International Day of the Disappeared

State of emergency for relatives

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First aid for refugee Ukrainians

Armed conflict in Ukraine

Tracing missing relatives and providing support for those affected

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Flagge des IKRK

Cyber-attack targets international tracing data

Important Information from the GRC tacing service

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Child in Myanmar

How we help

The GRC Tracing Service searches for, connects and reunites families. In Germany and around the world.

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German Red Cross

How we work

Tracing. Connecting. Reuniting: The GRC Tracing Service under the humanitarian mandate of the Red Cross.

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Information and background knowledge

Good to know

Further information and assistance for science and research

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The GRC TRACING SERVICE...

supports people who have become separated from their family due to armed conflicts, natural disasters, escape, displacement or migration.
It helps to trace family members, to put them back in contact and to reunite families.


  • GRC Tracing Service - Tracing (Flower-Postcard)

    Tracing

    The GRC Tracing Service clarifies the fates of missing persons from the Second World War and searches worldwide for people who have been separated from their relatives as a result of current armed conflicts and disasters.
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  •  Man makes a phone call with help of the GRC Tracing Service

    Connecting

    The GRC Tracing Service enables the exchange of messages between relatives who have lost contact to each other and cannot communicate using conventional means.
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  • Family reunited at the airport

    Reuniting

    The GRC Tracing Service advises and supports relatives who are separated by armed conflict, disaster, flight, expulsion or migration in reuniting families in Germany.
    read more


The Waiting Room: New film about the suffering of ambiguous loss

Due to armed conflicts, flight and displacement, countless people around the world disappear without a trace every year. Millions of families miss their loved ones and do not know what has happened to them. Hope and fear are their constant companions: will he ever come back, is she still alive? Is the missing family member in distress and in urgent need of help?

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) illustrates the emotional limbo associated with this uncertainty for the relatives of missing persons. Watch the new German version of the film The Waiting Room and witness the suffering that uncertainty about the whereabouts of a loved one can cause.


News

International Day of the Disappeared 2024

International Day of the Disappeared 2024

Berlin, 30. August 2024 Many people around the world disappear without a trace – whether during armed conflicts in their home countries or when fleeing along migration routes. In Germany, too, thousands are suffering because… read more

Ukrainian population on the run

Armed conflict in Ukraine: Information from the GRC Tracing Service

Berlin, 09.03.2022 In view of the current situation in Ukraine, the GRC Tracing Service provides the following information on its services read more

#NoTraceOfYou

International Day of the Disappeared 2022

Berlin, 29.08.2022 Countless refugees throughout the world have gone missing without a trace. On the 30 August, the International Day of the Disappeared, the German Red Cross (GRC) is spotlighting its Tracing Service –… read more

Flag of the ICRC

Open Letter from the ICRC and the GRC

Berlin, 31.01.2022 Hacking the data of the world’s most vulnerable is an outrage read more


Insights into our work

Family M. and GRC President Mrs Hasselfeldt

Finally reunited - after more than six years apart

Finally reunited - after more than six years apart

Elham M. is 21 years old and knows exactly how long she was separated from her father – six years and two months. From 2014 to 2020, between the…

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Family A. and GRC President Mrs Hasselfeldt

Missing without a trace after fleeing

Over Christmas 2013, Yusif and Gule A. and their two small children arrive as refugees from Syria at a reception centre in Bielefeld. Three weeks earlier, they had fled their village in northern Syria…

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People made of cardboard and with a heart

Happy family reunification in spite of many difficulties

After six years of separation, Mr Y.’s wife and daughter finally receive the longed-for family reunion visa and can enter Germany. The time of waiting was dominated by anxiety, sorrow and despair.…

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Wolfgang Voss

Wolfgang Voss: Prisoner of war compensation

In the winter of 1945 towards the end of the Second World War, Wolfgang Voss was injured in the trenches after being hit by shrapnel in his hip during combat with US soldiers in the Schnee Eifel…

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Manfred Kropp

The case of Manfred Kropp

Certainty about the whereabouts of the war-missing father from Russian archives read more

Still image capture from video excerpt

At long last clarity about the own identity!

Success of the GRC child tracing service read more


Tracing missing relatives

  • International Tracing with the GRC Tracing Service

    Online International tracing request

    Search for relatives who are missing due to armed conflict, disaster, flight, displacement or migration.

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  • Ethnic German repatriates

    Online tracing request - Ethnic German repatriates

    Search for relatives who are missing due to resettlement to Germany (in particular ethnic German repatriates from the former Soviet Union).

    Read more »

  • Second World War

    Online tracing request - Second World War

    Search for relatives who are missing in connection with the Second World War or the division of Germany.

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Information and background knowledge

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