Internment in Switzerland during World War II

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

During internment in Switzerland during World War II , Switzerland took in foreign military personnel as internees from June 1940 and placed them in camps in different parts of the country. Between 1940 and 1945, Switzerland took in around 104,000 military personnel from all warring parties. Conscientious objectors , deserters and escaped prisoners of war were also accepted as internees. Only members of the SS and some other German military organizations were turned away. Some civilian refugees were also interned. The internment lasted v. a. with the Poles until 1946.

prehistory

The internment of military personnel has been regulated in the Hague Conventions since 1907 . According to this, “non-warring countries” are entitled to bans foreign military and civilians in camps or similar locations that are administered by the army outside of a certain area and - with the exception of officers - to oblige them to work. This is a disarmament of the foreign units and i. d. Usually the granting of asylum goes hand in hand. Internment usually lasts until the end of the conflict.

For the first time, Switzerland interned the French Eastern Army (so-called « Bourbaki Army ») in 1870/71 during the Franco-Prussian War . The admission of prisoners of war in the First World War , however, did not constitute internment.

Internment in World War II

Events

Film of the Army Film Service about the internment in Goumois

In an early period of World War II , the question of the possible internment of foreign military personnel in Switzerland for the administration and the army did not arise. In 1939, only three German parachutists were interned in the Bernese Oberland. For a long time, parts of the Swiss army were extremely skeptical about the internment of foreign military personnel. In June 1940, General Guisan was still negative about any internment. Partly because he feared a deterioration in relations with Germany and thus the Swiss position.

After the fall of Paris, German armored units pushed the 45th French Army Corps - consisting of a. a. also from two Polish divisions - starting in the Jura. Their general Marius Daille asked the Swiss Federal Council for asylum in order to avoid German captivity, which it granted on June 20, 1940. At Goumois , around 43,000 soldiers crossed the Doubs and were disarmed by the Swiss army.

The French were repatriated to France from February 1941 after Germany's armistice with France. The 15,000 or so Poles who remained in Switzerland were the only group of internees who remained interned in Switzerland until the end of the war and beyond.

It was only after the collapse of fascism in Italy that, from autumn 1943, larger numbers of members of foreign military units, initially Italians, and from summer 1944 units of the German armed forces, were interned. There were also isolated groups, such as American military pilots who had crashed. In September 1944 there was around 44,000 internees, the highest number of internees present in Switzerland at the same time. In the last months of the war, as a result of the general wave of migration in Europe, new internees kept coming to Switzerland. In addition, Soviet prisoners of war managed to flee Germany in the spring of 1945.

Between 1940 and 1946, over 100,000 foreign military personnel from 38 countries were interned in Switzerland. There were also special categories of civilian refugees, some of whom were also interned, like the so-called “political refugees”. However, the civil internees were not under the supervision of the army, but civil authorities. Another special case was the internment of German Lake Constance ships in Switzerland in 1945 . On the whole there was an internment camp in about every sixth town in Switzerland.

After the end of the war, the Swiss authorities forced the internees to return home quickly, sometimes against their will. However, internees remained in Switzerland until the summer of 1946.

System of internment camps

Example of a large internment camp: barracks in the internment penal camp Wauwilermoos

The internment of the 45th French Army Corps caught the Swiss Army and the federal administration unprepared. There was no suitable storage structure available. Accordingly, the organization for housing the internees was initially improvised, which meant that the army needed some time until control over the location of the internees was established. Ultimately, the internees of the 45th French Army Corps were initially collected in assembly camps near the border and later brought to camps in the Central Plateau.

In June 1940, the Federal Commissariat for Internment and Hospitalization (EKIH) was created, an administrative organization that took care of the organization of the internment camps. Initially, for cost and security reasons, the EKIH pursued the strategy of setting up internment camps as large as possible centrally in as few places as possible. This is how, for example, the Büren concentration camp on the Aare was created . However, this strategy quickly revealed shortcomings, which is why the establishment of smaller camps began in 1941.

