Switzerland in World War II

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The Switzerland was during the Second World War, not by invasion affected. The economy, society and current affairs, however, were severely affected by the war, especially because Switzerland was at times completely surrounded by the Axis powers . The government (and army command ) tried to maintain neutrality and sovereignty without offending any of the warring parties. The construction of the Swiss Reduit began . After the end of the war, the victorious powers accused Switzerland of cooperating with the National Socialists , because among other things, around 75% of the foreign currency required by the German Reich for purchases in neutral foreign countries was processed through the Reichsbank's gold transactions via the Swiss banking system.

The time of the Second World War is referred to by the active service generation as the border occupation 1939–1945 .

General War Mobilization poster from the collection of the Swiss National Museum
Marble sculpture readiness for military service by Hans Brandenberger 1943–1947, the original in bronze was a symbol of the country spirit from 1939

prehistory

After the founding of the Heimatwehr in Zurich in 1925, the front movement was formed at the beginning of the 1930s with the National Front at its head. Immediately after Hitler came to power in 1933, it gained influence in the spring of the front , and in the autumn of that year it gained 10% and 27% respectively in cantonal council elections in Zurich and Schaffhausen . Overall, the front movement remained only a marginal phenomenon. The fronts in the National Council received only one mandate in the 1935–1939 legislative period. The fascist - National Socialist threat nevertheless led the Social Democratic Party (SPS) to give up its role in the opposition and to recognize national defense and democracy in a new party program. The unconditional recognition of the legitimacy of national defense followed in January 1937 when the SPS joined the guideline movement .

On February 23, 1937, in Berlin , Hitler gave Edmund Schulthess, former Swiss Federal Councilor , a promise not to launch an attack on the Confederation.

After the annexation of Austria to Germany, Switzerland returned from differentiated back to integral neutrality , i.e. This means that from now on it no longer took part not only in military but also in economic sanctions of the League of Nations . Under the influence of German expansion, Swiss politicians, scholars and the military reaffirmed Switzerland's intellectual and military will to resist and assert itself. Federal Councilor Hermann Obrecht proclaimed: «Anyone who should attack our independence [...] will face war! We Swiss will not go on pilgrimages abroad first. " “ Intellectual national defense ” became a formative element of Swiss cultural and intellectual life well into the post-war period.

After the introduction of the Nuremberg Race Laws in Germany, the emigration and flight of German Jews to Switzerland increased. Since the Évian conference in July 1938 did not find a solution to the problem, the Swiss authorities wanted to counter the influx by reintroducing the visa requirement with Germany. The German government protested against this, as this measure should also apply to non-Jewish travelers. The widespread opinion that Chief of Police Heinrich Rothmund , head of the Aliens Police , suggested marking it with a "J", but according to the latest research it is only partially correct. In August 1938 he proposed a visa for all emigrants. The German Foreign Office refused and instead demanded that the passports of all German and Swiss Jews be stamped with a J stamp. Rothmund himself, in turn, raised concerns. On October 4, 1938, the Federal Council finally approved an agreement with Germany according to which the passports of German Jews were to be stamped with the J stamp. The requirement for J stamps in the passports of Swiss Jews has been dropped.

Furthermore, at the Évian Conference in 1938, Switzerland was not prepared to accept a certain contingent of refugees on a permanent basis and insisted on remaining solely a transit country, which is why only emigrants were allowed to enter Switzerland who could prove that they could travel on as soon as possible.

Switzerland during the Second World War

General

Especially in German-speaking Switzerland there were minorities who supported the ideas of the National Socialists . They were organized under the name of Frontists and temporarily provided city parliamentarians in Zurich and cantonal parliamentarians, among others. a. in Schaffhausen. Her coat of arms was a Swiss cross with a white bar that ran to the edge. Without expressly posing as Nazis or frontists, certain exponents of the social elite were also influenced by Nazi ideas. Another permanent challenge was the " Fifth Column ", the group of Nazi friends in Switzerland, whose exponent Wilhelm Gustloff, the NSDAP's Swiss group leader , fell victim to a fatal assassination attempt in Davos in 1936 by David Frankfurter .

Switzerland invoked its armed neutrality during the Second World War and ordered general mobilization on September 2, 1939. On August 29, the border troops were already called up.

In 1941 the German Reich is said to have received a loan of one billion Swiss francs from Switzerland for the Russia campaign .

Surrounded by the Axis Powers in the north, east and south , attempts were made to ration and systematically use green spaces. a. areas such as football pitches ( elections plan ) to counter food shortages.

Government members

Domestic situation

When the war broke out, it was still hoped that the war would end soon. In May 1940 events precipitated, the situation became more threatening and the population became more and more anxious as the war continued, especially for the following reasons:

  • There were acts of sabotage and troop marches on the Swiss border. Only in retrospect did it become known that these staged marches were part of a large-scale deception in preparation for the western campaign (→  Switzerland during the western campaign ) of the German Wehrmacht . Instead of the weak German security forces actually lying on the Upper Rhine, strong offensive forces and the intention to bypass the Maginot Line via Swiss territory were faked here with great effort in order to bind French forces on a large scale. This measure reached its climax during the campaign in mid-May, timed with German successes in the real focus of the attack at Sedan , with the announcement by Reich Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels that "there will be no more neutral states in Europe within 24 hours", as well as apparent indiscretions German diplomats about intent to attack.
  • German armies overran neutral countries like the Netherlands , Belgium and Luxembourg within a few days. The Swiss therefore feared an invasion of the warring states.
  • The French army , considered very strong, was overrun by the German Blitzkrieg within a month.
  • The controversial radio address of June 25, 1940 by then Federal President Marcel Pilet-Golaz was interpreted by many as a hasty adjustment or even submission to Germany.

The democratic structure of the country was basically preserved during the war. As early as 1935, radical right-wing efforts in the form of the Fronten Initiative, which wanted to adapt the political system in part to German conditions, clearly failed in the referendum.

During the war, the so-called power of attorney regime of the Federal Council partially restricted the rights of both the people and the parliament. Free elections were retained, however, and even three popular initiatives from the population were voted for by the people - traditional direct democracy did not completely disappear from the political image either.

Death penalty

In contrast to all other countries, Switzerland abolished the civil death penalty in the middle of the war ; it was last executed on October 18, 1940 against Hans Vollenweider .

However, cases of treason increased . A total of 468 cases were discovered during the war years. There were 33 death sentences by the military justice system , eleven of which were convicted foreigners. Fifteen death sentences have been passed in the absence of the defendants. With the exception of one from Liechtenstein , all of the seventeen people executed were German-speaking Swiss. Among the executed were a major ( Hans Pfister ), two subaltern officers and three fouriers .

The executions for treason were discussed decades later by Niklaus Meienberg in the book and later in the film The shooting of traitor Ernst S. using the example of Ernst Schrämli , who was executed in 1942 . Meienberg's work should be seen less as a neutral report than as a class-struggle interpretation of the Schrämli case. Later the lawyer Peter Noll and the historian Walter Schaufelberger as well as the journalist Karl Lüönd also took on the subject.

