Magen David Adom is Israel’s National Red Cross Association and has been a member of the International Red Cross Movement since 2006. As accepted in most Red Cross societies around the world, Magen David Adom operates, as part of its humanitarian activities, a tracing services unit for restoring family ties. The service is provided to people forcibly separated from families and loved ones due to wars or disasters. To successfully locate relatives, MDA cooperates with sister Red Cross societies around the world, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and other international tracing services.

MDA’s Tracing Unit has unique importance In Israel, in which many Holocaust survivors reside. Families or survivors who’ve lost touch with loved ones during the war seek to trace information about their whereabouts. Handling such requests receives the highest priority within MDA as many years have passed since the Holocaust, decreasing the odds for restoring family ties.

Since Holocaust Remembrance Day in 2016, 145 new requested have been filed to MDA. Since the establishment of the unit in 2008, 3,521 cases have been researched. In most cases, the unit has succeeded in reuniting family members of a certain degree or retrieving documents disclosing their faith. In six cases pairs of siblings were reunited, some of them hadn’t even known about the existence of one another.

Susan Edel, who volunteers with MDA’s tracing unit: “Most requests filed to our unit are by families of holocaust survivors who are searching for ancestors abroad. Once a request is a filed, I operate in every possible manner and in cooperation with bodies and resources around the world to trace information. In many cases, we succeed in tracing documents indicating where these families were during the war and where they perished. This job fulfills me with an immense sense of satisfaction.”

MDA Director General, Eli Bin: “Magen David Adom’s Tracing Unit for Restoring Family Ties has succeeded in reuniting and restoring ties between many families over the years. The unit’s work has contributed greatly to individuals seeking for closure and relief, some of which believed they will never learn about the faith of their loved ones. I am confident that thanks to the unit’s dedicated and hard work we will get to witness more emotional reunions.”

(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)