Inside Geneva’s Summer Profiles: the Red Cross Museum

Summary

Inside Geneva’s Summer Profiles: the Red Cross Museum

Podcast: Inside Geneva
Host: Imogen Foulkes
Guests: Pascal Hufschweig (Director, International Red Cross and Red Crescent Museum), Elisa Ruska (Director of Collections and Exhibitions)
Date: August 19, 2025

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Overview

This episode of Inside Geneva is a special “summer profile,” not of a person, but of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Museum in Geneva. Host Imogen Foulkes visits the museum, which faces existential challenges, and talks with Director Pascal Hufschweig and Director of Collections Elisa Ruska. The conversation delves into the museum’s vital role, its unique sound-focused exhibition “Tuning In,” and the ways in which humanitarian principles, international law, and shared experiences are made tangible for visitors.

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The Museum’s Purpose and Challenges

Key Points:

• The International Red Cross and Red Crescent Museum is under threat of closure in 2027 due to federal cost-cutting.
• The museum works to remind authorities and the public of its importance in daily life, humanitarian action, culture, diplomacy, education, research, and tourism.
• It strives to make humanitarian principles and international law relatable and accessible to everyone, from children to heads of state.

Notable Quotes:

"We really bend over backwards to explain humanitarian principles, international humanitarian law, and to show that there are embodied experiences we can all relate to."
— Pascal Hufschweig (00:48, 02:54)

“For the past year or so, we've been really, really reminding public authorities of the key role we play… fighting for this institution, which is useful and important.”
— Pascal Hufschweig (01:57)

Timestamps:

• 01:34 Pascal introduces himself and the museum’s dire situation.
• 01:57-04:31 Pascal discusses the existential challenges and why the museum is fundamentally different from typical institutions.

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Connecting Humanitarianism to Daily Life

Key Points:

• The museum links global humanitarian issues with individual responsibility and community behavior.
• It tells stories ranging from personal experiences to global events, grounded in Geneva’s and Switzerland’s humanitarian legacy.

Notable Quotes:

"It's not something you only hear about on TV or in the news. It's something that makes sense in the way you behave in your own community, how you connect with your neighbors, how you are an active citizen..."
— Pascal Hufschweig (03:37)

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The "Tuning In" Exhibition: Sound, Memory, and Humanitarian Action

Key Points:

• Exhibition Focus: “Tuning In” explores humanitarian sound archives from the ICRC and Museum collections.
• Historical Recordings: Includes everything from radio dramas on public health (e.g., Nigeria’s “The fly is your enemy” from 1966) to disaster preparedness songs and personal soundscapes.
• Music and Human Dignity: Showcases how music, often overlooked, supports dignity and mental health in crisis situations (e.g., Red Cross volunteers playing music for children and wounded soldiers).
• Sound as Emotion: Features an installation where aid workers vocalize basic human emotions, highlighting the universality of feeling.

Notable Quotes & Moments:

“This one... is ‘the fly is your enemy’ from the Nigerian Red Cross in 1966.”
— Elisa Ruska (07:36)

"You should keep [flies] out of your house. So use fly nets... The way the program is made is quite playful... But nevertheless, the message of health was really well brought out and effective.”
— Elisa Ruska (07:50)

“The idea was to create an exhibition that is not just sound, to make it more inclusive and more also open to a larger understanding on what does it mean to deal with music... it helps us feel better, it helps us to relate to the other, it helps us maybe forget also moment of distress.”
— Elisa Ruska (10:39)

Timestamps:

• 05:18 Elisa introduces the “Tuning In” exhibition.
• 07:36–08:41 Playback and discussion of the “fly is your enemy” PSA.
• 08:52–09:01 Disaster preparedness songs—“Be Prepared” from Grenada Red Cross.
• 10:39–12:00 The role of music in humanitarianism; music’s presence in crises, hospitals, and prisons.
• 12:31–13:44 Rediscovering “just music” tapes—re-evaluating the emotional significance of archival audio.
• 14:13–16:28 The “Voices of Emotions” installation: 42 humanitarian workers vocalize emotions, highlighting empathy and universality.