High treason was not sufficient to impose the death penalty. Many who made pacts with the National Socialists got away with sometimes mild sentences. Swiss people who fought in the Waffen SS were only charged with "foreign services".

Maurice Bavaud , a theology student from western Switzerland , tried to kill Hitler and was executed by the Nazi regime for it. The selective press censorship in Switzerland , however, ensured that the media reported about it very discreetly. Since 2011 there has been a memorial stele for Bavaud near his former home in Neuchâtel , in Hauterive NE .

Swiss in Nazi concentration camps

Around 1,000 Swiss citizens suffered in the Nazi concentration camps between 1933 and 1945, at least 200 of whom died. No violent confrontation has claimed more Swiss lives in the last 200 years. The bloodiest chapter in recent Swiss history has hardly been researched to this day. No list of names reminds of the abused Swiss Abroad, Resistance sympathizers, Jews, homosexuals, anti-fascists and unlucky ones. Even Swiss abroad who only listened to Radio Beromünster were cruelly persecuted. Many victims could have been helped if official Switzerland had done more for them. In the last years of the war, Germany showed a keen interest in exchanging large numbers of Swiss prisoners for Germans imprisoned in Switzerland. But official Switzerland did not take the chance. The Swiss authorities did not want to advocate an exchange with criminals and those “who had carried out an activity which is also criminalized in Switzerland or which at least seems to be detrimental to Swiss interests (such as espionage against Germany in favor of third countries, Participation in the resistance movement in France, communist activities) ». Swiss people who had actively campaigned against the Nazi dictatorship could not expect any help.

So far, not only has a memorial site been missing, but also extensive research on the Swiss Nazi victims. In 2018, the Organization of the Swiss Abroad demanded that official Switzerland pay tribute to the victims with a memorial or at least a plaque and that their fates be dealt with historically.

Countries bordering Switzerland

US Army in Münstertal on the Swiss border, May 1945
  • Germany was at war from September 1, 1939, when the attack on Poland began . Hitler's war aims against Switzerland can be found in a source analysis by Jürg Fink. One of the sources with Hitler statements indirectly proves the relative importance of Swiss arms deliveries to the Reich: "I am determined to use half of Europe for our armaments if necessary." Among other things, or mainly because of this, Switzerland should be spared until after the hoped-for victory in the Eastern campaign . The language style for the time after that came from Goebbels : "... From all this, the Führer drew the conclusion that the small state junk still existing in Europe today must be liquidated as quickly as possible."
  • France declared war on Germany on September 3, 1939. After the German attack in May 1940, it capitulated after a month. The short common border section with Vichy-France was the only part of the border that was not controlled by the Axis powers after 1940. It was for the smuggling of goods, e.g. B. to Great Britain , important.
  • Austria "attached" to Germany from March 12, 1938
  • Italy from 1922 fascist ( Mussolini ), 1940 alliance with Germany
  • Like Switzerland, Liechtenstein remained neutral and unharmed (itself only borders on Austria and Switzerland)

The army

The watchword of the hour
Panzersperre Gurmels to 1940 hump barrier and Pak expands -Bunker
Mg 11 in the "Villa Rose" bunker, Tobleroneweg , in Gland

From 1937, a network of combat structures was built in Switzerland. It was financed through military loans. The lines of defense were staggered in the Reduit in the Alps, protection of the Central Plateau by the Limmat line and the first defense line of the border fortifications.

The first blackout exercise took place in the autumn of 1938 and leaflets were issued on air protection.

Henri Guisan (1874–1960), previously commander of an army corps, became general and commander-in-chief of the Swiss Army on August 30, 1939 by a parliamentary resolution .

September 1939

After the mobilization on September 2, 1939, around 450,000 soldiers took part in active service . In addition, around 10,000 women were drafted into the so-called military women's aid service (FHD).

When it was first mobilized, the army staff had no operational plans. The general first had to take into account the existing fortifications, which had neither uniform basic equipment nor a uniform system. The fortresses of Sargans , Gotthard and the fortress of Scex near St-Maurice formed the legacy of earlier but still valid views of defense.

In many places there was a lack of weapons, ammunition and equipment. The situation with the Swiss Air Force was particularly precarious . Most of the 21  squadrons were only equipped with outdated aircraft, and five squadrons did not have their own aircraft. Before the war, however, the army in Germany bought 80 ultra-modern Messerschmitt fighters at the last minute . Fighter- bombers and reconnaissance aircraft as well as French Morane-Saulnier fighters were also manufactured under license in their own factories .

The army lacked both anti-tank equipment and largely its own battle tanks . The backward motorization of the army in 1939 made postponements difficult. Such a static army would have had little to oppose a well-armed enemy like the Wehrmacht in the Central Plateau . This was also recognized by the army leadership in view of the Blitzkrieg in Poland and in the western campaign ( Belgium , France and the Netherlands ).

The Wehrmacht leadership considered whether the French border security ( Maginot line ) could possibly be circumvented south via Switzerland. Even before the outbreak of war, secret agreements existed between Switzerland and France, such as the so-called Maneuver H , according to which at least one French division should close the gap between the fortified Gempen plateau and the Maginot Line in the event of a German invasion of Switzerland . The gun emplacements prepared in this room, which were also suitable for French guns, bear witness to this plan. Attack plans such as the Operation Tannenbaum plan did not emerge until during and after the invasion of France in June 1940. The intention in these operational plans was to use the Swiss plateau as a thoroughfare to southern France. Italian plans envisaged an invasion of the Splügen and Simplon passes . The German high command confirmed that the Swiss army was willing to fight, but it was "completely inferior" to the German army .

Mobilization constellation

unit commander Operational area
1st Army Corps Corps Commander Lardelli West and southwest
1st division Colonel Divisionaire Gustave Combe Vaud
2nd division Colonel Division Borel Biel and Neuchâtel Jura
3rd division Colonel division of Graffenried Bern / Murten
8th division Colonel Division Gübel Wiggertal
9th division Colonel division Bolliger Gotthard
1st Light Brigade Colonel Charriere Morges / Jura
2nd Light Brigade Colonel Koller Freiberg
10th Mountain Brigade Colonel Brigadier Black lower course of the Rhone and Dranses
11th Mountain Brigade Colonel Brigadier Bühler Simplon (Upper Rhone Valley)
2nd Army Corps Corps Commander Prisi north
4th division Colonel division joke Solothurn Jura
5th division Colonel Division Bircher Aargau / Fricktal
3rd Army Corps Colonel Corps Commander Miescher East and northeast
6th division Colonel Divisionist Constam Zurich / Winterthur
7th division Colonel Division Flückiger Toggenburg
3rd Light Brigade Colonel Wirth Frauenfeld
12th Mountain Brigade Colonel Brigadier Hold Grisons
Sargans fortress Colonel Brigadier Gubler Sargans
Air and anti-aircraft troops Colonel Division Bandi

October 1939

Case north.

December 1939

Changes:

  • The 3rd Division - until this moment the army reserve - is subordinated to the 2nd  Army Corps . Their use is new in the Jura between the 5th and 4th divisions.
  • The general consciously takes a risk by focusing on the northern front. Because of the winter, the forces of the southern front could have been used as a new army reserve in an emergency .

