By Stephanie Nebehay

GENEVA, Nov 9 (Reuters) - Archives recording the fate of 2 million prisoners captured during World War One, including young French captain Charles de Gaulle who later became president, enter UNESCO's "Memory of the World" register next week.

The recognition by UNESCO, whose aim is to prevent collective amnesia by preserving mankind's documentary heritage, dovetails with the 89th anniversary of the Nov. 11 armistice.

The data covers prisoners from 14 countries -- dominated by French and German soldiers, but also from the Balkans and the colonies -- which detaining authorities sent to the neutral International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).

De Gaulle and French singer Maurice Chevalier were among the soldiers whose names, birthplace and places of capture the German forces meticulously recorded on neat prison registries.

"The archives will be preserved for posterity. They are a monument to suffering, even if it seems cold on paper," Martin Morger, head of ICRC's conservation services, told Reuters at the ICRC museum which houses the impressive collection.

The humanitarian agency set up the International Prisoners-of-War Agency in August 1914 to restore contact between people separated by the conflict -- prisoners of war and interned civilians whose families were desperate for news. It also visited many prisoner of war camps to check on conditions.

UNESCO, which agreed in June to include the ICRC archives in its 'Memory of the World' register, said that they provided "testimony on the extent of human suffering during the First World War, but also of pioneering action to protect civilians."

A formal ceremony is set to take place in Geneva on Nov. 15.

1,000 REQUESTS A DAY

"It was the first time in history that this kind of tracing was done. At the time there were up to 1,000 requests from families per day which kept 500 volunteers busy," Morger said.

The volunteers maintained the lists of prisoners provided by German as well as Allied authorities in Europe, Africa and Asia. These were bound into 2,413 black volumes covering 1914-1923.

Individual cards were typed up for each name and updated if the prisoner was moved, received medical care or died. Relatives and friends' efforts to trace the missing were also noted.

A pale blue card bearing the name Maurice Chevalier records that the Parisian, part of infantry regiment 31, was captured and sent to a prison camp in Alten Grabow (Grabau) in Germany.

It notes that "Mistinguette", a famed cabaret female singer, had inquired about the whereabouts of the talented younger man.

A card for Charles de Gaulle said the 25-year-old captain in the 33rd infantry fell into German hands at Verdun in 1916.

"The International Prisoners-of-War Agency also asked comrades about missing soldiers, which unfortunately often led to learning the circumstances of their death," Morger said.

Some 9 million men lost their lives during the "war to end all wars", many in the horrific trenches, the ICRC says.

Its archives cover 2 million of the estimated 7 million servicemen taken prisoner, mainly those on the western front.

Records from the eastern front went to a Red Cross agency in Denmark, while others were probably destroyed, he added.

The ICRC archives, which stretch 400 linear metres (yards), were stored for years in a Geneva school basement, where some were damaged by humidity.

The agency has embarked on an ambitious project to restore and digitalise the archives by 2014 -- the 100th anniversary of the war's start -- and make them available on the Internet.

"We still get about 200 requests a year for information, mostly from families doing genealogical research. They are the children and now the grandchildren of the former combatants," Morger said. "We also get requests from historians worldwide." (Editing by Charles Dick)

AlertNet news is provided by