the proper paperwork were fruitless. Clearly,
(04:42):
unafraid of making any bold moves, he decided to go
directly to Napoleon the third with his request, and at
this point in time, Napoleon the Third was in the
midst of commanding the French armies who were fighting alongside
Italian soldiers against Austria in an effort to drive Austria's
true from Italy. So Donaut headed to the French leader's
(05:03):
military headquarters that he had set up near Solfarino, Italy.
And it was because of this desire to plead his
case for water rights that on eighteen fifty nine, when
he was thirty one years old, do not witness the
Battle of Sulfarino, which has been called one of the
bloodiest battles of the nineteenth century. And seeing that battle
(05:23):
play out, claiming so many lives and leaving so many wounded,
Dona was inspired to action. As the number of medical
emergencies quickly outpaced the military staff on hand's ability to
handle them, don created an emergency aid service to assist
wounded Austrian and French soldiers. Local women serving his nurses
to the injured adopted a slogan for this impromptu relief group,
(05:47):
Tucti Fratelli, meaning all Brothers. His time in Sulfarino completely
shifted Donat's focus his business affairs at that point became
secondary to his desire to address the issue of suffering
in wars. Several years after the battle, in eighteen sixty two,
he published a book about the battle and his work
in the aftermath, in a memoir called Souvenir de Soferino.
(06:12):
He had been working on this book since eighteen sixty
and in it he writes about three things. First, he
describes the battle itself and pretty graphic detail. Second, he
describes the aftermath of the battle and how horrifying it was,
and how the wounded were cared for in the nearby
towns of us of Castiglione, as well as an other
small villages. And one thing that stands out in this
(06:35):
section is the sheer numbers of wounded that townspeople were
scrambling to assist. Do Not wrote in his book that
the town of Brescia, which had a population of forty thousand,
took in thirty thousand wounded, converting almost every available building
into makeshift hospitals. This is, not, however, entirely accurate, and
in current reprints of his book they usually notate this.
(06:59):
Later ounts actually put the wounded just under twenty men,
but that's still a rather incredible number, and in that
particular area there were only a hundred and forty doctors
to manage all of those injured people. In that third section,
he makes the case for all countries to have voluntary
relief societies and to provide assistance and when possible, to
(07:20):
prevent suffering during both wartime and times of peace, and
that these societies should dispense with aid without any concern
for creed or race, and his idea suggested a governing
board for each nation's separate relief society that would be
made up of the nation's leaders. And he also stressed
the need for volunteerism to be promoted as something everyone
(07:41):
should participate in and the need to establish training systems
so that every volunteer would have the knowledge to care
for wounded both on the battlefield and after they were
removed from the active battlefield, right through to their recovery.
In addition to making the case for assistant societies, on
You Do Not, also proposed the concept of an international
(08:03):
agreement regarding how people who were wounded during a war
should be treated. And next up, we're gonna discuss how
Donal's writing catalyzed almost immediate action, but first we will
pause for a little sponsor break. So, in response to
(08:24):
the writing that Junal had done about his time at Sulfarino,
the Geneva Society for Public Welfare established a five man
committee on February seven, eighteen sixty three, to make a
dedicated effort to investigate the possibility of making Donal's ideas
a reality and do not what we should mention was
on that five man committee he served as secretary. Also
(08:46):
included where Guillaume Ali Dufu, who was a Swiss general
and topographer who presided over the committee, Gustav Mounier, a
Swiss legal theorist and philanthropist. Dr Louis Appia, a surgeon
specializing in mility, Harry Medicine, and Dr Teodor Monnoir, also
a surgeon. This committee decided that the best plan of
(09:06):
action was to assemble an international conference to make concrete
plans for AID and for the next several months, do
Not on his own dime, visited numerous governments, primarily in Europe,
with the goal of obtaining of obtaining promises of participation
for each of them. Yeah, it's worth noting again that
he was paying for his own travel because money is
(09:27):
going to come up later. Uh So, just a year
after the publication of his book, do Not, as part
of the group assembled by the Geneva Society for Public Welfare,
founded the International Committee for Relief of the Wounded when
the delegates assembled from October nine, eighteen sixty three, so
this would eventually become the International Committee of the Red Cross.
