Working Group on Living History

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Logo of the Working Group Lived History

The Working Group Lived History (AGG) ( French Groupe de travail Histoire vécue , Italian Gruppo di Lavoro Storia Vissuta ) was founded in October 1998 by Swiss contemporary witnesses of the Second World War in response to the Independent Expert Commission established on December 13, 1996 by the Swiss Federal Assembly Switzerland - Second World War (UEK) founded. The working group wanted to create a forum for the surviving witnesses to use oral history to present their point of view on the history of Switzerland during the Second World War .

history

The initiative to set up in 1997 by aviator officers of active service taken, the only branch of the Swiss army , which experienced the real thing in combat missions in World War II. The working group had around 500 members, including former ambassadors and chief officials of the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs (FDFA), former professional officers in the general rank, professors from various fields and personalities from business and industry. In May 2008 the AGG considered its mission accomplished and disbanded.

Responsibilities and publications

The association saw the main task in analyzing the reports of the Independent Expert Commission (ICE) and, where necessary, publishing counter-statements. The AGG criticized the fact that only half of the eight members of the ICE were Swiss and that none of its members had experienced the war years in Switzerland. The Federal Council did not respond to an application by the AGG, which the ICE wanted to provide as an advisory board to contemporary witnesses.

In the ten years of its existence, the Working Group Lived History has published various publications on the Bergier reports of the ICE from the perspective of contemporary witnesses . Among other topics, the numerous statements and interventions primarily concerned the Bergier reports. The most important publications, some of which have been translated into French, Italian and English, are:

  • Blackmailed Switzerland 2002; La Suisse face au chantage 2002
  • We take stock of 2005; La Suisse au pilori? 2006; La Svizzera alla berlina? 2006
  • The Comparison - The Politics of Switzerland at the Time of the Second World War in the International Environment 2006; Guerre et neutralité - Les neutral face à Hitler 2008; Faces of Neutrality - A Comparative Analysis of the Neutrality of Switzerland and other Neutral Nations during WW II 2009

The extensive archive with correspondence and publications with Swiss and American press reviews were deposited in the library on Guisanplatz , the former Federal Military Library , for historical research .

Board of Directors and Working Committee

  • Hans-Georg Bandi, prehistoric, co-president
  • Hans Rudolf Böckli, Federal Palace journalist
  • Kurt Bolliger , former air force corps commander and president of the Swiss Red Cross
  • Martin Burckhardt , former Basel National Councilor
  • Elisabeth Bürki-Flury, architect, co-president
  • Bernard Dubois
  • Hermann Fuhrer, former Bernese Grand Councilor
  • Georg Gyssler, engineer
  • Walter Hautle, Vice President
  • Marcel Heimo , former Swiss Ambassador, Vice President
  • Heinz Langenbacher , former Swiss ambassador
  • Pierre Languetin , former President of the Swiss National Bank
  • Vigilio Massarotti
  • Arthur Moll , former Air Force Corps Commander, Vice President
  • Markus Redli , former Director of the Federal Finance Administration, former President DG PTT
  • Rudolf Stettler, advocate

reception

The working group was the subject of a question in parliament twice: on October 9, 1998 and June 23, 2000. Both questions were submitted by National Councilor Luzi Stamm ( FDP , AG ).

On June 14, 2002, as part of the official framework program for the Bergier report, the working group presented its position in a presentation in the Käfigturm . The AGG 's journal activity report published by the working group from 1998 to 2008 is archived by the library association of the federal administration (reference number: BIG MF 593 / 1968 ).

criticism

The historian Georg Kreis , member of the ICE and President of the Federal Commission against Racism , described the working group in an article in the Jüdische Rundschau on April 13, 2000 as older men who want to give their old age a certain dynamic.

Literature (selection)

  • Working group Lived History (joint work), Blackmailed Switzerland - On the dispute about Switzerland's attitude in World War II and the reports of the Bergier Commission , Gut Verlag, Stäfa 2002, ISBN 3-85717-176-6 .
  • Groupe de Travail Histoire Vécue, La Suisse face au chantage , Editions Cabédita, Yens sur Morges 2002, ISBN 2-88295-357-7 .
  • Working group Lived History (joint work): We take stock - On the attitude of Switzerland in the Second World War , Gut Verlag, Stäfa 2005, ISBN 3-85717-169-3 .
  • Herbert R. Reginbogin , Working Group Lived History (Ed.): The comparison - The politics of Switzerland at the time of the Second World War in the international environment . Gut Verlag, Stäfa 2006, 306 pages, ISBN 3-85717-176-6 .
  • Groupe de Travail Histoire Vécue: La Suisse au pilori? Editions Cabédita, Yens sur Morges 2006, ISBN 2-88295-471-9 .
  • Gruppo di Lavoro Storia Vissuta: La Svizzera alla Berlina? Pedrazzini Tipografia, Locarno 2006, ISBN 88-740-4027-X .
  • Luzi Stamm: Bergier Report - Political Ideology in Schoolrooms? , Commentary on the Zurich textbook "Look and Ask", IG series No. 9 - January 2007.
  • Herbert R. Reginbogin, Guerre et neutralité , Editions Cabédita, Yens sur Morges 2008, ISBN 978-2-88295-538-8 .
  • Herbert R. Reginbogin: Faces of Neutrality , LIT Verlag Dr. W. Hopf Berlin 2009, ISBN 978-3-8258-1914-9 .
  • Stephen P. Halbrook: Swiss resistance against Nazi Germany, experienced and documented by contemporary witnesses, an addition to the Bergier report . Verlag Merker im Effingerhof, Lenzburg 2010, ISBN 978-3-85648-101-8 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Interpellation 98.3495 , accessed on May 2, 2011
  2. ↑ a b Interpellation 00.3373 , accessed on May 2, 2011
  3. ↑ Framework program Bergier report ( Memento of the original from June 4, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. on the website of the cage tower @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.kaefigturm.ch
  4. ^ Activity report of the AGG in the library association of the federal administration