January 1940

From January 1st the creation of a new 4th Army Corps will begin. The 3rd Army Corps will now work in the center. This allows the army positions to be divided into three.

Other 1940

When, after the fall of Paris, German tank units pushed the 45th French Army Corps into the Jura and its General Marius Daille asked the Swiss Federal Council for asylum, which the Swiss Federal Council granted on June 20, 1940, around 43,000 soldiers crossed the Doubs near Goumois and became disarmed by the Swiss Army. In the following period, the army was responsible for interning foreign military personnel in camps until the end of the war .

In mid-June 1940 the German Reich delivered significantly less coal than before. In doing so, it put pressure on Switzerland; it was supposed to play a certain role in the German war economy . On August 9, 1940, Switzerland signed an economic agreement with the German Reich. Switzerland accommodated Germany economically and financially, but successfully refused political concessions: Germany received loans, foreign currency and armaments, Switzerland in return received coal, interest from investments in Germany - and orders that kept the Swiss economy running (and some of them lucrative were).

At the end of July 1940, over 70 soldiers in the Swiss Army suffered severe food poisoning with permanent damage. Due to a mix-up, machine oil was used instead of cooking oil for the preparation of cheese slices . The victims came to be known as oil soldiers .

From spring 1940, plans for the Swiss Reduit (French Réduit national ) are drawn up. The main differences are the more or less large outlines.

There are two possible solutions:

  • The most consistent solution, which drew the most extreme conclusions from the idea, was the German Plan. A reduit of limited dimensions that was to be defended by mountain troops .
  • The Gonard plan comprised a more extensive system, including the three fortified zones Sargans, Gotthard and St-Maurice ( Gonard was chief of General Guisan's personal staff and the actual operational head of the Swiss army ).

The general and the chief of staff had to decide to what extreme degree of consequences in relation to the reduit they might have to go. But they also had to give themselves an account of the factors of the current situation. From July 1940 the following decisions are known from it.

The further arrangements were based on considerations of a strategic and tactical nature.

  • Gradually move into a defensive position in the central room, without delay, following a tactic of defense in depth.

«SECRET
[…]
V. I have made the following decision. The defense of the country will be organized according to a new principle, that of gradation in depth.
[...]
The resistance squadrons will be:

  • the border troops
  • an advanced or secured position
  • an alpine or central position (réduit national), which is flanked in the east, west and south by the included fortifications of Sargans, St. Maurice and the Gotthard.

[...]
The assignments assigned to these three resistance tiers are the following:

  • that of the border troops remains intact;
  • the advanced or secured position blocks the axes of incidence into the interior of the country;
  • hold the troops in the alpine or central position, provided with the greatest possible supplies without any thought of retreating.

[…]
IV. But above all it is important that the population does not under any circumstances flow back in the direction of the Réduit, where they would question the success of the operation and where they would not have enough supplies. "

- Letter from the general to the Federal Council of July 12, 1940

The German propaganda did not fail to have an effect. The reporting of the Blitzkrieg and the propaganda meant that many Swiss (including the soldiers) resistance seemed impossible. General Guisan recognized the importance of his own information. He let Switzerland show the will to fight by all possible means and informed his officers precisely of his intentions. The first emerging idea of ​​the Reduit reference now made information more difficult, since the project and its preparations had to be carried out in secret.

Operation order No. 12, which was drawn up a few days later in response to the letter to the Federal Council, is the first document that was dictated by the idea of ​​the redoubt. The general had to at least inform the officers down to the battalion commander about it. The plan essentially contained the following statement:

Each army corps has an assignment that begins at the border and has its main weight in the Reduit.
  • Security squadron at the border, in the Central Plateau with light troops, delaying actions, in the Reduit the blocking of the major gateways.

It was an important task to impress this solution on the bosses. The general in command, the officers on July 25, 1940 (which later became legendary) for " Rütli Rapport " to the Rütli -Wiese. It was important that at least the officers knew why they suddenly had to leave occupied and expanded positions in order to move into new dispositions in the Alps.

Only the general staff officers remained at their posts and were not ordered to the Rütli. The general took a well-calculated risk for himself and the army command when he drove with all the officers in just one ship from Lucerne over Lake Lucerne to the Rütli. It was supposed to signal to the officers that they were all «in the same boat». "As long as a soldier still has ammunition, he must use it, if he runs out of ammunition, he should use his weapon with the bayonet attached in hand-to-hand combat."

His nationwide radio address followed on August 1st, renewing the will of the population to defend: "Could we resist?"

The German military did not think much of the reduit idea. For Guisan it means “the loss of the vital areas” - a potential invitation to attack. The Aargau Colonel Hans Senn, on the other hand, spoke in the text 100 Years of the Federal Constitution published in 1948 of a “courageous decision to withdraw” by the general.

In October 1940, the Wehrmacht announced delivery requests for Swiss military equipment and war material. On February 7, 1941, Switzerland granted the Reich a new clearing credit in the amount of 165 million Swiss francs and in return received a promise that coal deliveries would continue unabated - 150,000 tonnes per month.

1941 to 1944

In the years 1941 to 1944 there were different command orders. An ordre de bataille adapted to the Reduit had to replace the old ordinances. In the winter of 1941 Switzerland had five army corps and one group from the Western Alps. During this time tactical considerations were more important than strategic ones. From the spring of 1941 until the end of the war there were then only four army corps. The section boundaries of the army units changed over the years, but the orders remained for the most part the same.

On August 20, 1943, on the wooded slopes of Calanda near Chur, firing exercises at a recruiting school for heavy infantry weapons led to what is believed to be the largest forest fire in Swiss history. Around 477 hectares of forest fell victim to the fire.

Assignments during the Reduit occupation

unit commander assignment Operational area
4th Army Corps Jakob Labhardt Blocks access to the Gotthard
Sargans fortress
7th and 6th division
5th division Sargans to the lower right bank of the Aare
3rd Light Brigade Retarding force
2nd Army Corps Friedrich Prisi blocks access from Brünig, left bank of Lake Lucerne
4th and 8th division
2nd Light Brigade Retarding force
1st Army Corps Jules Borel Blocks the upper Aare valley, protects the access to the Reduit in the western foothills of the Alps
3rd Army Corps Renzo Lardelli Blocks access to the Gotthard from the southwest, south and east
9th division Gotthard
12th Brigade Grisons
9th border brigade Bellinzona Basin

The 1st Army Corps was the most heavily endowed. It had the 1st, 2nd and 3rd Divisions, the 10th Mountain Brigade , the 1st Light Brigade and the fortress of St-Maurice.

From this time on, the air force formed the general's only reserve. Even the army corps could no longer retire as a regiment as a tactical reserve.