In the course of the war, a decentralized system was developed that consisted of reception, quarantine, main and labor camps in different, constantly changing regions. First the internees were placed in reception centers at the border, then in quarantine camps. Eventually they were taken to the actual internment camp. Main camps were operated continuously for a long time and formed the basis for labor camps, where internees from the main camps were sent to do a certain job on site. In addition, it was possible to send individual internees to work outside the camp - for example in agriculture. The camp system was thus characterized by a greater degree of decentralization towards the end of the war. The various camps were assigned to regional sections that were reorganized several times during the war. Interned Polish liaison officers were already employed in the section commands. As a rule, a team of company strength was assigned to each internment section to guard all of the internment camps in the section. In addition to the soldiers assigned to guard, the individual camp commanders had a few other orderlies and Polish officers who were supposed to improve the connections with the interned soldiers. This always resulted in staff shortages, whereby the search for suitable camp commanders in particular was often unsuccessful, which sometimes led to NCOs or even soldiers running an internment camp.

The life of internees in Switzerland

everyday life

The everyday life of the internees was mainly characterized by the organization of the camps and later also by the work. The organization of the camps was characterized by prohibitions and instructions that were more or less strictly enforced by the guards. The frequent changes in security teams often made it difficult to organize day-to-day warehouse operations. Sometimes there were conflicts between internees and the Swiss camp crew. One example is the revolt in the Büren an der Aare internment camp against the rigorous enforcement of the military camp regulations. It should also be mentioned that there were tensions within the internees themselves.

Violations of the orders of the camp commanders or the authorities were punished. The main reasons for punishment were not only forbidden contact with the civilian population, but also excessive alcohol consumption and, above all, the fact that they had escaped. As a rule, the internees concerned were punished with arrest. For "serious cases", for example when fleeing, internment camps have been set up, for example in Wauwilermoos. In August 1940 alone, almost 400 interned Poles tried to flee. The escape attempts were partially covered by the civilian population.

The original camp concept of the EKIH did not provide any employment opportunities for the internees, which is why camp life for the internees was extremely monotonous at the beginning. In addition, any work assignments were not planned and were therefore only possible on a voluntary basis and with limited time. In addition, handicrafts were made in the camps as an opportunity to work. Although the first cultural evenings were held from July 1940, the cultural employment opportunities for the internees initially remained sparse. Right from the start, the EKIH commissioned the Christian Association of Young Men (YMCA) to carry out the leisure activities. Over time, the offer became more diverse and theater evenings with internees as the main actors, song evenings, chess courses and much more could be held.

Until the spring of 1941, many internees were doing voluntary work in agriculture. In addition, handicrafts were made in the camps as an opportunity to work. The use in melioration projects was also considered. However, when the length of the (Polish) internees' stay began to be uncertain, the EKIH introduced an obligation to work for internees in 1941. It was planned by v. a. a use in the agricultural work of the Wahlen plan . In addition, it was also possible to work on construction sites, during clearing and renovation work or in other areas where there was a shortage of labor. The internees worked differently depending on their country of origin. For their work, the internees were paid a wage that was equivalent to the wages of a Swiss soldier, but was well below the rate for a Swiss worker or servant, which in turn led to conflicts with the local population, as the Poles were cheap labor were often preferred to the Swiss. Various actors - above all the army leadership and the EKIH, but also mountain farmers - were extremely critical of wage increases.

Internment Mail

The field post organized in June 1940 post the internees and set for a near Bern, long in Münchenbuchsee, later in Gümligen, a place for internee mail. During the war, a total of around 24 million items were sent by and for war internees. Although Switzerland would not have been obliged to do so, it granted the internees freedom of postage just like the members of the Swiss army. The rules for the postal service were recorded in so-called postal orders , which appeared in numerous languages. (Post) work that concerned the internees was carried out by them themselves whenever possible. Internees were employed as postal orderlies in the camps and as employees in the post for internees.