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Humanitarianism as a Plurality of Voices

Key Points:

• The exhibition prompts visitors to consider not only the information that aid agencies want heard, but also the internal and external voices of those affected by crisis—and the aid workers themselves.
• Sound and music are shown to be powerful tools for memory, healing, empathy, and shared humanity.

Memorable Quote:

“Humanitarianism is a plurality of voices and should be also a way to make those voices heard.”
— Elisa Ruska (19:11)

Visitor Impact:

• More than 10,000 people visit per month; feedback is overwhelmingly positive.
• The approach encourages new ways of thinking about the relationship between humanitarianism, emotion, and sound.

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The Museum’s Irreplaceable Role

Key Points:

• The museum preserves key items of world heritage: Henri Dunant’s Nobel Peace Prize medal, and war prisoners’ records.
• Its loss would be a “confusing message” and significant loss for Switzerland and the world.
• The museum is a guardian not just of objects, but of principles and memories at the core of humanitarian values.

Notable Quotes:

“You would want to have your dignity protected… people you see on the screen... aren't just images and aren't just statistics, but they're people like you, like me. We all just want to have normal lives because that's such a huge privilege.”
— Pascal Hufschweig (19:47)

"Had this museum closed or if we'd lose this museum, we'd be sending a very confusing message, and this would certainly be a loss for Switzerland and the loss for Geneva... losing this collection would be a loss for people way beyond Switzerland."
— Pascal Hufschweig (21:15)

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Key Moments & Quotes with Timestamps

Museum’s Significance

• 02:54 Pascal Hufschweig: “It's something different... we ask a central question which is, what does humanitarian action have to do with me in my life here and now?”

Exhibits and Sound Archives

• 07:36 Elisa Ruska: “This one in particular that I really like is the fly is your enemy from the Nigerian red Cross in 1966.”
• 08:41 Pascal Hufschweig: “First, hurricane warnings, 11:00am Eastern Standard Time...”
• 10:39 Elisa Ruska: “So the idea was to create an exhibition that is not just sound, to make it more inclusive... the presence of music is really important in what we call the preservation of human dignity.”

Emotions and Memory

• 12:31 Elisa Ruska: “What's outside the picture is also important. And here these are sounds that have not a real label. We don't really know what they are... the material... include[s] some parts that were ...labeled 'don't keep just music.'”
• 14:37 Elisa Ruska: “...delegates and Red Cross volunteers recorded a lot of things... they are exposed to landscapes that are very particular and that stick to them even when they came back.”

Universal Humanitarian Message

• 19:11 Elisa Ruska: “That humanitarianism is a plurality of voices and should be also a way to make those voices heard.”
• 19:47 Pascal Hufschweig: “When you visit the museum, you instinctively understand that you would want to have your dignity protected...”

Closing Thoughts

• 21:15 Pascal Hufschweig: “We also have key items of world heritage in this museum... losing this collection would be a loss for people way beyond Switzerland.”

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Conclusion

This edition of Inside Geneva offers a deeply personal and sensory-rich profile of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Museum. Listeners gain unique insight into the role the museum plays in connecting abstract humanitarian values to everyday life, and how even ephemeral things—like sounds, music, and emotions—are vital in preserving and communicating human dignity. With its future uncertain, the museum stands as a testimony to shared humanity, memory, and the power of making voices—past, present, and sometimes wordless—truly heard.

Transcript

[Elisa Ruska]

Foreign.

[Imogen Folks]

This is Inside Geneva. I'm your host, Imogen Folks, and this is a production from swissinfo, the international public media company of Switzerland.

[Pascal Hufschweig]

In today's program in this museum, we ask a central question, which is what does huge humanitarian action have to do with me in my life here and now?

[Elisa Ruska]

It's an exhibition that was thought as an exploration of the sound archives, in particular the humanitarian sound archives preserved here in Geneva at the ICRC and the firc and also at the museum, we.