(09:51):
Over the course of these four days, the Committee members
discussed all the issues at hand, and in addition to
the five men who we named earlier, representatives from philm
topic organizations and sixteen nations including France, Austria, Prussia, Spain
and Great Britain attended and the Assembly agreed on the
need for several action items. These included the creation of
(10:12):
relief societies in every country, the adoption of a universal
armband to identify relief personnel, and neutrality for the wounded
medical personnel, hospitals and ambulances. And that final issue of
neutrality was added at the last minute by Dunon, and
the conference asked the various governments represented there to give
their support and protection to these resolutions. On August eighteen
(10:37):
sixty four, a treaty was signed by twelve nations at
a diplomatic conference. That treaty established official intent to create
relief societies, guaranteed neutrality to medical assistance personnel, expedited the
handling of supplies needed by those personnel, and instituted an
easy to identify emblem for them to use, which was
a red cross on a white background. This treaty, of course,
(10:59):
was the first Geneva convention, and the adoption of that
universal symbol. We really can't understate it was actually incredibly
important because prior to using the red cross arm band
for all medical and assistance personnel, different countries had been
using different colors and symbols on their arm bands to
designate caregivers, and this caused a great deal of confusion
(11:21):
on the battlefield because enemy troops usually did not know
the color coding system that their opponent might be using,
and so it was very difficult for anyone involved to
identify active combatants versus medical helpers. Of note in all
of this, though, is a point about Donot's involvement and
activity within the Committee of Five as that became nicknamed
(11:42):
don who was so comfortable and eloquent making his case
to encourage heads of state to participate in the relief
movement was pretty low key when dealing with the other
four men, due in Part two very large personalities that
were in play among the other members. He took something
of a back seat in these conferences, despite the fact
that he had been the person who initiated these ideas
(12:04):
and catalyzed the conferences happening in the first place. Yeah,
he kind of gets pushed to the background in most
of those dealings, which is kind of fascinating because it
really was all his idea. And unfortunately, while he had
been so busy in these humanitarian and service efforts to others,
Donal had not been taking care of his own personal affairs.
(12:27):
He was still president of the financial and industrial company
of most Mills, and that grant of water rights that
led him to Sulfarino and catalyzed all of this humanitarian
work had never materialized. And while Donal had been very
busy meeting with the leaders of Europe, the duties of
his North African company that he had delegated to others
(12:48):
had been handled really poorly. He lost all of his
money and moreover, most of his friends who had been
invested in the business, as well as a lot of
family members. So in eighteen sixty seven, he left Geneva
completely embarrassed and bankrupt. This is really a scandal. And
due to the scandal Uh and his basically becoming a
(13:10):
social pariah in Geneva, he resigned his post as secretary
with the Red Cross and was expelled from the society
even as a member. He carried a debt of nearly
one million Swiss franks when he declared bankruptcy, and his
businesses were liquidated to try to pay his creditors. When
he first left Switzerland in eighteen sixty seven, he initially
(13:30):
traveled to Paris, where he would often sleep outdoors because
he had no place to live, and he made a
little money here and there working as a journalist just
to try to keep himself fed. Eventually he was actually
invited to the Palais de Chili by Empress Eugenie, and
together do Not and the Empress worked on expanding the
Red Cross in France and its missions. So remember there's
(13:51):
the International Committee and then each country has their own,
uh sort of chapters and so UH. While he was
no longer part of switzerland effort, he was still in
this way involved in the Red Cross as a concept,
and he was made an honorary member of the Red
Cross Societies of several other countries, including Austria, Holland, Prussia
(14:12):
and Spain. This work with Empress Eugenie first helped get
the Geneva Convention wartime protections extended to naval personnel. He
also worked on widening the scope of the Red Cross
to include peacetime relief efforts for instances of natural disaster,
and when the eighteen seventy Franco Prussian War happened, do
(14:33):
Not worked with the many wounded brought to Paris, and
during this time he also came up with the idea
that soldiers should wear some sort of badge at all times,
so if they died in combat, they could be easily identified.