All mail went through the interned post office in Münchenbuchsee, where the mail was sorted and assigned to the individual camps or civil addresses. In the internee post office there was a central file that was constantly updated so that the mail for the individual internees could be directed to the correct storage location without delay. The decision to manage this "Karthotek" was because the EKIH, at least in the early days of internment, could not forward the internees' constant changes of camp quickly enough to the internment post or did not know where they were. Before Karthotek was set up, this led to numerous temporarily undeliverable items. The internee post office also kept additional files on deceased or refugee internees. The internees were also able to provide forwarding addresses when they were repatriated. These were also collected in a file in the internee post office. The files were so current and useful that they even aroused the interest of the ICRC , which was able to use them to clarify the whereabouts of many refugees.

Example of a letter to a Polish internee that was censored in Germany and Switzerland and forwarded to the new storage location

The consignments of the internees were subject to censorship , which is why all mail had to pass through the censorship office in Bern first. For this purpose, the internees' mail was brought to Bern by truck for a long time. The spatial separation of the two parts of the internment post repeatedly gave rise to criticism, but was necessary for reasons of space. After the censorship, the post reached the internment post office the same way and was sent from there by civil post to the post offices of the camps.

The postal service in the camps was carried out by an interned postal orderly. She was in close contact with the civil post office at the camp site, which was referred to as the “intern post office” in the internal traffic of the interned post office. The postal orderly received all mail and all money deliveries for the internees of the camp from the internee post office and returned all outgoing mail to the post office. Before they were distributed to the internees, the postal orderly presented the consignments to the camp commandant for inspection. Among other things, he checked the packages that did not reach the censorship office for letters and sometimes censored letters himself. The postal orderly had its own post office in the warehouse, or at least a lockable place where items, postal items and forms that had not been picked up were kept. In addition, a lockable mailbox was set up in the camps and the mail order was visibly hung up. In addition, the postal orderly was responsible for updating an internal internment register and reporting the changes to the internment post office in which the central register was located. In addition, the postal orderly was also responsible for internees who were not in individual work at the camp site. She forwarded her mail to you in a special envelope and forwarded your mail to the interned post office. All outgoing mail from the internment camp ended up in Münchenbuchsee / Gümligen.

The frequent changes of location of internees also became a problem for internee mail. Because internee postal orderly had to change camp again and again, although the previous camp was not closed at all. For this reason, the field post advised the camp commanders to relocate internment post orders as little as possible. Further problems for the interned mail arose from the addressing of the mail to the internees at pseudonym addresses, which the field post had forbidden. There were also problems with individual camp commanders who abused their control rights. The case of André Béguin , the camp commandant of the Wauwilermoos detention center , who illegally withheld over 500 letters from and to internees , is particularly well known .

The cross-border mail traffic was organized by the field post service in close cooperation with the ICRC. Due to the war, delivery and transport difficulties arose again and again.

Relations between internees and civilians

The Swiss authorities, especially the EKIH, endeavored to minimize contact between internees and Swiss people as much as possible. For this reason, the so-called “Orange Order” was issued in 1941, which regulated “relations between the civilian population and the internees” and subjected the internees to strict disciplinary measures. It replaced similar earlier provisions. According to the "Orange Order" it was civilians and the like. a. forbidden to give internees money, civilian clothes or tickets, to help them circumvent the post censorship or to give them access to a telephone, as well as to buy self-made items from them. Internees were further forbidden to ride bicycles without a permit, to enter or visit a private apartment, an inn, theater, cinema or other public event.

However, the many complaints from official authorities already show that these provisions were often circumvented by the population. Nonetheless, close relationships often developed between internees and Swiss people. The Poles in particular received a broad wave of sympathy from the population and also from the press, such as contemporary witness reports from Büren a. A. prove. The longer the internees were present, the more often they were the subject of public criticism. The authorities and the public were particularly reluctant to see relationships between internees and Swiss women. For this reason, marriages between Swiss women and internees were prohibited. However, numerous love relationships are known that led to marriage in over 300 cases.

Memory of the internees

Memorial plaque to the internment of the French in Seedorf / BE in 1940. Donated by the internees themselves.