[Pascal Hufschweig]

Really bend over backwards to explain humanitarian principles, international humanitarian law, and to show that there are embodied experiences we can all relate to.

[Imogen Folks]

Hello and welcome again to Inside Geneva. I'm Imogen. Folks. Regular listeners will know that over the summer we run a series of summer profiles from an aid worker in Gaza to an international lawyer hoping to become a judge on the International Court of Justice. Today we're doing a profile profile too, but it's not of a person, but of a much loved Geneva institution which has in recent months faced some existential challenges.

[Pascal Hufschweig]

My name is Pascal Hufschweig, I'm a passionate museum director and we're having a drink in the cafe of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Museum in Geneva.

[Imogen Folks]

This is, for me anyway, an amazing museum. I've always loved it. But it's faced some challenges recently.

[Pascal Hufschweig]

Yes, it has faced major challenges that questioned its very existence and had us face possible closure in 2027 due to cost cutting measures on the federal level in Switzerland, the consequences of which might not have been fully estimated on the museum. And for the past year or so, we've been really, really reminding public authorities of the key role we play in many different daily life, humanitarian action, culture, diplomacy, education, research, tourism, and fighting for this institution, which is useful and important.

[Imogen Folks]

Just tell me from your own personal conviction why this museum is important. I mean, it's not your Conden Garden art gallery or natural history museum.

[Pascal Hufschweig]

It's something different when you connect with world news every day, at least from this part of the world, you see information that is connected somehow or another to humanitarian principles and international humanitarian law. It can be the devastating consequences of climate change. It can be conflicts, wars. It can be so many situations in which our shared humanity is at risk. And in this museum, we ask a central question which what does humanitarian action have to do with me in my life here and now? And to establish this connection on a personal level, we really bend over backwards to explain humanitarian principles, international humanitarian law, and to show that there are embodied experiences we can all relate to. It's not Something you only hear about on TV or in the news. It's something that makes sense in the way you behave in your own community, how you connect with your neighbors, how you are an active citizen, and all these fundamental ideas and questions that are deeply, deeply connected to Geneva's history, to Switzerland's history, to the vision of Henri Dunant, the founder of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent movement. And we tell these stories and make these connections to a great variety of people, going from, you know, five year old kids. I gave a tour this morning too, throughout the exhibition to heads of state that come here on a regular basis.

[Imogen Folks]

And I can confirm that the Red Cross Museum really is worth a visit. Its permanent exhibition gives visitors an insight into what humanitarianism is and what the Red Cross movement does. From the incredibly moving files documenting the prisoners of two world wars and how the Red Cross kept them in touch with their families, to an interactive look at disaster risk reduction, to a section which asks the simple question, what is human dignity and how can we all protect it? But the museum, of course, has special temporary exhibitions too. And that's what I've come to see today.

[Elisa Ruska]

My name is Elisa Ruska. I am the director of collections and exhibitions here at the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Museum in Geneva. And we are standing in front of the entrance of the Tuning in exhibition.

[Imogen Folks]

The reason I'm here is because the title grabbed me. Tuning In. This is an exhibition that is not just visual, in fact, it's based. Its foundation is actually sound.

[Elisa Ruska]

Yes, it is. And it's an exhibition that was thought as an exploration of the sound sound archives, in particular the humanitarian sound archives preserved here in Geneva at the ICRC and the FIRC and also at the museum.

[Imogen Folks]

Well, let's just have a look at this first. This first case here. Listeners who can't see this. We're looking at an exhibition case with files, but also blast from the past quarter inch recording tape which still lay around studios when I first started. Nobody touched them, but they were there. What's on these things?

[Elisa Ruska]

Well, it's certainly a lot of different things that we found there were not only documentation of different recordings, but also recording of official meetings, recordings of radio program recordings from the field.

[Imogen Folks]

Well, I mean, you've got some of these recordings over here. Tell me a little about them. They are aimed at, you know, public health, things like that.

