Switzerland during the World Wars
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During
World War I
Switzerland maintained a state of armed neutrality during the first world war. However, with two of the
While the German-speaking majority in Switzerland generally favored the Central Powers, the French- and, later, Italian-speaking populations sided with the Entente Powers, which would cause internal conflict in 1918. However, the country managed to keep out of the war, although it was blockaded by the Allies and therefore suffered some difficulties. Nevertheless, because Switzerland was centrally located, neutral, and generally undamaged, the war allowed the growth of the Swiss banking industry.[2] For the same reasons, Switzerland became a haven for foreign refugees and revolutionaries.[citation needed]
Following the organization of the army in 1907 and military expansion in 1911, the
Following the declarations of war in late July 1914, on 1 August 1914, Switzerland mobilized its army; by 7 August the newly appointed general
Once it became clear that the Allies and the Central Powers would respect Swiss neutrality, the number of troops deployed began to drop. After September 1914, some soldiers were released to return to their farms and to vital industries. By November 1916 the Swiss had only 38,000 men in the army. This number increased during the winter of 1916–17 to over 100,000 as a result of a proposed French attack that would have crossed Switzerland. When this attack failed to occur the army began to shrink again. Because of widespread workers' strikes, at the end of the war the Swiss army had shrunk to only 12,500 men.[4]
During the war, belligerents crossed the Swiss borders about 1,000 times,[4] with some of these incidents occurring around the Dreisprachen Piz (Three Languages Peak), near the Stelvio Pass. Switzerland had an outpost and a hotel (which was destroyed as it was used by the Austrians) on the peak. During the war, fierce battles were fought in the ice and snow of the area, with gunfire coming on to Swiss territory. The three nations made an agreement not to fire over Swiss territory, which jutted out between Austria (to the north) and Italy (to the south). Instead they could fire down the pass, as Swiss territory was around the peak. In one incident, a Swiss soldier was killed at his outpost on Dreisprachen Piz by Italian gunfire.[5]
During the fighting, Switzerland became a haven for many politicians, artists, pacifists, and thinkers.[6] Bern, Zürich, and Geneva became centers of debate and discussion. In Zürich two very different anti-war groups, the Bolsheviks and the Dadaists, would bring lasting changes to the world.
The
While the Dada art movement was also an anti-war organization, Dadaists used art to oppose all wars. The founders of the movement had left Germany and Romania to escape the destruction of the war. At the Cabaret Voltaire in Zürich they put on performances expressing their disgust with the war and with the interests that inspired it. By some accounts Dada coalesced on 6 October 1916 at the cabaret. The artists used abstraction to fight against the social, political, and cultural ideas of that time that they believed had caused the war. Dadaists viewed abstraction as the result of a lack of planning and of logical thought-processes.[7] When World War I ended in 1918, most of the Zürich Dadaists returned to their home countries, and some began Dada activities in other cities.
In 1917 Switzerland's neutrality came into question when the
Swiss hosts POW invalided out of military service from Entente and Central Powers
During the war Switzerland accepted 68,000 British, French and German wounded prisoners of war for recovery in mountain resorts. To be transferred, the wounded had to have a disability that would negate their further military service or have been interned over 18 months with deteriorating mental health. The wounded were transferred from prisoner of war camps unable to cope with the number of wounded and sat out the war in Switzerland. The transfer was agreed between the warring powers and organised by the Red Cross.[8]
Swiss independence during the interwar period
One potential result of
However, the
In 1934 the Swiss Banking Act was passed. This allowed for anonymous numbered bank accounts, in part to allow Germans (including Jews) to hide or protect their assets from seizure by the newly established Third Reich.