Airspace violations and bombings

The Fieseler Storch served the air force for a long time
Robust and capable of fighting, the large C-36 fleet remained in service for a long time

The Swiss Air Force was involved in aerial battles during World War II as part of the protection of neutrality . In 1940, during the French campaign, German fighter planes often overflights. In the air battles a total of eleven German aircraft were shot down with three losses of their own. This prompted Hermann Göring to send saboteurs illegally to Switzerland in order to kill them on the night of 13/14. July 1940 Destroying Swiss military aircraft with explosives at various airfields. The Swiss government was threatened with sanctions and massive retaliation. General Henri Guisan then had air battles prohibited in principle until October 1943.

US Army Air Forces (USAAF) bombers were also intercepted whose crews had lost their orientation or wanted to escape to Switzerland with the damaged aircraft, as they preferred a Swiss internment camp to captivity in Germany or Italy. Alarm patrols by the Swiss air force forced more bombers to land on airfields.

During the war, 6501 border violations were counted, with 198 foreign aircraft landing in Switzerland. There were also 56 crashes involving foreign planes in Switzerland. The Swiss Air Force lost four pilots and crew members in direct aerial battles:

  • On June 4, 1940, the Messerschmitt Bf 109 went from Lt. Rickenbacher lost under unexplained circumstances. Based on the investigations, it was assumed that this crash was shot down by a German aircraft.
  • Four days later, a C-35 was shot down by several Messerschmitt Bf 110s over Pruntrut , the crew (Lt. Meuli and Oblt. Gürtler) also perishing.
  • Another person died on September 5, 1944 when two USAAF Mustangs accompanied the battered B-17 bomber 43-37866 ("Blues in the Night", pilot: Capt. Alvin W. Jaspers) to Switzerland: The US pilots were 2 / Lt. Nathan Ostrow and 1 / Lt. Earl E. Erickson of the 503th FS of the 339th FG. Oblt. Paul Treu died in the aerial battle in which the US fighters opened fire without warning, and the Bf 109 crashed in the Hürstwald near Zurich-Affoltern . His Rottenflieger Lt. Despite several hits and severe injuries, Robert Heiniger was able to land his plane safely on the Dübendorf military airfield with a belly landing.

Sporadically there was bombing of Swiss cities and railway lines. American air strikes occurred particularly near the border, such as in Le Noirmont ( in October 1944 ) and Thayngen , but cities such as Basel (especially Wolf freight yard ) and Zurich were hit. Were hit particularly hard

The US announced to the public that the crews of the 38 heavy bombers that bombed Schaffhausen believed they were over the city of Tuttlingen .

War economy

Food rationing from October 9, 1940 to June 24, 1948

The main problem throughout the war remained the supply of essential goods. Switzerland has practically no raw materials of its own and has to import everything. As a landlocked country, Switzerland does not have its own access to the sea and had to transport coal, rubber, ore, etc. through the areas occupied by the Axis powers . These supply routes were extremely insecure and would have been interrupted if war broke out. The coal import declined in the war years. The increase in the use of wood provided partial compensation. An impressive fleet of merchant ships owned by Swiss shipping companies cruised the world's oceans to bring raw materials to Europe. These were z. B. from the port of Genoa transported by rail to Switzerland.

3D table of Swiss arms, ammunition and fuse exports from 1940–1944 by country

The few available foreign raw materials were strictly rationed from the beginning of the war and flowed mainly into the armaments industry. This expanded strongly in the course of the war and was not only able to equip the Swiss army with better and better material. Particularly modern anti- tank and anti-aircraft cannons ( Oerlikon ) and machine guns were produced.

The so-called cultivation battle, also known as the elections plan , ensured that there was never a shortage of basic food . For this purpose, all available green areas , sports fields, etc. were converted into grain and potato fields.

As a result of the petrol and rubber shortage, the then modest automobile traffic practically came to a complete standstill.

Because Switzerland has no coal reserves of its own, but also following a general modernization trend, the electrification of the rail network had already started in 1918. In 1945 practically the entire network was electrified, and numerous hydropower plants had been built to generate electricity on the rivers and in the mountains .

Federal finances recorded an astonishing development. The historian Erich Gruner described a jump from CHF 570 million to almost CHF 1.6 billion for the income from 1938 to 1944. This can probably be explained by the war and armaments economy. It is more difficult to explain the jump in expenditure from 605 million to almost 2.6 billion francs (in 1960 federal expenditure was exactly the same) and the jump in federal debt from 2.0 billion to 6.7 billion francs (in 1970 this amount was “only »5.4 billion francs). The armament needs of the army certainly played a role here too, and probably also the income compensation for the army personnel.

Humanitarian aid, asylum and refugee policy

Humanitarian aid

The International Central Agency for Prisoners of War , founded in Geneva in 1914 and existing until 1923, resumed its work in 1939. As in World War I, it concentrated on the exchange of information about prisoners and missing persons, monitoring the prisoner-of-war camps and helping the civilian population. During the course of the war, 179 delegates made 12,750 visits to POW camps in 41 countries. The Central Office for Prisoners of War employed 2585 people, 1676 of them volunteers. In June 1947, your card index contained 36 million cards and 120 million messages were sent.

Admitted refugees

During the Second World War, Switzerland - with a total population of less than four million - accommodated a total of around 300,000 people seeking protection for a shorter or longer period. This includes various categories such as interned military personnel (104,000), temporarily admitted border refugees (67,000), children on recreational leave (60,000), civil refugees (51,000, of whom 21,300 were of Jewish descent), emigrants (10 '000) and political refugees (250). The so-called “Ludwig Report” of 1957 assumes 10,000 rejected people, the Bergier Commission estimates the number of rejected refugees at 20,000. The world-famous Swiss theologian Karl Barth assumed that Switzerland had "turned back around 100,000 refugees". The "treatment of those admitted" was "unworthy".

After March 11, 1938, when Austria was integrated into the German Reich , at least 3,000 refugees came legally by direct train from Vienna via Buchs SG to Zurich. After the border was closed between August 1938 and February 1939, others tried to enter illegally. Escape workers received fines or, less often, prison sentences.

Several detailed studies on the rejection of refugees in the border section of the canton of Geneva , via which around 40% of all refugees reached Switzerland during the war, indicate that around 14% of all refugees were rejected there. For Jewish refugees this figure was around 8%. The total number of refugees rejected by Switzerland, calculated from the Geneva data, is around 3,500.

For 117 rejected Jewish refugees, subsequent deportation or shooting by the National Socialists can be directly proven. It will never be possible to determine the actual number, as many rejections and deportations took place informally at the border and were not recorded.

