International Committee of the Red Cross
On 15 October 1914, immediately after the start of the war, the ICRC set up its International Prisoners-of-War (POW) Agency. By the end of the war, the Agency had sent about 20 million letters and messages, 1.9 million parcels, and about 18 million Swiss francs to POWs of all affected countries. The Agency also arranged for about 200,000 prisoners to be released and returned to their home country. The Agency collected about 7 million records from 1914 to 1923 about prisoners or missing people. The card index helped to identify about 2 million POWs and to contact their families. The complete index of 7 million cards is on loan from the ICRC to the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Museum in Geneva. But only ICRC can search the index.