The Personal and the Political: The German Red Cross Suchdienst and the Search for Missing Germans After the Second World War

This article follows the searches for missing German civilians and soldiers after 1945 to shed new light on post-war reconstruction. While ITS Arolsen concerned itself with Nazi victims and displaced persons, the Suchdienst (Tracing Service) of the German Red Cross searched for Germans. The subject of missing people has been cast as a general conflict between ‘persons-as-such’ and a policing state. The Suchdienst archive suggests a messier politics. Aid agencies competed with the Churches, private operators and relatives. Search strategies varied and resources were limited. Multiple tensions emerged. The Suchdienst clashed with state actors over the issue of unaccompanied children, fathers evading alimony and the support for German minorities in Eastern Europe. Tensions also ran through families. Some individuals wanted to draw a line and start afresh, others did not want to be found, yet others did not want to be reunited with their biological parents or children. Knowledge itself was contested. Some relatives refused to accept the tracers’ bitter conclusions and seized on rumours, paranormal visions and conspiracy theories that suggested their loved ones might still be alive. The varied and contradictory nature of searches reveals the different ways people tried to rebuild their lives after the violent upheaval of the Second World War.