The border was closed on August 13, 1942

Two years were of central importance for Swiss refugee policy: at the Évian Conference in 1938, all the second admission states refused to accept part of the refugees admitted by Switzerland in the future. In 1938 Switzerland was involved in marking the passports of German Jews with the "J" stamp. As early as 1941, the Swiss Federal Council was made aware of the terrible crackdown on the Jews through haunting reports and photo testimonies from ambassadors. a. by Franz-Rudolf von Weiss (consul in Cologne). At the end of July 1942, a detailed report was submitted to the Federal Councilor by Steiger in which Robert Jetzler (head of the police department of the Justice Department ) wrote: "The conditions are so terrible that one can hardly answer for a rejection." In August 1942 it closed the border to refugees “only for racial reasons” after the organization of the “ final solution to the Jewish question ” had been decided in January 1942 at the Wannsee Conference . At that time, the refugees almost only crossed the Geneva-Jurassic border, where the federal decision (passed by the Federal Council and confirmed by a parliamentary majority after the start of implementation) was hardly followed. A study by the Geneva State Archives from the year 2000 found that 86% of the “illegal” refugees and 92% of the refugees of Jewish faith were accepted in Geneva anyway. In 1942, Switzerland was surrounded by the Axis powers, except on the south-western border, and the supply situation was tense. The Federal Council, the Federal Department of Justice and Police and the leaders of the army knew in the summer of 1942 that the rejected refugees were threatened with deportation to Eastern Europe and thus death. The Swiss Association of Israelites , the relief organizations, parts of the population and the Social Democratic National Councilor David Farbstein protested vehemently against the border closure.

Punishment of escape workers

Swiss people who helped to flee against the laws of the time were punished and only rehabilitated much later: As the Swiss Vice Consul in Budapest, Carl Lutz saved over 60,000 people - around half of all surviving Hungarian Jews - from the National Socialist extermination campaigns by illegally issuing papers, which enabled them to leave for Palestine. After the verdict against Paul Grüninger , who died 23 years earlier and who was convicted of “breach of official duties” in 1940 as a police captain in St. Gallen , was overturned in 1995 , the Swiss parliament enacted its own rehabilitation law for escape helpers from the Nazi era. Grüninger worked partly with the diplomat Ernest Prodolliet and occasionally with Recha Sternbuch. Since then, more than fifty passeurs convicted between 1933 and 1945 have been rehabilitated. However, according to research by the weekly newspaper WoZ, only two of them experienced their rehabilitation.

Ransom concentration camp inmates

In the last months of the war, however, a total of 4,300 concentration camp prisoners from Theresienstadt , Bergen-Belsen , Ravensbrück and Mauthausen came to Switzerland through efforts by various circles - partly in exchange for German prisoners of war or for payment .

The evacuation of around 1,700 Hungarian Jews from Budapest via the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp to Switzerland on December 7, 1944, known as the Kasztner Transport , deserves special mention .

Rejected refugees

Former refugees who reported to the Swiss government long after the war were not rehabilitated: On January 21, 2000, the Swiss Federal Court dismissed a lawsuit by Joseph Spring from Melbourne (Australia), who demanded that the Swiss Federal Council admit guilt and symbolic reparation would have. Joseph Spring was in November 1943 by Swiss border guards as a prisoner to the German Reich deported Service. The German jumper was 16 years old at the time and, as a Jew, had illegally crossed the Swiss border. Joseph Spring (who was still called Sprung at the time) survived Auschwitz ; his two cousins, who were extradited with him to the Germans, were gassed on arrival in Auschwitz .

Internment of foreign military personnel

From June 1940 until the end of the war, more than 100,000 foreign military personnel from countries of all warring parties had been interned in Switzerland . They were placed in internment camps. The largest of these camps was the Büren an der Aare internment camp . During the internment period, the internees did work in agriculture, construction or road construction. The population generally accepted the internees with goodwill. The interned Poles in particular were welcomed in a friendly manner and are still remembered today. It should be emphasized, however, that the Swiss authorities tried to minimize contact between internees and civilians as much as possible.

Some civilians were also interned.

Switzerland as a currency exchange center

The German Reich, or the Deutsche Reichsbank , was able to process around 75 percent of its gold transactions going abroad (foreign currency exchange) via the Swiss banking system, which became the most important trading point for gold from the sphere of influence of the Third Reich . These mostly went to Portugal for important war resources. The purchase of gold was important for Switzerland in order to secure the national economic supply and to keep inflation low. In addition, the allies of the Swiss National Bank sold a significantly larger amount of gold than the Axis powers, although the largest part was used to convert Swiss dollar balances into gold. However, a large part of the German gold was illegal looted gold from the German war campaigns, in particular from the Belgian National Bank and the Dutch Central Bank , or, according to the Bergier Commission, had been taken from the Holocaust victims. The former had been known to the management of the Swiss National Bank since 1942 at the latest; the latter had been possible since December 1943. As early as the second half of 1940, the SNB received the first information that gold was being confiscated not only from central banks but also from private individuals in the occupied countries, and in August 1942 an article published in the NZZ left no questions about the origin of the Reichsbank gold open. The warnings of the Allies from the beginning of 1943 regarding the looting and looting economy of the Nazis did not lead to the termination of the business relationship, rather gold was purchased until April 1945.

Swiss volunteers in the Waffen SS

Over 2000 Swiss National Socialists fought in the German Waffen SS during the war . Between October 1944 and February 1945 the Swiss Johannes Pauli (1900–1969) was deputy camp leader in the Bisingen concentration camp . At the end of the war, Pauli fled to Switzerland, where he was arrested in Basel and sentenced to 12 years in prison. The fact that Swiss citizens war crimes in the service of the Nazis committed, was from the German historiography previously worked almost entirely inadequate and the Swiss historiography. Johannes Pauli was found guilty and convicted as only one of four war criminals in Swiss history.

Intellectual national defense

The so-called "Spiritual National Defense" was a particularly important movement during the Second World War, which tried to uphold the morale of the Swiss population, primarily through cultural communication. The aim of this campaign, supported by the Federal Council and by important personalities as well as the press, was to maintain the will to resist the totalitarian regimes (especially that of Nazi Germany). The intellectual national defense was thus a kind of antipole to the propaganda machine of the National Socialists.

From 1939 there was press censorship in Switzerland because the Federal Council gave in to the German accusation that the Swiss newspapers were “violating neutrality” with their agitation, as it feared this could be used as a pretext for a German invasion.

Processing after the Second World War

Foreign policy

After the Allied victory, Switzerland was isolated in terms of foreign policy. The victorious powers viewed the Swiss as " war profiteers " who had cooperated with the Nazis. With the Washington Agreement in 1946, Switzerland agreed to pay the USA 250 million francs, for which Swiss accounts were unblocked and the “black list”, which contained Swiss companies that had cooperated with the Nazis, was deleted.

Federal Council

Federal Councilor Marcel Pilet-Golaz ( FDP ), who repeatedly behaved very adaptively towards Nazi Germany, had to resign under political pressure. But there were two other federal councilors whose German resp. Fascism friendliness was openly known: Eduard von Steiger (BGB, today's SVP ), who was primarily responsible for closing the border against the Jews, as well as Philipp Etter (Catholic-conservative, today's CVP ), who joined the government after Hitler came to power and shortly before his election Federal Council sharp z. B. had expressed against direct democracy .

economy

After the war, the economy profited greatly from the fact that Switzerland, as one of the few Western European countries, suffered only minor material damage during the war. The banking industry received a reputation for being stable, serious, discreet and secure. This also led to the fact that a lot of money was invested in Switzerland , especially because of banking secrecy .

Humanitarian aid for post-war Europe

The Swiss population helped the needy population in post-war Europe through the Swiss donation and the children's aid of the Swiss Red Cross . Austrian and German children in need were invited as Swiss children by Swiss host parents after the Second World War .

