What is the role of the Tracing Service?
Our service will help you find family members seperated as a result of:
- wars
- armed conflicts
- political persecution
- natural disasters
We CANNOT help in the following cases:
- looking for family members because of legal matters or family conflicts
- genealogy
- missing cases falling within the competence of the police
- looking for people within the country
- organising class reunions
The most important tasks of the Tracing Service
Conveying messages
In wartime, we convey messages between the injured, prisoners of war, refugees and their family members through our own network.
Tracing
We help to find those who had gone missing during the war, or had been separated from their family members.
Hungarian Red Cross Tracing Service Information in English
If you are staying in Hungary and would like to find a member of your family anywhere in the world, please contact the nearest Red Cross Branch or fill in a tracing form in English language and send it directly to us.
International Red Cross Tracing Service
The Red Cross can help you when you have become separated from your family members due to armed conflicts, upheavals or natural disasters.
History of the Tracing Service
The Hungarian Red Cross has been operating its Tracing Service since World War I. Initially known as the News Agency and then as the Prisoner of War Protection and Correspondence Office, the service employed 200 volunteers, and helped those in trouble with the following activities:
Legal framework
The activity of the National Societies within the Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement, including the Hungarian Red Cross, is defined by The Geneva Conventions of 1949, their Additional Protocols of 1977 and the Statute of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement adopted in October 1986, Geneva. The activity of the Hungarian Red Cross is regulated by Act XL of 1993.