Many British soldiers were prisoners of war in the southern part of
Italy in the Second World War.  Some of them said afterwards that they
survived on the basis of parcels with food and other necessities
provided by the Red Cross. I am interested in knowing where these
parcels came from in (or around) 1943 ?  From the Red Cross in the UK
or the RC in Italy or the RC Federation (Geneva) or from the
International Committee of the RC (ICRC, Geneva) or ...?

Dear alsinger,

From 1940 on throughout the Second World War, the distribution of Red
Cross relief parcels for POWs was organized, coordinated and
supervised by the International Committee of the Red Cross in Geneva.
The supplies for those parcels were collected in the POWs' respective
countries of origin by the National Red Cross Societies and other
donors, then transported to ICRC depots in Switzerland through the
ICRC's own logistical network. Form Switzerland, the relief supplies
were distributed to their final destinations by the ICRC.

In case you desire more detailed information on this issue, please
refer to the ICRC's website and the website of the Nobel Prize
Foundation:

ICRC: ICRC in WWII - Prisoners of war during the Second World War
http://www.icrc.org/Web/eng/siteeng0.nsf/html/C058ED6CDD0951D1C1256FE30043D5AB?OpenDocument&Style=Custo_Final.3&View=defaultBody3

Nobel Foundation: International Committee of the Red Cross - The Nobel
Peace Prize 1944
http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/1944/red-cross-lecture.html

Best regards,
Scriptor

You may also be interested in this page from the British Red Cross.

"Seventeen centres located around the UK and staffed by volunteers
packed up to 163,000 parcels each week. The Joint War Organisation had
eight ships under permanent charter, with others standing by, to
transport the parcels on the first stages of their journey to the
prison camps.

The majority of these ships operated a shuttle service between Lisbon
in neutral Portugal and Marseilles in the south of France. At
Marseilles the parcels were transferred to railway vans under the
supervision of the International Committee of the Red Cross. Through
the French and Swiss postal services, the parcels finally reached
Geneva, where the International Committee of the Red Cross arranged
for their distribution to prison camps in Germany and elsewhere."

http://www.redcross.org.uk/standard.asp?id=3371

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