Historical processing

After the historian Edgar Bonjour had undifferentiated in the publication 100 Years of the Federal Constitution in 1948 stated that Switzerland had granted refugees asylum “within the framework of general international legal norms”, in 1962 the Federal Council commissioned him to examine the policy of neutrality historically, which led to the nine-volume Bonjour report led.

In the 1990s, refugee and economic policy was dealt with when the Bergier report was written . The report is named after the Lausanne economic historian Jean-François Bergier , who headed the “ Independent Expert Commission Switzerland - Second World War ” (ICE). The commission is therefore also known as the "Bergier Commission". It was used by the Swiss Federal Assembly on December 12, 1996 to examine Switzerland's economic and refugee policy and the behavior of Swiss industrial companies and banks before, during and after the Second World War. The reason for this was allegations, particularly by the World Jewish Congress , but also by the US State Department against Switzerland. The allegations were directed against the handling of the nameless accounts, the refugee policy and economic relations with Germany.

The Independent Expert Commission Switzerland - Second World War (ICE) was set up by the Swiss Federal Council on December 19, 1996 and came to the conclusion - in its final report in 2002 - that the Swiss refugee policy at the time was not compatible with the “principles” of a constitutional state.

The results of the ICE have been published in several publications (see literature → Bergier report ). The report was part of the proceedings for Jewish assets in Swiss banks . The results of the ICE are still politically controversial today. In particular, bourgeois circles accuse the report of being one-sided (see Literature → «Critical Voices»). However, a scientific debate is still pending.

In 2006, the Lehrmittelverlag of the Canton of Zurich published a history book for secondary levels I and II, which deals with the work and the results of the Bergier Commission under the title Look and Inquire . This publication also met with stiff resistance from critics of the Bergier report: Bergier critic Luzi Stamm accused the textbook of the same “self-accusatory tone” that the Bergier report had, and that a mistaken view of history makes the book even worse than Bergier Report itself. In the debate about the textbook, conflicts within the book's five-person scientific advisory board also became public, in which the conservative politician Franz Muheim described the teaching material as “completely inedible for school lessons”, while the historians Jakob Tanner and Carlo Moos described the book defended against it.

See also

literature

  • Urs Altermatt : Catholicism and anti-Semitism: mentalities, continuities, ambivalences. Huber Verlag, Frauenfeld 1999, ISBN 3-7193-1160-0 .
  • Barbara Bonhage et al. a .: Look and ask - Switzerland and the time of National Socialism in the light of current issues. Lehrmittelverlag des Kantons Zürich , Zurich 2006, ISBN 3-03713-058-X - teaching aids on the subject of «Switzerland in the Second World War».
  • Bruno Grimm: Gau Switzerland? Documents about the National Socialist activities in Switzerland. Union printing house, Bern 1939
  • Florence Hervé: Gertrude Duby-Blom (1901-1993) A life against fascism and for environmental protection, Cologne 2020, in: Florence Hervé (ed.): With courage and cunning. European women in the resistance against fascism and war, Papy Rossa, Cologne 2020, ISBN 978-3-89438-724-2 , p. 282ff.
  • Walther Hofer , Herbert R. Reginbogin : Hitler, the West and Switzerland: 1936–1945. Verlag Neue Zürcher Zeitung, Zurich 2002, ISBN 3-85823-882-1 .
  • Stefan Ineichen : Zurich 1933–1945. 152 locations. Limmat Verlag, Zurich 2012, ISBN 978-3-85791-583-3 .
  • Stefan Keller : Grüninger's case. Stories of escape and help. Rotpunktverlag, Zurich 2001, ISBN 3-85869-157-7 .
  • Stefan Keller: The return. Joseph Springs story. Rotpunktverlag, Zurich 2003, ISBN 3-85869-262-X .
  • Guido Koller: Switzerland as a place of escape. Swiss refugee policy (1933–1945) and its aftermath. Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 2017, ISBN 978-3-17-032405-3 .
  • Georg Kreis : Switzerland in the Second World War. Haymon Verlag, Innsbruck 2011, ISBN 978-3-85218-868-3 .
  • Björn Erik Lupp: From class solidarity to humanitarian aid. The Refugee Policy of the Political Left 1930–1950. Chronos Verlag, Zurich 2006, ISBN 3-0340-0744-2 .
  • Thomas Maissen : Refused Memory: Dormant Assets and the Swiss World War I Debate 1989–2004. Verlag Neue Zürcher Zeitung, Zurich 2005, ISBN 3-03823-046-4 .
  • Léon Savary : Lettres à Suzanne. Lausanne 1949.
  • Jürg Schoch : "With eyes and ears for the fatherland." Heer & Haus's Swiss reconnaissance service in World War II. Verlag Neue Zürcher Zeitung, Zurich 2015, ISBN 978-3-03823-901-7 .
  • Kristina Schulz: Switzerland and the literary refugees (1933–1945). Akademie-Verlag, Berlin 2012, ISBN 978-3-05-005640-1 . (Also: University of Bern, Habil-Schr., 2011.)
  • Barbara Signer: The woman in the Swiss army: the beginnings, founding and development of the military women's service during the Second World War. Thesis Verlag, Zurich 2000, ISBN 3-908544-32-7 .
  • Klaus Urner : "Switzerland still has to be swallowed!" Hitler's plans of action against Switzerland. Verlag Neue Zürcher Zeitung, Zurich 1991, ISBN 3-85823-327-7 .
  • Otto Zaugg : Switzerland and the refugees . In: Du , 5 (1945), Heft 3, pp. 15-17 (online on E-Periodica ).

"Bergier Report"

  • Switzerland, National Socialism and the Second World War: Final Report / Independent Expert Commission Switzerland - Second World War. Pendo, Zurich 2002, ISBN 3-85842-601-6 , download (PDF; 1.8 MB) at uek.ch under "Reports 2001/2002, final report"
    • In addition, about 40 publications by the “Independent Expert Commission Switzerland - Second World War” on the relationship between Switzerland and Nazi Germany (in particular on money, gold, interactions, transit, transport, legal aspects, minorities [Jews, Sinti, Yeniche] and refugees). (Web links to summaries of the ICE publications in Bergier report # primary literature )

Airplanes, airspace

  • Georg Hoch: The Messerschmitt Me 109 in the Swiss Air Force. G. Hoch, Payerne 1999, ISBN 3-905404-10-9 .
  • Josef Inauen (Red.): Swiss battlefields III: Schwaderloh, Luftgefechte 1940. Swiss Federal Military Library and Historical Service, Bern 2004, ISBN 3-906969-11-8 .
  • Museum zu Allerheiligen (ed.): Art from rubble. The bombing of the All Saints Museum in 1944 and its consequences , Baden 2019, ISBN 978-3-03919-489-6 .

army

  • Willi Gautschi : General Henri Guisan: The Swiss Army Command in the Second World War . 4th edition. Verlag NZZ, Zurich 2001, ISBN 3-85823-516-4 .
  • General Henri Guisan : Report to the Federal Assembly on Active Service 1939–1945. Federal Military Library. Rösch, Bern approx. 1946.
  • Hans-Rudolf Maurer (Ed.): Secret command posts of the army command in the Second World War . Merker im Effingerhof, Lenzburg (Switzerland) 2001, ISBN 3-85648-120-6 .