As a result of the usual accommodation of internees in existing buildings, such as schoolhouses, community centers or other public buildings that were given their traditional or new function after the war, no separate camp buildings were usually built. Where this happened anyway, the barracks used were mostly - sometimes still during the war - removed and reused at another location. Buildings that were no longer in use and could not be used again were usually demolished. For example, of the formerly more than 120 buildings of the Büren an der Aare internment camp, in 2017 only the former laundry, which has meanwhile been used as an agricultural building.

Sign at the Polenweg in Rueun

Already during the war, memorials to the internment were erected at several locations of former internment camps or those operated at that time, which was also promoted by the constant dislocation of internment camps. These were partly drawn up by the internees themselves and thus represented expressions of thanks to the local population for the admission. In many places there are also so-called Poland routes , which the Polish internees had to create as employment. Commemorative plaques were often attached to these paths. In addition, memorial stones for internees who died in Switzerland can be found in some cemeteries.

In memory of the internees, monuments were also erected in the decades after the end of the war at the sites of former internment camps, v. a. to work against forgetting these camps. For example, two memorial stones were inaugurated in Büren an der Aare in 2000. The history of interned Poles is also presented in the Poland Museum in Rapperswil Castle . Meanwhile some internment memorials are under homeland security .
In many places, however, the internees were never remembered.

List of locations of important internment camps (selection)

In total there were at least 1100 internment camps in Switzerland during World War II. The exact number is not known. The following list contains a selection of particularly important internment camps.

literature

  • Hans Frutiger: The Swiss field post in active service 1939-1945 . 2 volumes. Bern 1946.
  • May B. Broda: Forbidden Relationships. Polish military internees and the Swiss civilian population during the Second World War using the example of the interned university camp in Herisau / St. Gallen . In: Appenzellian yearbooks. 1991.
  • Bettina Volland: Poles, Swiss people. Military internees and civilians 1940–1945 . In: Yearbook of the Historical-Antiquarian Society of Graubünden. 1993.
  • Ruben Mullis: The internment of Polish soldiers in Switzerland 1940–1945 . Zurich 2003.
  • Jürg Stadelmann: Dealing with strangers in times of pressure. Swiss refugee policy 1940–1945 and its assessment to this day . Zurich 1998.
  • Jürg Stadelmann / Selina Krause: Concentration camp Büren on the Aare. The largest refugee camp in Switzerland during the Second World War. Baden 1999.
  • Kurt Imhof / Patrik Ettinger / Boris Boller: The refugee and foreign economic policy of Switzerland in the context of public political communication 1938–1950 . In: Independent Expert Commission Switzerland - Second World War (Ed.): Publications of the ICE. Volume 8. Zurich 2001.
  • André Lasserre: Frontières et camps. Le refuge en Suisse de 1933 à 1945 . Lausanne 1995.

