André Béguin (officer)

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André Béguin on horseback in the Wauwilermoss detention center

André Béguin (* 1897 in Neuchâtel in Switzerland ; † unknown) was in command of the interned prison camp Wauwilermoos in the canton of Lucerne from summer 1941 to July 31, 1945 . After reports of intolerable conditions by former interned American soldiers, the camp became known in the English-speaking area . After the Second World War, Béguin was sentenced to imprisonment for various offenses.

Life

Béguin was born in Neuchâtel in 1897 and was involved as a youth in the right-wing extremist " Jeunesses nationales Neuchâtelois ". After compulsory school, he completed an apprenticeship as a draftsman in his father's office. In 1936 he joined the right-wing “ Union Nationale ” in Geneva and in 1937 became head of the Yverdon section of the Swiss “ Front National ”. Béguin lived beyond his means and therefore had high debts. He was expelled from the National Front for fraud. Even in the military it was no longer considered portable and was decommissioned from 1931 to 1940. Béguin went to Munich in 1938 , where he worked for organizations that were close to the NSDAP . After the outbreak of war he returned to Switzerland and was reactivated as an officer in 1940 at his request. In August of the same year he became head of the Kalchrain camp .

Activity as a camp commandant in Wauwilermoos

In the summer of 1941, Béguin became head of the Wauwilermoos internment prison camp. His pro-German attitude and his financial difficulties raised suspicions of espionage in 1942, which was not confirmed in the subsequent military investigation. Nevertheless, voices in the army that wanted to remove Béguin became louder because the investigations had revealed Béguin's political background and unsustainable conditions in the Wauwilermoos camp. The head of the legal service of the Federal Commissariat for Internment and Hospitalization (EKIH) refrained from being dismissed. In November 1944, the adjutant general and interim detention commissioner of the EKIH intervened after it became known that prisoner packages of the American Red Cross had not been delivered. The later searches of Béguin's office and private apartment uncovered large quantities of food and luxury goods of American origin. In addition, the investigators came across a large number of unopened mail from and to internees, which are now in the Swiss Federal Archives . Béguin stated that he did not forward the letters because he had to censor them and had no time to do so. Béguin was finally suspended from his post on July 31, 1945 and arrested on September 24, 1945. The Zurich divisional court sentenced him to three and a half years in prison for fraud, embezzlement, falsification of documents, abuse of authority, falsification of official duties, non-compliance with service regulations, misuse of materials, disobedience and the acceptance of bribes .

literature

  • Max Brusto : In the Swiss lifeboat. Documentation. Starczewski, Munich 1967, p. 19.
  • Peter Kamber: Shots at the liberators. Switzerland's “air guerrilla” against the Allies 1943–45. Rotpunkt, Zurich 1993, ISBN 3-85869-092-9 , chapter “Straflager Wauwilermoos”, pp. 196–213 (PDF) .
  • Olivier Grivat: Internés en Suisse 1939–1945. Ketty et Alexandre, Chapelle-sur-Moudon 1995, ISBN 2-88114-038-6 , chapter “L'enfer du camp pénitentiaire du Wauwilermoos”, p. 69 ff.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Peter Kamber: Shots on the Liberators, Zurich 1993, pp. 196-208.
personal data
SURNAME Béguin, André
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swiss officer, from summer 1941 to July 31, 1945 in command of the Wauwilermoos internee prison camp in the canton of Lucerne
DATE OF BIRTH 1897
PLACE OF BIRTH Neuchâtel NE , Switzerland
DATE OF DEATH after 1945