[Elisa Ruska]

Yeah, well, you have to remember that this history of the Red Cross and the radio goes a long way because Humanitarian was born in the 1860s and then the radio in the 1890s. So since the very beginning of this new technology, the national societies and the ICRC has been using the radio to spread messages, messages of awareness, messages of health, to communicate where to go in a moment of crisis, to find help, to find food, etc.

[Aid Worker (possibly Tamam Aloudat or another featured guest)]

Your Nigerian Red Cross presents a message.

[Imogen Folks]

For your good health.

[Elisa Ruska]

This one in particular that I really like is the fly is your enemy from the Nigerian red Cross in 1966.

[Pascal Hufschweig]

My baby is ill.

[Elisa Ruska]

I have just come from the village. We were listening to a man from the Nigerian Red Cross who told us that flies bring sickness. The fly is your enemy is in particular. The idea behind is to give awareness of the fact that flies and insects can carry diseases. And so you should keep them out of your house. So use fly nets. So the way the program is made is quite playful. There's a museum in a way, it's very constructed. We can hear the radio drama. So everything is written down and very theatrical in the style it is. But nevertheless, the message of health was really well brought out and effective.

[Pascal Hufschweig]

First, hurricane warnings, 11:00am Eastern Standard Time. Hurricane moving towards the north northwest. Highest winds estimated at 130mph over small area near center.

[Imogen Folks]

You've also got some which are related to warnings for possible natural disaster storms, things like that, haven't you?

[Elisa Ruska]

Yeah, we also have that. And there is an example here that you cannot see, but you can hear is the song be prepared that was created in 2012 by a group of artists from Granada in collaboration with the Granada Red Cross Eclipse, Javon Edison. Yeah. And the song is thought to tell you what to do if a hurricane hits the island. And so in a very playful way, we start to get this earworm in the air that is transmitted through the radio. And then when the actual crisis arrives, people are supposed to, you know, be responsive and be already trained in a way. And that's a strategy that has been used for since the very beginning of the collaboration between the radio and the Red Cross. Keep on stalking There ain't no stopping Cause I don't know if you will be crying.

[Imogen Folks]

One of the things that I was really interested in when I was reading about this exhibition, that public service announcements, etc. How to stay healthy. All good. But you've also got things about how music plays a role in humanitarianism. And we've got some pictures over here, maybe have a look at.

[Elisa Ruska]

Yeah. So the idea was to create an exhibition that is not just sound, to make it more inclusive. Inclusive and more also open to a larger understanding on what does it mean to Deal with music. And so this section is focusing on our collections and we are presenting images in particular here, photos, prints from our collections showing how the presence of music is really important in what we call the preservation of human dignity. Because it's maybe something that is not usually seen as a first aid element, but in fact we might say it is because it helps us feel better, it helps us to relate to the other, it helps us maybe forget also moment of distress. And that's why here we can also see how music is performed in prison by prisoners, for other prisoners, but also by Red Cross volunteers. Here's a volunteer of the Red Cross playing guitar for a group of children in Memphis after a flood in the 1930s. And in this next picture, you can see wounded soldiers in Vietnam playing with an ICRC nurse who is playing this.

[Imogen Folks]

She's got a banjo, I think. And one of the wounded soldiers is got a guitar. And clearly it's doing them good. You can see from their. Their faces. We were here a little earlier listening to this. This really interests me because these are the outtakes of your archives and it's all music. And yet it was like, oh, we don't need this. Why?

[Elisa Ruska]

Yeah, it's also very interesting for me to be here because this is a part that shows how communication and non verbal noises are also part of this humanitarian recordings and so on a broader sense, what's outside the picture is also important. And here these are sounds that have not a real label. We don't really know what they are, but they were selected and put together in a loop of three hours by three students of the idea. So the School of Art in Seir with whom we collaborated for the exhibition, the material that comes from here also include some parts that were in an on Ducassette which was labeled don't keep just music.

