on 12 march 1945, icrc president jacob burckhardt received a message from ss general ernst kaltenbrunner accepting the icrc's demand to allow delegates to visit the concentration camps. this agreement was bound by the condition that these delegates would have to stay in the camps until the end of the war. ten delegates, among them louis haefliger (mauthausen camp), paul dunant (theresienstadt camp) and victor maurer (dachau camp), accepted the assignment and visited the camps. louis haefliger prevented the forceful eviction or blasting of mauthausen-gusen by alerting american troops, thereby saving the lives of about 60,000 inmates. his actions were condemned by the icrc because they were deemed as acting unduly on his own authority and risking the icrc's neutrality. only in 1990 was his reputation finally rehabilitated by icrc president cornelio sommaruga.