As Germany prepares to mark the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II, thousands of Germans are still trying to discover the fate of relatives who went missing during the conflict.

In the last year alone, the Tracing Service at the German Red Cross (DRK) received around 7,000 enquiries in connection with the war, DRK President Gerda Hasselfeldt said on Monday.

“The interest, the need, is still very high,” she said, calling the search for the missing a “core humanitarian task.”

Enquiries are received from the parents, spouses, fiancés/fiancées or siblings of the missing, but increasingly also from a generation of grandchildren wanting to know what happened to their grandparents.

Some 47% of enquiries are resolved, and in the remaining 53% of cases it is often possible to provide information about the missing person – for example, where they were last seen.

The Tracing Service, which also assists in the search for missing people in current conflicts such as the wars in Ukraine and Syria, receives a total of €12 million ($14 million) a year in government funding.

Of the sum, €3 million per year goes to the site in Munich dealing with World War II enquiries, but the funding is only secure until 2028.

Hasselfeldt said the DRK will seek dialogue with the incoming federal government about future funding as soon as possible.

“It is part of our culture of remembrance,” she argued.

The work of the Tracing Service shows “the horrors associated with armed conflicts, including for family members,” Hasselfeldt added.

– dpa