This is an early precursor concept to the dog tag.
After the war ended in May of eighteen seventy one,
he traveled to London and he called for another conference
(14:55):
in eighteen seventy two, this one called Alliance Universal. The
ard at the LA gathering was intended to examine the
issue of international prisoners of war and how they should
be handled. He also wanted to put forth a plan
for legal arbitrary arbitration of international conflicts. Rather than military action,
(15:16):
and so these plans were met with mixed levels of enthusiasm.
They would, however, decades later, become part of the Third
Geneva Convention. Yeah, that idea of prisoners of war became
very important later, but at the time, due to some
some grudges and in fighting, that kind of all fell apart.
But it does speak volumes that even as this van
(15:37):
was organizing the eighteen seventy two conference, he was destitute.
Sometimes he was being helped by friends, sometimes, as I
mentioned earlier, living on the street. But he was still
meeting it with heads of state, even though there were
plenty of times when he could barely find a meal.
In February of eighteen seventy five, the writings that Dounal
had published about slavery inspired an international gathering in London
(16:00):
aimed at abolishing the slave trade, which at that point
had some nations had individually abolished, but this was a
greater effort. Again, even as he was struggling personally he
initiated this gathering. His itinerant life was really starting to
take a toll on his health though, and already kind
of ducked out of the public eye. After that abolitionist gathering,
(16:21):
and we'll discuss a rather nomadic period in his life
right after we pause once again for a sponsor break.
So uh, sometime later in eighteen seventy, after that abolitionist gathering,
a regional basically vanished from society, and for a while
(16:43):
he wandered. He never stayed in anyone place for long,
and he traveled entirely on foot, traveling great distances. He
made his way through Germany, Italy and Alsace, sometimes aided
by friends or charitable organizations to get by. But eventually
he did settle down the village of Hayden, Switzerland, in
eighty seven. And this happened primarily because his health really
(17:05):
took a downturn while he happened to be traveling through there,
and traveling anymore became really difficult. In eighteen ninety one
of the other other citizens of Hayden, a man named
Bill him Saundrager, who realized who do not was excitedly
started spreading the word that this great humanitarian was indeed
alive and well, but nobody really seemed to care very
(17:28):
much at that point. Uh. Two years after sunder Igger's revelation,
Aure's health further declined, and at this point he was
moved into the village hospice and he would live there
for the next eighteen years, the remainder of his life
in Room twelve. Although although his quote discovery in eighteen
ninety had kind of sputtered in another person. This when
(17:50):
a journalist named George Baumberger felt compelled to announce to
the world that the founder of the Red Cross was
living in Hayden. He wrote an article about a Redunt,
the man who had work to save so many lives,
only to find himself destitute and confined to a hospice,
And whether attitudes had changed in that five years since
(18:11):
eight nine and the first time that someone tried to
bring attention to the fact that Donat was there in Haydn,
or if the situation of Donat's failing health really started
to tug at the public's heart strings this time around,
that story of his life actually took off, and the
article that Baumberger wrote was reprinted in papers throughout Europe,
and once again Donat was lauded for his life's work.
(18:34):
Greetings and offers of assistance arrived from old friends all
the way up to Pope Leo the thirteenth, and he
was given a lifetime pension by Empress Consort of Russia
Maria Fyodorovna. Along with the praise came awards and prizes.
