Philanthropy

===Switzerland===
{{Main|International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement|International Committee of the Red Cross}}
[[File:Sisters of Mercy at the Battle of Gravelotte.jpg|thumb|left|The [[International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement|Red Cross]], after the [[Battle of Gravelotte]] in 1870]]

In 1863, the Swiss businessman [[Henry Dunant]] used his fortune to fund the Geneva Society for Public Welfare, which became the [[International Committee of the Red Cross]]. During the [[Franco-Prussian War]] of 1870, Dunant personally led Red Cross delegations that treated soldiers. He shared the first [[Nobel Peace Prize]] for this work in 1901.<ref>{{cite book|first=David P.|last=Forsythe|title=The Humanitarians: The International Committee of the Red Cross|url=https://archive.org/details/humanitariansint0000fors|url-access=registration|publisher=Cambridge University Press|year=2005}}</ref>

The [[International Committee of the Red Cross]] (ICRC) played a major role in working with [[prisoner of war|POW]]s on all sides in [[World War II]]. It was in a cash-starved position when the war began in 1939, but quickly mobilized its national offices to set up a Central Prisoner of War Agency. For example, it provided food, mail and assistance to 365,000 British and Commonwealth soldiers and civilians held captive. Suspicions, especially by London, of ICRC as too tolerant or even complicit with Nazi Germany led to its side-lining in favour of the [[United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration|UN Relief and Rehabilitation Administration]] (UNRRA) as the primary humanitarian agency after 1945.<ref>{{cite book|first=James|last=Crossland|title=Britain and the International Committee of the Red Cross, 1939–1945|publisher=Plagrave MacMillan|year=2014}}</ref>