Remarks

  1. ↑ a b c d e f Hervé de Weck : internments. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland . November 1, 2007 , accessed May 24, 2017 .
  2. ↑ a b PTT, P-00 Post-217 A 0068 7, Diaries of the Feldpostdirektion (internment), 3.2.1946–23.6.1946 (Vol. 7/7)
  3. ^ Agreement on the Laws and Customs of Land War. In: Systematic Collection of Federal Law 0.515.112. Retrieved May 24, 2017 .
  4. ^ Agreement on the rights and obligations of neutral powers and persons in the event of a land war. In: Systematic Collection of Federal Law 0.515.21. Retrieved May 24, 2017 .
  5. ↑ PTT, Post-217 A 0346 1, reports of the field post director on active service 1939–1945, report on the 2nd half of 1939, p. 29.
  6. ↑ May B. Broda: Forbidden Relationships. Polish military internees and the Swiss civilian population during the Second World War using the example of the interned university camp in Herisau / St. Gallen . In: Appenzellian yearbooks . 1991, p. 9-12 .
  7. ^ André Lasserre: Frontières et camps. Le refuge en suisse de 1933 à 1945 . Lausanne 1995, p. 151-152 .
  8. ↑ May B. Broda: Forbidden Relationships. Polish military internees and the Swiss civilian population during the Second World War using the example of the interned university camp in Herisau / St. Gallen . In: Appenzellian yearbooks . 119th edition. 1991, p. 12 .
  9. ^ Georg Kreis : Switzerland in the Second World War. Your answers to the challenges of the time . 2nd Edition. Innsbruck 2011, p. 109-111 .
  10. ^ Bettina Volland: Poles, Swiss people. Military internees and civilians 1940–1945 . In: Yearbook of the Historical-Antiquarian Society of Graubünden . 1993, p. 227-229 .
  11. ^ Bettina Volland: Poles, Swiss people. Military internees and civilians 1940–1945 . In: Yearbook of the Historical-Antiquarian Society of Graubünden . 1993, p. 229-230 .
  12. ^ Bettina Volland: Poles, Swiss people. Military internees and civilians 1940–1945 . In: Yearbook of the Historical-Antiquarian Society of Graubünden . 1993, p. 225-226 .
  13. ↑ May B. Broda: Forbidden Relationships, Polish Military Internees and the Swiss Civilian Population during the Second World War using the example of the interned university camp in Herisau / St. Gallen . In: Appenzellian yearbooks . 119th edition. 1991, p. 12 .
  14. ↑ Jürg Stadelmann: Dealing with strangers in times of pressure. Swiss refugee policy 1940–1945 and its assessment to this day . Zurich 1998, p. 118-122 .
  15. ^ Georges Schild: The internment of military and civilians in Switzerland 1939-1946 . Bern 2016, p. 180-210 .
  16. ↑ May B. Broda: Forbidden Relationships, Polish Military Internees and the Swiss Civilian Population during the Second World War using the example of the interned university camp in Herisau / St. Gallen . In: Appenzellian yearbooks . 119th edition. 1991, p. 23-24 .
  17. ↑ Jürg Stadelmann / Selina Krause: Concentration camp Büren on the Aare. The largest refugee camp in Switzerland during the Second World War . Baden 1999, p. 110-114 .
  18. ↑ a b Bettina Volland: Poles, Swiss people. Military internees and civilians 1940–1945 . In: Yearbook of the Historical-Antiquarian Society of Graubünden . 1993, p. 230 .
  19. ↑ May B. Broda: Forbidden Relationships, Polish Military Internees and the Swiss Civilian Population during the Second World War using the example of the interned university camp in Herisau / St. Gallen . In: Appenzellian yearbooks . 119th edition. 1991, p. 9-15 .
  20. ↑ Jürg Stadelmann / Selina Krause: Concentration camp Büren on the Aare. The largest refugee camp in Switzerland during the Second World War . Baden 1999, p. 17-31 .
  21. ^ Bettina Volland: Poles, Swiss people. Military internees and civilians 1940–1945 . In: Yearbook of the Historical-Antiquarian Society of Graubünden . 1993, p. 230-232 .
  22. ^ Bettina Volland: Poles, Swiss people. Military internees and civilians 1940–1945 . In: Yearbook of the Historical-Antiquarian Society of Graubünden . 1993, p. 230-241 .