Switzerland after World War II

  • Hadrien Buclin: «Surmonter le passé?»: Les intellectuels de gauche et le débat des années soixante sur la deuxième guerre mondiale . In: Swiss Journal of History, 2013/2, ISSN  0036-7834 , pp. 233–249.
  • Matthias Kunz, Pietro Morandi: Switzerland and the Second World War: on the resonance and dynamics of an image of history based on an analysis of leading political media between 1970 and 1996. Study within the framework of the NFP “Foreign Policy”, synthesis report. Univ. Bern, Institute for Political Science, Bern 2000, ISBN 3-907148-30-4 .
  • Kurt R. Spillmann , Andreas Wenger : Swiss security policy since 1945. Between autonomy and cooperation. Verlag NZZ, Zurich 2001, ISBN 3-85823-909-7 .

Critical voices

  • Blackmailed Switzerland: on the dispute over the attitude of Switzerland in the Second World War and the reports of the Bergier Commission: impressions and evaluations of contemporary witnesses. A joint work of the Working Group Lived History (Switzerland). Gut, Stäfa 2002, ISBN 3-85717-142-1 .
  • Werner Rings : looted gold from Germany. Switzerland's gold hub in World War II . Piper, Munich 1996, ISBN 3-492-03955-3 .
  • Curt Schwizer: The silent generation. My school days in Oberuzwil in the shadow of the Third Reich. PIR-Verlag, Rheintal 1997.
  • Luzi Stamm : The content of the Bergier report on twenty pages. Interest group Switzerland - Second World War, Aarau 2003 ( online ( memento from January 26, 2012 in the Internet Archive ), PDF, 84 kB)
  • Heinz Zeller: The whipping boy Switzerland. Buch-Verlag Zeller, Basel 1998, ISBN 3-9521215-1-7 .