Both the Medical Congress of Moscow and the Swiss Confederation
awarded him prizes for his life's work, but he remained
(18:57):
in the hospice, spending none of the money and insisting
that he had everything he needed. And of course, most
notable among Donald's accolades was winning the first Nobel Peace Prize,
which was awarded jointly to Donalt and French economist Frederic
Passi in nineteen o one. Donald's health was too poor
at this point for him to travel to the award ceremony,
(19:18):
so the medal and the prize money were sent to him,
along with a message from the International Committee of the
Red Cross, which read quote, there is no man who
more deserves this honor, For it was you, forty years
ago who set on foot the international organization for the
relief of the wounded on the battlefield. Without you, the
Red Cross, the supreme humanitarian achievement of the nineteenth century,
(19:40):
would probably never have been undertaken. There was prior to
the Nobel being awarded to not an effort on the
part of Gustave Moigner to haven't have the International Committee
of the Red Cross nominated rather than do not himself.
It successfully made this move prior with other prizes, but
it didn't work in this case. In later years, the
(20:02):
Red Cross as an organization would win the Nobel Prize. However, Yeah,
that kind of ties back into that whole issue that
we mentioned earlier, where he really was not the dominant
personality in that committee and he kind of got pushed out.
This was sort of more of the same thing going on. Uh.
And when Juno died on October nineteen ten in the
(20:25):
Hyden Hospice, there was no big funeral. His final wish
was to be carried to his grave simply quote like
a dog, which I don't think is is quite the
negative that we would associate with it, but merely he
didn't want any fuss made over him, and he was
interred in Zurich on November two. The money from the
Nobel Prize and the other awards that he earned in
(20:47):
the later years of his life, he remained a humanitarian
to the very end. He bequeathed some of the Moneys
who was caregivers, and he also set up a provision
for a permanent bed in the hospital at hid It
was to be used to care for the village poor.
He donated the remainder of his estates of various charities
in Switzerland and Norway. And as for Donal's book, A
(21:10):
Memory of sulfurin no it has, according to the Red
Cross quote, been translated into so many languages and reprinted
so many times that it is difficult to know how
many versions exist throughout the world. Today, the Red Cross
is the world's largest humanitarian network, operating in a hundred
and fifty different countries, and his birthday May eight is
(21:30):
now celebrated as World Red Cross Day, and the hospice
where Donal spent his final years now houses the a
regional museum, which features a permanent exhibition on his life,
as well as special exhibitions related to Donal's work. Like
I think right now they're they're either have started or
about to open one that is about um the women's
(21:51):
contributions to the relief efforts. Because he wrote very kindly
about women, I have to point out, particularly after his
his experience in Sulfurino, were so many of the village
women just jumped in as nurses and did all kinds
of hard work they had never been trained or prepared
to do. So. Uh yeah, they do a lot of
cool stuff. We should point out because because this is
(22:14):
mentioning so much of the Red Cross that we're talking
specifically when we talk about donal uh And and the
awards that the Red Cross won as a consequence of
his work about the International Committee of the Red Cross
versus all of the sub committees that are held at
the separate nation level. Right, so there have been very
(22:36):
public problems in some cases that are are still being debated,
but this is sort of the separate story apart from right,
I think, I think just because you and I are American,
we can we're probably most familiar with like the recent
criticisms about basically not knowing so much how the American
Red Cross has spent relief money and a lack of
(22:57):
transparency and at which has been recent enough and big
enough news that I would feel remiss not making the
distinction that we are talking about the founding of the
International Committee, not specifically the American Red Cross in operations today. Correct, Yeah, yeah,
(23:19):
so that is the story of ari. Do you know
who is uh sort of uh, you know, it's sort
of sad in some ways, but also sort of wonderful,
uh and a little inspiring. Well. And I didn't realize that, Like,
I didn't realize that the use of dog tags was
nearly that recent. Yeah, I mean, I think it was
(23:41):
really World War One where an actual metal dog tang
first came into play. Don't quote me on that. I'm
literally pulling that from hazy memory, but yeah, it really
wasn't going on consistently before then, So you can imagine
how difficult it would be to sort out who was
who on a battlefield. Uh. And it seems painfully obvious
(24:02):
once I read it, But I had not thought about
the lack of an international consistency in identifying relief personnel
and how confusing that must have made any given situation. Well,
in setting international standards about uh, having during times of war,
especially like medical personnel, are supposed to be exempt being targets, right, Yeah,
(24:29):
or at least that's how it's supposed to work. Yeah,
in theory, that is how it doesn't always play out
that way, but that is the theoretical. I heard you
have some listener mailed I do so So because we
have just passed the holidays, and because I was out
of the office for a lot of that, I went
on a lovely vacation and then I was back, but
(24:50):
mostly teleworking, so I wasn't in the physical office. So
I came back to loads and loads of gifts, which
was lovely because our listeners are amazing, and so I
wanted to talk about two of them because Tracy hasn't
seen them, so it's kind of like gift show and
tell for me too. So the first one is from
our listener Melissa. She says, Hi, Holly and Tracy, Merry Christmas,
Happy New Year. I wanted to send you both, uh
(25:11):
the ornaments that I make for the Maker's Mark distillery.