  23. ↑ Ruben Mullis: The internment of Polish soldiers in Switzerland 1940-1945 . Zurich 2003, p. 17-20 .
  24. ↑ Ruben Mullis: The internment of Polish soldiers in Switzerland 1940-1945 . Zurich 2003, p. 19-20 .
  25. ↑ Ruben Mullis: The internment of Polish soldiers in Switzerland 1940-1945 . Zurich 2003, p. 17-24 .
  26. ↑ Ruben Mullis: The internment of Polish soldiers in Switzerland 1940-1945 . Zurich 2003, p. 29-30 .
  27. ↑ Ruben Mullis: The internment of Polish soldiers in Switzerland 1940-1945 . Zurich 2003, p. 24-26 .
  28. ↑ May B. Broda: Forbidden relationships, Polish military internees and the Swiss civilian population during the Second World War using the example of the interned university camp in Herisau / St. Gallen. In: Appenzellian yearbooks . 1991, p. 35-36 .
  29. ↑ Ruben Mullis: The internment of Polish soldiers in Switzerland 1940-1945 . Zurich 2003, p. 22-23, 35 .
  30. ^ Bettina Volland: Poles, Swiss people. Military internees and civilians 1940–1945 . In: Yearbook of the Historical-Antiquarian Society of Graubünden . 1993, p. 232-240, 255-260 .
  31. ^ Bettina Volland: Poles, Swiss people. Military internees and civilians 1940–1945 . In: Yearbook of the Historical-Antiquarian Society of Graubünden . 1993, p. 260-263 .
  32. ↑ Ruben Mullis: The internment of Polish soldiers in Switzerland 1940-1945 . Zurich 2003, p. 38-39 .
  33. ^ Hans Frutiger: The Swiss field post in active service 1939-1945 . tape 1 . Bern 1946, p. 295-296 .
  34. ^ Hans Frutiger: 60 years of Swiss field post . Bern 1950, p. 32 .
  35. ^ A b Hans Frutiger: The Swiss field post in active service 1939–1945 . tape 1 . Bern 1946, p. 305-317 .
  36. ^ Hans Frutiger: The Swiss Field Post in active service 1939-1945 . tape 2 . Bern 1946, p. 309-317 .
  37. ^ Hans Frutiger: The Swiss Field Post in active service 1939-1945 . tape 1 . Bern 1946, p. 297-299 .
  38. ^ Hans Frutiger: The Swiss Field Post in active service 1939-1945 . tape 1 . Bern 1946, p. 300-307, 309 .
  39. ^ PTT, Post-217 A 0346 1, reports of the field post director on active service 1939–1945, report 3rd quarter 1940, pp. 20–22
  40. ^ Hans Frutiger: The Swiss Field Post in active service 1939-1945 . tape 1 . Bern 1946, p. 317-319 .
  41. ^ Frutiger Hans: The Swiss Army Post in active service 1939–1945 . tape 2 . Bern 1946, p. Appendices 27-29 .
  42. ^ Bettina Volland: Poles, Swiss people. Military internees and civilians 1940–1945 . In: Yearbook of the Historical-Antiquarian Society of Graubünden . 1993, p. 317-319 .
  43. ^ Bettina Volland: Poles, Swiss people. Military internees and civilians 1940–1945 . In: Yearbook of the Historical-Antiquarian Society of Graubünden . 1993, p. 283-288 .
  44. ↑ Jürg Stadelmann / Selina Krause: Concentration camp Büren on the Aare. The largest refugee camp in Switzerland during the Second World War . Baden 1999, p. 65-69 .
  45. ^ Kurt Imhof / Patrik Ettinger / Boris Boller: The refugee and foreign economic policy of Switzerland in the context of public political communication 1938–1950 . In: Independent Expert Commission Switzerland - Second World War (Ed.): Publications of the ICE . tape 8 . Zurich 2001, p. 140-143 .
  46. ^ Bettina Volland: Poles, Swiss people. Military internees and civilians 1940–1945 . In: Yearbook of the Historical-Antiquarian Society of Graubünden . 1993, p. 295-303 .
  47. ↑ Jürg Stadelmann: The disintegration of the large Büren camp on the Aare. Retrieved May 24, 2017 .
  48. ↑ Peter Steiger: Memorial for the interned soldiers. Berner Zeitung, September 30, 2014, accessed on May 24, 2017 .
  49. ↑ Poland monument at the Rosenberg cemetery. In: Winterthurer newspaper. March 10, 2007, accessed May 24, 2017 .
  50. ↑ A warm welcome and enough to eat. In: Bieler Tagblatt . September 15, 2000, accessed May 24, 2017 .
  51. ^ Polish Museum in Rapperswil. Retrieved May 24, 2017 .
  52. ↑ Building inventory of the Melchnau community. (PDF) Monument Preservation of the Canton of Bern, February 7, 2017, accessed on May 24, 2017 .