[Imogen Folks]

Don't keep just music. So these are recordings taken by the Red Cross in different places all over the world of people making music. And then somebody wrote, don't keep just music.

[Elisa Ruska]

Yeah, and that's the point of the students. And that's why they wanted to focus on that aspect and create this beautiful loop to give it a new life. Because for them, these sounds were kept for many, many years in the darkness of cold archives underground. And this was a way to make them alive again.

[Imogen Folks]

One of the things that really interested me is that this exhibition includes not just things that aid agencies, the Red Cross movement has produced to try and keep people safe or healthy. It's got the sounds of what the emotions of aid workers in Difficult situations might sound like. Tell me how that came about, because it's really fascinating.

[Elisa Ruska]

Yeah, well, something that came out exploring this sound archive was the fact that delegates and Red Cross volunteers recorded a lot of things at the same time. They are exposed to landscapes that are very particular and that stick to them even when they came back.

[Imogen Folks]

Things they can't forget.

[Elisa Ruska]

Yes.

[Imogen Folks]

And that can also be sound.

[Elisa Ruska]

Yes, of course. Sound is something that really unleashes your memory, maybe more than images, you know. And so this piece in particular has been created in collaboration with 42 volunteers from the so called International Geneva. So 42 people working at the ICRC, Medicine Saint Frontiere, IFRC and here at the museum who were interviewed by the artist Piero Mottola, who was an artist recently on the relation between emotion and sound. And he asked them to emit the vocalism of 10 so called basic emotions. So, you know, love, joy, fear, excitement, etc. And the result is this installation where we can hear these different voices, humanitarian voices, and relate to the emotion that are presented and suddenly being amazed as well by the fact that even though these people are not musically trained, there's a harmony that we can hear right now. Yeah. And so it's a way to say as well, no matter who we are or where we are from, the way we feel is the same. And also our internal voice is also important as one, the one that comes out.

[Imogen Folks]

Well, let's go in. I should explain to our listeners, it's a darkened room and these 10 emotions are in a kind of wheel around the room. And when you stand on one, you will hear that one. And if lots of people are in, you're hearing them together, but they range from anguish to calm, to joy to fear, sadness, all sorts of look. But let's go in. So I'm standing on calm and you're standing on excitement.

[Elisa Ruska]

Okay.

[Imogen Folks]

You're moving to amazement and I'm going to move to joy. Why not? So we've each chosen a cheerful one, joy and pleasure. And over this side it's not so joyful. I'm on sad. Right. Well, before I leave, I'm going to go back to pleasure just to cheer me myself up a bit. It's absolutely fascinating that he got aid workers who've been in difficult parts of the world to vocalize emotions. And that's the mixture. I mean, that is fascinating. So what are your visitors telling you about it? You're doing really well with number of visitors.

[Elisa Ruska]

Yeah, we are doing very well. A lot. A lot of people visiting more than 10,000 every month. And everyone is surprised and then happy because, of course, it's a topic that is intriguing. And through this path that we create, we can feel and maybe think differently about the connection between humanitarianism, emotion, and sound.

[Imogen Folks]

What do you think people will take away with them about humanitarianism when they've been to this exhibition?

[Elisa Ruska]

That humanitarianism is a plurality of voices and should be also a way to make those voices heard.

[Imogen Folks]

That special exhibition runs only until August 24th. So if you're in Geneva and you haven't seen and heard it, come and take a look and a listen. But a reminder. The museum is full of rewarding exhibitions that are here all year round. And as director Pascal Huschmidt tells us, they have an important message for all of us.

[Pascal Hufschweig]

When you visit the museum, you instinctively understand that you would want to have your dignity protected, that people you see on the screen of your iPhone or on anything, your television or in the papers, aren't just images and aren't just statistics, but they're people like you, like me. We all just want to have normal lives because that's such a huge privilege. And making sure that there are safety, some boundaries, making sure that there are some ways of protecting this fundamental right to be a human being and to be respected in one's humanity, I think that is essential. And that's what we talk about here in this museum. And it is a very, I think, important reminder of how then to apprehend all these stories we hear every day about conflicts and disasters around the world. And just remember that, well, what would I do? How would I react if I were to be in that situation? I'd surely want to be respected in my dignity. I'd want to have someone who helps me. And it's nothing more than that. But that's already huge.