I love your show and I often listen when I'm
dipping the ornaments in the red wax. You both keep
me entertained. Thank you for being amazing, Love Melissa. So
these are the cutest little things. There is like a
little um, you know, ball ornament, but it looks like
it borrows from makers the Maker's Mark bottling, and that
(25:36):
it has these cute little scrolls within it like shavings,
and then the whole thing is sealed with wax like
a bottle of Maker's Mark would be. And it is
adorable and we each got one. I kind of want
to have a year round tree for stuff like that.
The second one is going to make Tracy chuckle chuckle chuckle. Uh.
It is from our listener Kristen, and she writes, dear
(25:58):
Holly and Tracy, happy holidays. I'm a long time listener
from Grand Rapids, Michigan. I have relatives there, so yeah
uh and instantly thought of the enclosed gift when you
mentioned the mitten the other day. We love our hand shaped,
we love our land shaped like a hand for if
nothing else, it's an easy map. Thank you so much
for all you do. I look forward to every episode.
And what she sent us, Tracy, are these awesome window
(26:20):
stickers or you can put them on a laptop. Can
you see it? And it says smitten with the Mitten
and it is a lovely little graphic of Michigan and
how it does indeed resemble a mission mitten not a
mission well and after our whole number of episodes talked
about Michigan and the mitten came out there, there's a
(26:42):
whole bit on recent ish Welcome to Night night Vale
about Michigan, except he keep saying Michigan and then pronouncing
Mitten in the very, uh, the very enunciated way that
we're like kitten and mitten are pronounced. Welcome to night Mail.
(27:04):
Uh yeah. So those are two of the lovely gifts
we've gotten. I will never be able to get through
all of them and mention them all on air because
it would take us in the next Christmas, I think.
But thank you so so much for thinking of us.
It's such a delight. I always say it, but I
can't stress it enough. It is a delight in an
honor that people would take time out of their lives,
particularly during the very busy holiday season, to send us stuff.
(27:26):
It's just very heartwarming and lovely. So thank you. If
you would like to write to us, you can do
so at History Podcast at house to works dot com.
You can also find us on Twitter at missed in History,
at Facebook dot com slash missed in History, on Instagram
is at missed in History, and on pinterest dot com
slash missed in History. We're also at missed in History
dot tumbler dot com. If you would like to learn
(27:48):
a little bit more about what we talked about today.
You can go to our parents site, how stuff Works.
Type in the words red Cross you'll get all kinds
of information you can look at. If you would like
to visit us online, you can do that at miss
in history dot com m where you will find show
notes for every episode that Tracy and I have worked
on together, as well as a full archive of every
episode that has ever existed, all the way back to
(28:10):
the very short ones in the beginning, long before Tracy
and I were ever involved. So we hope you do
come and visit us online at how stuff works dot
com and missed in history dot com for more on
this and thousands of other topics because it has stuff
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Tracy Wilson
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