International Committee of the Red Cross about the Nazi's annihilation plans for the Jews – and even discussed it with U.S. officials – the group did nothing to inform the public, maintaining silence even in the face of pleas by Jewish groups. Because the Red Cross was based in Geneva and largely funded by the Swiss government, it was very sensitive to Swiss wartime attitudes and policies. On October 1942, the Swiss government and the Red Cross' board of members vetoed a proposal by several Red Cross board members to condemn the persecution of civilians by the Nazis. For the rest of the war, the Red
International Committee of the Red Cross an ICRC official outlined some of the lessons the organization has learned from the failure: In an official statement made on 27 January 2005, the 60th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, the ICRC stated: Auschwitz also represents the greatest failure in the history of the ICRC, aggravated by its lack of decisiveness in taking steps to aid the victims of Nazi persecution. This failure will remain part of the ICRC's memory, as will the courageous acts of individual ICRC delegates at the time. The original motto of the International Committee of the Red Cross was "Inter Arma Caritas" ("Amidst