Red Cross Museum, Geneva

  

  - darkometer rating:  5 -

 
Geneva in south-western Switzerland was the birthplace and is still the HQ of the (original) Red Cross, the first and possibly still the best-known humanitarian organization in the world. It's actually called the "International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent" – the crescent obviously added to appease Muslim countries' worries over an association of the cross symbol with Christianity. (It's much more complex still, of course, but this has to suffice for the purposes of this website).

 
A museum chronicling the history of the Red Cross was set up next to the organization's HQ building in Geneva in 1988. It's of interest to the dark tourist for its coverage of the – obviously – many dark chapters of especially 20th century history that the organization came to try and alleviate. World War One, the Holocaust, landmines, the Rwandan genocide, you name it, it's all there – sometimes in gruesome detail. From 2011 the museum underwent a substantial transformation lasting nearly two years. In May 2013 it finally reopened (after much delay and controversies about the funding for the overhaul).

  

(Please note that the photo was not taken at the Red Cross Museum, which I haven't yet visited in person, but at this WW1 museum in France.)

 
Opening times: daily except Mondays from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. (5 p.m. in winter); closed over Christmas and New Year's Day.

 
Admission: 15 Sfr, concession 10 Sfr for students, unemployed or senior citizens etc. – including an audio-guide (available in English, French, German, Italian, Russian, Spanish, Chinese and Japanese). 

 
Location: Musée International de la Croix-Rouge et du Croissant-Rouge, at 17 Avenue de la Paix, in Geneva, Switzerland. From the city centre follow signs for the United Nations Office (ONU); from Gare Cornavin take bus No. 20 to Appia bus stop. Restricted parking is available.

  
Google maps locator:[46.228,6.137]