In 1936
As European tension grew in the 1930s, the Swiss began to rethink their political and military situation. The
Actions were also taken to prove Switzerland's independent national identity and unique culture from the surrounding Fascist powers. This policy was known as
World War II
At the outbreak of World War II in 1939, Switzerland immediately began to mobilize for a possible invasion. The transition into wartime was smooth and caused less controversy than in 1914; the country was fully mobilized in only three days.[11] Parliament quickly selected the 61-year-old career soldier Henri Guisan to be General and by 3 September 430,000 combat troops and 210,000 in support services, 10,000 of whom were women, had been mobilized, though most of these were sent home during the Phoney War.[10] At its highest point, 850,000 soldiers were mobilized.[12]
During the war, under the pan-Germanist Neuordnung doctrine, detailed invasion plans were drawn up by the German military command, such as Operation Tannenbaum, but Switzerland was never attacked.[13] Switzerland was able to remain independent through a combination of military deterrence, economic concessions to Germany and good fortune as larger events during the war delayed an invasion. Attempts by the National Movement of Switzerland, a Swiss political party with Nazi sympathies (which never had more than 4,000 members out of a population of 4.2 million people, less than 0.1%) to effect a unification with Germany failed, largely as a result of Switzerland's sense of national identity and tradition of democracy and civil liberties.[14] The Swiss press criticized the Third Reich, often infuriating its leadership. In turn, Berlin denounced Switzerland as a medieval remnant and its people renegade Germans. Swiss military strategy was changed from one of static defence at the borders to a strategy of attrition and withdrawal to strong, well-stockpiled positions high in the Alps known as the National Redoubt. This controversial strategy was essentially one of deterrence. The idea was to render the cost of invading too high. During an invasion, the Swiss Army would cede control of the economic heartland and population centres but retain control of crucial rail links and passes in the National Redoubt.[14]
In 1941, Franz Burri, the leading Nazi propagandist for Switzerland, sent a letter to Heinrich Himmler in which he discussed the importance of a Nazi coup for Switzerland. Burri said he and his colleagues were "ready for action at any time" and had a paramilitary of 1,800 men prepared for deployment in all German-speaking Swiss cantons.[15]
Switzerland was a base for espionage by both sides in the conflict and often mediated communications between the Axis and Allied powers by serving as a protecting power. In 1942, the United States Office of Strategic Services (OSS) was established in Bern. Through the efforts of Allen Dulles, the first US intelligence service in Western Europe was created. During the allied invasion of Italy, the OSS in Switzerland guided tactical efforts for the take-over of Salerno and the islands of Corsica and Sardinia.[16]
Despite the public and political attitudes in Switzerland, some higher-ranking officers within the Swiss Army had pro-Nazi sympathies: notably Colonel
Prosecutions for collaboration
Swiss
In January 1946, the Swiss government published a report on collaboration which, in the words of Swiss historian Luc van Dongen, gave the public memory its memorial and ideology tone and also its clear conscience." From the end of the war to April 1949, the Federal Supreme Court of Switzerland held six trials against 102 Swiss citizens, who were charged with treason and undermining Swiss's neutrality and independence, for collaboration, of which 99 were convicted. Some of those convicted were tried in absentia. According to Martin Gutmann, the trials served as a way for the Swiss establishment to reinforce a convenient and simplistic myth over its wartime past. However, they constituted a genuine national cleansing of Nazism by targeting key ideological figures in Switzerland's Nazi movement. Many Swiss volunteers in the Waffen-SS were tried on lesser charges, including desertion, dereliction of duty, and unauthorized border crossing.[19]
In 1953, Johannes Pauli, a dual-national with German citizenship, stood trial for crimes committed at the Bisingen concentration camp. He was one of only seven Nazi war criminals to be convicted by Swiss courts, three of whom were tried in absentia. All of the cases were tried under the regular Swiss Criminal Code, but the special nature of the trials was made clear in their files. Swiss police had received word of Pauli, who'd fled to Switzerland to avoid prosecution, from the French in 1947. Pauli, who denied any involvement in war crimes, was initially released due to a lack of evidence. Over the next few years, however, prosecutors compiled evidence and witness testimony against him. In 1951, under questioning, Pauli finally admitted to his involvement in the executions of two prisoners. He was also one of the two main participants in the Offenburg massacre, in which SS men massacred 41 concentration camps who were too weak to walk in 1945, and had been the leader of a six-man Feldgendarmerie squad in Ukraine, where he was most likely involved in the Holocaust. However, neither of these things were known at the time. In 1953, he was found guilty of murder for executing a prisoner for looting and ordering the executions of two other prisoners without trial, and sentenced to 12 years in prison. Pauli was released from prison in 1961, and died in 1969. According to historian Martin Faust, the participation of Swiss citizens in Nazi war crimes is "a topic that has so far been dealt with almost completely by German historiography and only insufficiently by Swiss historiography."[20]
German violations
Nazi Germany repeatedly violated Swiss airspace. During the
Allied bombings and violations
Allied aircraft intruded on Swiss airspace throughout World War II. In total, 6,304 Allied aircraft violated Swiss airspace during the war.[23]
Some damaged Allied bombers returning from raids over Italy and Germany would intentionally violate Swiss airspace, preferring
Switzerland, surrounded by
The bombing limited much of the leniency the Swiss had shown toward Allied airspace violations. Eventually, the problem became so bad that they declared a zero-tolerance policy for violation by either Axis or Allied aircraft and authorized attacks on American aircraft.
