Magen David Adom is the National Association of the State of Israel by virtue of law and has been a full member of the International Red Cross Society since 2006.

As is customary in most of the Red Cross Societies around the world, Magen David Adom operates in Israel, and as part of its humanitarian activities, houses the Tracing Department. The service is given to people who have been separated from their families due to wars or disasters and is done in partnership with national Red Cross societies around the world, the International Tracing Service (ITS), and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).

Special attention is given to the MDA unit operating in Israeli society, where many Holocaust survivors, their families and their descendants had lost contact with their relatives during the war and seek information about their fate. In the framework of the applications received, the unit handles tracing family members whose contacts were lost, requests to locate documents, provides assistance in locating graves, and more.

Between Holocaust Memorial Day in 2017 to the present, MDA has received some 200 new inquiries, and since 2008, the unit has received 3,800 requests for assistance in locating relatives and receiving information. In most cases, relatives or documents attesting to the fate of the family were found, and in six cases couples of brothers and sisters were reunited, some of whom did not know each other.

Shulamit Rosenthaler, who is in charge of the MDA Tracing Department, said: “Most of the requests received by the unit are from families of Holocaust survivors who wish to locate information about their loved ones. Due to the general sensitivity and importance of family reunification and the receipt of information about the family and the Holocaust in particular, we treat and act in every possible way and with all possible factors in order to locate information for the applicants. Indeed, in most cases we succeed in locating documents and information about the family’s history during the Holocaust. ”

MDA Director General, Eli Bin: “The Tracing Department in MDA has managed to unite and bring together many family members over the years, and to receive information on many more cases that have come to our doorstep. I have no doubt that thanks to their hard work we will be able to experience more exciting reunions. ”

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)