Web links

Commons : Switzerland in World War II  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Werner Rings : Raubgold from Germany. Switzerland's gold hub in World War II. 2nd Edition. Chronos, Zurich 1997, ISBN 3-905312-18-2 .
  2. ↑ Maissen: History of Switzerland. 2010, p. 255.
  3. ↑ Marco Zanoli: Between class struggle, pacifism and spiritual national defense. The Social Democratic Party of Switzerland and the Defense Question 1920–1939. Zurich approx. 2003, ISBN 3-905641-90-9 .
  4. ↑ a b February 23, 1937 - Adolf Hitler guarantees Switzerland's neutrality: Strategic promise. WDR.de, contemporary history archive, deadline. Westdeutscher Rundfunk, February 23, 2012, accessed on August 3, 2013 (quotations from Jakob Tanner).
  5. ↑ Urs Rauber : Jewish stamp: correction of a half-truth. In: Swiss Observer . Issue 18, August 9, 1998 ( archive version) ( Memento from July 4, 2012 on WebCite )
  6. ^ Dpa report of February 22, 2009 , Hagalil archive.
  7. ^ Georg Kreis : World War II, Second. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland .
  8. ↑ Lukas Gschwend: Death penalty. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland .
  9. ↑ a b Peter Noll : Treason. 17 CVs and death sentences 1942–1944 . Huber, Frauenfeld 1980, ISBN 3-7193-0681-X .
  10. ^ Rolf Löffler: Shot on Hitlerplatz . In: Bieler Tagblatt , September 11, 2012.
  11. ↑ Willy Georg Stoll : 70 years ago the traitor Ernst S. was shot. In: Schweizer Soldat , 87th year, November 2012.
  12. ^ Walter Schaufelberger: The "Hitlerplatz" on the Egg. A historical search for traces. Publishing house Huber PrintPack AG, Frauenfeld 2007.
  13. ^ Karl Lüönd: Espionage and treason in Switzerland. 2 volumes. Ringier, Zurich 1977, ISBN 3-85859-061-4 and ISBN 3-85859-062-2 .
  14. ↑ Jörg Krummenacher: Swiss people also died in the Nazi concentration camps - there is no memorial for them yet In: Neue Zürcher Zeitung of August 10, 2018
  15. ↑ Peer Teuwsen: Swiss concentration camp victims were forgotten for a long time. Now, for the first time, there is a secure list of victims In: NZZ on Sunday October 26, 2019
  16. ↑ Nazis killed over 200 Swiss people in concentration camps In: Blick online from October 27, 2019
  17. ↑ The concentration camp survived - and then spied on by Switzerland In: Blick online from October 28, 2019
  18. ↑ Holocaust: The Forgotten Swiss Victims In: Swiss Observer of December 7, 2017
  19. ↑ Jürg Fink: Switzerland from the perspective of the Third Reich 1933–1945, assessment and judgment of Switzerland by the highest German leadership since Hitler came to power. Schulthess Polygr. Verlag, Zurich 1985, ISBN 3-7255-2430-0 .
  20. ↑ Julia Russ: A visit to the land of many fortresses. In: Südkurier of May 21, 2015.
  21. ↑ Bruno Müller: Magden in the Second World War , on the website of the municipality of Magden, accessed on March 20, 2018.
  22. ↑ Hans Senn in the brochure Military Monuments in the Cantons of Solothurn, Basel-Stadt and Basel-Landschaft, Inventory of Combat and Command Buildings , p. 12. As a PDF on armasuisse ( Memento of the original from December 17, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info : The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.ar.admin.ch
  23. ↑ Schematic representation of the operation order no. 2 ( Memento of the original of April 29, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Case NORD, entry into force on October 4, 1939. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.clement.li
  24. ↑ Roman Schürmann: Dangerous victories in the air . In: WOZ. January 17, 2008.
  25. ^ Georg Kreis: Poisoned during active service In: Neue Zürcher Zeitung of July 29, 2019
  26. ^ Arte : Great speeches: Henri Guisan. Video online, 12 min
  27. ↑ according to the already mentioned study by Jürg Fink.
  28. ^ Herbert H. Reginbogin: The comparison. The politics of Switzerland at the time of the Second World War in an international context . Verlag Th. Gut, Stäfa 2006, ISBN 978-3-85717-176-5 , p. 100.
  29. ↑ Daniel Steffen: Flight through hell In: Neue Zürcher Zeitung of August 18, 2018
  30. ↑ 70 years ago a devastating fire raged on the Calanda
  31. ^ The forest fire at Felsberger Calanda
  32. ↑ Independent Expert Commission Switzerland - Second World War, Commission Indépendante d'Experts Suisse - Seconde Guerre Mondiale (ed.): Switzerland, National Socialism and Law , Volume 18 2001, ISBN 978-3-0340-0618-7 .
  33. ↑ Roman Schürmann: Dangerous victories in the air. In: WOZ. January 17, 2008.
  34. ^ Eight US Army Air Forces personnel to receive the POW Medal
  35. ↑ Aerial photo of Dübendorf Airport from May 2, 1944
  36. ^ Swiss Film Weekly: Bombardment of the city of Schaffhausen on April 1, 1944
  37. ^ Matthias Wipf: The bombing of Schaffhuasen - a tragic mistake. Meier, Schaffhausen 2019, ISBN 978-3-85801-257-9 .
  38. ^ Museum zu Allerheiligen (Ed.): Art from rubble. The bombing of the All Saints Museum in 1944 and its consequences , Baden 2019, ISBN 978-3-03919-489-6 .
  39. ↑ a b Military Agency Records - Notes , at www.archives.gov, accessed December 22, 2009. (English)
  40. ^ The Diplomacy of Apology: US Bombings of Switzerland during World War II. Aerospace Power Journal, Summer 2000.
  41. ↑ Schaffhausen during World War II, Schaffhausen City Archives (PDF; 494 kB)
  42. ^ US bombs on Swiss cantons. Archived from the original on February 7, 2012 ; Retrieved August 3, 2013 .
  43. ↑ Inflation is always included as a premium in these figures (nominal values)
  44. ↑ Source: Publications of the ICE, Volume 17.
  45. ↑ Frank Jehle: Better uncomfortably loud than pleasantly quiet. The theologian Karl Barth and politics 1906 to 1968 . 2nd Edition. Theological Verlag, Zurich 2002, ISBN 3-290-17210-4 .
  46. ^ Jörg Krummenacher: Lifesaver on the Alpine Rhine. In: Harald Derschka and Jürgen Klöckler (eds.): Der Bodensee. Jan Thorbecke Verlag, Ostfildern 2018, ISBN 978-3-7995-1724-9 , pp. 260-261.
  47. ↑ Urs Rauber : On hiding disruptive facts . NZZ , March 24, 2002.
  48. ↑ Urs Rauber: Jean-François Bergier: Opinion on the criticism of the refugee report , interview with Jean-François Bergier in the Observer in issue 23 of November 10, 2000.
  49. ↑ Ruth Fivaz: Ce que nous apprend le fichier genevois sur les refoulements entre 1942 et 1945. In: Le Temps, November 2, 2000, online (PDF; 13 kB)
  50. ^ A b Prof. Hans Ulrich Jost : The Federal Council already knew about the Holocaust in 1942
  51. ^ Publications of the ICE, Volume 17, Chapter 3.2.
  52. ^ Jörg Krummenacher: Lifesaver on the Alpine Rhine. In: Harald Derschka and Jürgen Klöckler (eds.): Der Bodensee. Jan Thorbecke Verlag, 2018, ISBN 978-3-7995-1724-9 , pp. 260-261.
  53. ^ Bought free for $ 1,000 "each" , NZZ, February 9, 2015.
  54. ↑ Stephen Tree: Rudolf Kasztner and his daring rescue operation In: Neue Zürcher Zeitung of December 7, 2019
  55. ↑ "A Noah's Ark". Kasztner Transport and Switzerland On: infoclio.ch
  56. ^ Auschwitz survivor loses case. BBC news, January 21, 2000, accessed August 3, 2013 . 126 II 145 Judgment of 2000. From the grounds of the judgment:
    On January 26, 1998, Joseph Spring submitted a request for satisfaction to the Federal Department of Finance based on Art. 3 in conjunction with Art. 6 Paragraph 2 of the Federal Act of 14 March 1958 on the Responsibility of the Confederation and its Officials and Officials (VG; SR 170.32) over CHF 100,000. The Federal Council issued a negative opinion on this on June 22, 1998. He stated that the complainant's submission had "deeply affected him in human terms". A purely legal perspective BGE 126 II 145 p. 148 hardly does justice to the personal tragedy of the applicant's fate ; the Federal Council is aware of the "immeasurable suffering" suffered by the applicant in the Second World War and expresses its deeply felt sympathy and regret. From a legal point of view, however, it can be assumed that the asserted claim is forfeited or statute-barred. Even if the facts described make you “deeply humanly affected”, “according to a legal assessment, the behavior of the Swiss border authorities in particular does not represent an act of genocide within the meaning of Art. III of the Genocide Convention”. It should also be noted that “the human rights approach of the non-refoulement principle, i. H. the arrangement as a subjective right of the refugee, only enforced after the Second World War ”. The Federal Council went on to say that Switzerland, together with other countries, “granted many refugees refuge” during the Second World War, whereby it should be noted that “other countries also took in certain refugees and rejected others”. The judgment awarded him 100,000 francs as party compensation in 2000.
  57. ^ Hitler's willing fences. In: Der Spiegel . 38/1996.
  58. ↑ a b Maissen: History of Switzerland. 2010, p. 269.
  59. ↑ a b Publications of the Independent Expert Commission Switzerland - Second World War , Vol 16: Switzerland and the gold transactions in World War II ( summary of the interim report , summary of the final report )
  60. ↑ Switzerland and the gold transactions in World War II - interim report of the Independent Expert Commission Switzerland - Second World War, Chronos Verlag 1998, ISBN 3-908661-00-5 , p. 134. (PDF)
  61. ^ Final report of the Independent Expert Commission Switzerland - Second World War , Pendo Verlag Zurich 2002, ISBN 3-85842-601-6 , p. 256 ff. (PDF)
  62. ^ Salomon Wolff: The gold in the war economy. In: NZZ. No. 1291, August 16, 1942, p. 4, central passage quoted in Klaus Urner : Emil Puhl and the Swiss National Bank. In: Swiss monthly books . Volume 65 (1985), No. 7-8, pp. 627 f.
  63. ↑ Sabine Bitter: «I wanted to be part of this war». Retrieved April 13, 2018 .
  64. ^ Swiss Nazis - "My grandfather was a murderer" In: SRF from January 21, 2018
  65. ↑ www.hechingen4you.de: Bisingen concentration camp - The perpetrators
  66. ^ War criminals: The concentration camp leader with the Swiss passport: Johannes Pauli, a life with violence In: Bz Basel from May 31, 2020
  67. ↑ Julia Russ: Swiss women stood up for Jews. In: Südkurier of August 17, 2015.
  68. ↑ http://www.uek.ch/de/index.htm
  69. ^ Final report of the Independent Expert Commission Switzerland - Second World War (PDF). The final report was published in book form by Pendo-Verlag, Zurich 2002, ISBN 3-85842-601-6 .
  70. ↑ Thomas Maissen : Denied memory: dormant assets and the Swiss world war debate 1989-2004 . Verlag Neue Zürcher Zeitung, Zurich 2005, ISBN 3-03823-046-4 .
  71. ↑ Take a look and ask. Switzerland and the era of National Socialism in the light of current issues . Edited by Barbara Bonhage, Peter Gautschi , Jan Hodel and Gregor Spuhler . Lehrmittelverlag des Kantons Zürich, Zürich 2006, ISBN 978-3-03713-058-2 .
  72. ↑ To the whole section: Topic page of the Neue Zürcher Zeitung , 4./5. March 2006, p. 37 (international edition). Among other things: The Bergier report finds its way into the school. Controversial teaching aid from Zurich on Switzerland during World War II .