The Swiss, although somewhat skeptical, reacted by treating these violations of their neutrality as "accidents". The United States was warned that single aircraft would be forced down and their crews would still be allowed to seek refuge, while bomber formations in violation of airspace would be intercepted. While American politicians and diplomats tried to minimize the political damage caused by these incidents, others took a more hostile view. Some senior commanders argued that as Switzerland was "full of German sympathizers", it deserved to be bombed.
From 1943 onwards Switzerland stopped American and British aircraft, mainly bombers, overflying Switzerland on nine occasions, six times by Swiss Air Force fighters and nine by flak. Thirty-six Allied airmen were killed. On 1 October 1943 the first American bomber was shot down near Bad Ragaz, with only three men surviving. The officers were interned in Davos and the airmen in Adelboden. The representative of the US military intelligence group based in Bern, Barnwell Legge (a US military attaché to Switzerland), instructed the soldiers not to flee, but most of them thought it to be a diplomatic joke and gave no regard to his request.[34][35][36]
Jewish refugees
As a neutral state bordering Germany, Switzerland was relatively easy to reach for refugees from the Nazis. Switzerland's refugee laws, especially with respect to Jews fleeing Germany, were strict and have caused controversy since the end of World War II. From 1933 until 1944 asylum for refugees could only be granted to those who were under personal threat owing to their political activities only; it did not include those who were under threat due to race, religion or ethnicity.
A refugee help network operated from the Polish embassy in Bern; the Ładoś Group. This initiative saved thousands of Jews from certain death by issuing them with Latin American identity papers. Not all efforts were successful though, and the network was eventually discovered and dismantled by the Swiss authorities.[41]
Switzerland's treatment of Jewish refugees has been criticized by scholars of the Holocaust. In 1999 an international panel of historians declared that Switzerland was "guilty of acting as an accomplice to the Holocaust when it refused to accept many thousands of fleeing Jews, and instead sent them back to almost certain annihilation at the hands of the Nazis".[42]
Switzerland also acted as a refuge for
Protecting Power mandates
In war time each belligerent nation relies on an independent neutral third party to protect its diplomatic interests through "mandates" as specified in international law especially the Hague Conventions of 1899 and 1907. In World War II, Switzerland, and to a lesser extent Sweden and the United States, performed these roles for both sides. When the US entered the war in late 1941, Switzerland took over its mandates. In terms of major roles Swiss diplomats had the mandate to protect Germany's interest in Britain, the United States, Yugoslavia, Turkey, and Dutch Indonesia. Switzerland protected British interests in Germany, France, Italy, Hungary, Romania and Japan. It protected Vichy France's interests in Britain, the United States, Italy, Egypt and Brazil. It protected Italy's interest in Egypt and Brazil. It protected the United States interest in Germany, France, Italy, Japan, China and Denmark. It protected Japan's interest in Britain the United States, Egypt and Argentina. The diplomats arranged travel permissions, helping tens of thousands of people to return to their home countries after being trapped in an enemy nation. Swiss diplomats also supervised closed enemy embassies. Of special importance was the protection provided prisoners of war, especially the sick and wounded.[44]
