고등학교 영어Ⅱ (NE능률 오선영) 연계 글

In June 1859, Henry Dunant, a young businessman from Geneva, traveled to northern Italy on a purely practical errand. His company in Algeria needed water rights, and he intended to ask Emperor Napoleon III of France for them in person. The emperor, however, was leading the French army in a war against Austria, so Dunant followed him to the army's headquarters near the town of Solferino. There, Dunant found himself facing the aftermath of one of the deadliest battles of the century: by the time the fighting ended, thousands of soldiers had been killed or wounded.

There were far too few army doctors, and many of the wounded had been left without any treatment. In the nearby town of Castiglione, churches and other public buildings had been filled with suffering men. Dunant stayed to help, organizing volunteers from the town, many of them local women, and working beside them for several days to bring water and comfort to the wounded. One dying young soldier wanted a message sent to his parents. Dunant himself took down their address, and the news he sent was the only word the parents ever received about their son. The women cared for French, Italian, and Austrian soldiers alike, repeating two Italian words, "Tutti fratelli," which mean "They are all brothers."

Back in Geneva, Dunant could not put what he had seen out of his mind. In 1862, he published a book, A Memory of Solferino, paying for the printing himself. In it, he asked whether trained volunteers could be organized into relief societies in peacetime so that they would be ready to help whenever war came. He also called for an agreement among nations that would require armies to care for wounded enemies as well as their own.

Copies of the book were sent to leaders throughout Europe, and its proposals soon won support. In February 1863, a committee of five Genevans began to put these proposals into practice, and Dunant himself served as its secretary. This small group would later become the International Committee of the Red Cross. In 1864, twelve nations signed the first Geneva Convention, a treaty that required armies to care for the wounded of both sides.

In 1867, however, Dunant went bankrupt, partly because his company had been poorly managed while he was devoting himself to the Red Cross, and he had to leave Geneva. He fell into poverty, and for about twenty years he was almost forgotten. Then a journalist wrote about him, and honors began to reach the old man in his small Swiss village; in 1901, he shared the first Nobel Peace Prize.