[Imogen Folks]

So let alone Geneva or Switzerland. I mean, the world would be poorer without this museum.

[Elisa Ruska]

You think?

[Pascal Hufschweig]

Well, we do tell a story that is. That resonates all around the world, that of the international Red Cross movement. And we are telling this story at the heart of the world capital of humanitarian action and multilateral diplomacy, being also in the state that's the depository state of the Geneva Conventions, the very rules of war. So, yes, I do think that had this museum closed or if we'd lose this museum, we'd be sending a very confusing message, and this would certainly be a loss for Switzerland and the loss for Geneva. We also have key items of world heritage in this museum. The first ever Nobel Peace Prize medal that was given to Henri Du Nord, the cards of war prisoners of the First World War that are considered world heritage. And losing this collection would be a loss for people way beyond Switzerland.

[Imogen Folks]

And that brings us to the end of this edition of Inside Geneva. My thanks to Pascal Hoofschmidt and Elisa Rusko for taking the time to give me such a wonderful tour of the museum. Join us again next time for our fifth summer profile where we have a fascinating conversation with an aid worker who is on the brink of retirement.

[Aid Worker (possibly Tamam Aloudat or another featured guest)]

When I was young, I very quickly realized that there were many, many people who did not have this equal opportunity, who did not have equal chances. And for me, that was fundamentally wrong.

[Imogen Folks]

His career started in Gaza, took him to former Yugoslavia and much, much more.

[Aid Worker (possibly Tamam Aloudat or another featured guest)]

Forty years ago, in the mid-80s, Gaza was already bad at that time. There were curfew every night. There were raids by the Israeli army. They would break into houses, arrest mainly young people. Just the idea that we would have a conflict in the middle of Europe was, I think we're not ready for that. And we were not ready to see the violation. So it was a very awful conflict. We had a real ethnic cleansing.

[Imogen Folks]

That episode will be out on September 2nd. Don't miss it. And a reminder, our profiles from last summer are all still available. Hear from Chris Lockyer, Secretary General of Medicine Sans Frontiere, or Esther Dingemans of the Global Survivors Fund, which supports people who have suffered sexual violence in conflict. You can hear those and more wherever you get your podcasts. Podcasts, A reminder, you've been listening to Inside Geneva, a Swiss info production. You can subscribe to us and review us wherever you get your podcasts. Check out our previous episodes. How the International Red Cross Unites Prisoners of War with their families or why Survivors of Human Rights Violence Violations Turn to the UN in Geneva for justice. I'm Imogen, folks. Thanks again for listening. Hello, this is Imogen, folks from Swiss Info's Inside Geneva podcast. This summer, like last year, we're bringing you a fascinating series of summer profiles, starting with doctor, Aid worker and now journalist Tamam Aloudat.

[Aid Worker (possibly Tamam Aloudat or another featured guest)]

Can we afford to only put truth over people's heads and do nothing about the system? If your house was bombed for the first time, I understand if it was bombed for the 17th time and instead of a house you have a tarp, and instead of food you have animal feed or grass to eat.

[Imogen Folks]

Then later this month we'll hear from international lawyer and candidate to be judge on the International Court of Justice, the Dapa Wakande.

[Pascal Hufschweig]

It's clearly the case that in far too many cases, international law is disregarded and I'm going to have to turn on the news to see that. What I do know is that actually, international law is increasingly regarded as relevant.

[Imogen Folks]

From now till September. We've got all sorts of amazing people to talk to, from an aid worker in Gaza right now to someone who started his career in Gaza 40 years ago. Join us on Inside Geneva, wherever you get your podcasts.