Service of Intellectual Assistance to Prisoners of War (SIAP)
In 1939, the Service of Intellectual Assistance to Prisoners of War (SIAP) was created by the
Financial relationships with Nazi Germany
Switzerland's trade was blockaded by both the
Party | Purchases | Sales | Net |
---|---|---|---|
USA | 2242.9 | 714.3 | 1528.7 |
Great Britain | 668.6 | 0 | 668.6 |
Canada | 65.3 | 0 | 65.3 |
Germany | 1231.1 | 19.5 | 1211.6 |
Italy | 150.1 | 0 | 150.1 |
Japan | 0 | 5 | −5.0 |
Portugal | 85.1 | 536.6 | −451.5 |
Spain | 0 | 185.1 | −185.1 |
Romania | 9.8 | 112.1 | −102.3 |
Hungary | 0 | 16.3 | −16.3 |
Slovakia | 0 | 11.3 | −11.3 |
Turkey | 0 | 14.8 | −14.8 |
Argentina | 32.7 | 0 | 32.7 |
France | 193.2 | 0 | 193.2 |
Greece | 0.5 | 0 | 0.5 |
Sweden | 77.5 | 3 | 74.5 |
BIS | 61.5 | 18.3 | 43.2 |
Market | 71.6 | 667.8 | −596.2 |
Confederation | 269.3 | 1087.9 | −818.6 |
Federal Mint | 42.5 | 45.8 | −3.3 |
In the 1990s, a
Under pressure from the Allies, in December 1943 quotas were imposed on the importation and exportation of certain goods and foodstuffs and in October 1944 sales of munitions were halted. However, the transit of goods by railway between Germany, Italy and occupied France continued. North–South transit trade across Switzerland increased from 2.5 million tons before the war to nearly 6 million tons per year. No troops or "war goods" were supposed to be transshipped. Switzerland was concerned that Germany would cease the supply of the coal it required if it blocked coal shipments to Italy while the Allies, despite some plans to do so, took no action as they wanted to maintain good relations with Switzerland.[49] Between 1939 and 1945 Germany exported 10,267,000 tons of coal to Switzerland. In 1943 these imports supplied 41% of Swiss energy requirements. In the same period Switzerland sold electric power to Germany equivalent to 6,077,000 tons of coal.[50]
See also
- List of World War II weapons of Switzerland
- List of aircraft of Switzerland in World War II
- Neutral powers during World War II
Notes
- ^ Purchases and sales made by the Swiss National Bank to the listed counterparty.
References
- ISBN 978-0-203-46392-5.
- ^ a b World War I-Introduction in German, French and Italian in the online Historical Dictionary of Switzerland.
- ^ World War I – Preparation in German, French and Italian in the online Historical Dictionary of Switzerland.
- ^ a b World War I – 1914 to 1918 in German, French and Italian in the online Historical Dictionary of Switzerland.
- ^ "Gefallen 1916 an der Dreisprachenspitze". www.suedostschweiz.ch (in German). Retrieved December 9, 2018.
- ^ Culture during World War I in German, French and Italian in the online Historical Dictionary of Switzerland.
- ^ "Introduction". Archived from the original on November 2, 2008.
- ^ "Switzerland's forgotten role in saving World War One lives". bbc.com. BBC. May 30, 2016. Retrieved May 30, 2016.
- ^ "C2D - Centre for Research on Direct Democracy". c2d.ch. Archived from the original on July 6, 2011.
- ^ ISBN 978-0-521-14382-0
- ^ Rudolf Jaun (September 2, 2014). "Mobilmachung der Armee von 1939: "Überall Menschen, Pferde, Aufregung"". Neue Zürcher Zeitung NZZ (in German). Zürich, Switzerland. Retrieved August 18, 2016.
- ^ Bonjour 1978, p. 431.
- ^ "Let's Swallow Switzerland" by Klaus Urner (Lexington Books, 2002).
- ^ ISBN 3-85842-601-6.
- ISSN 0376-6829. Retrieved February 12, 2024.
- ^ Bruce L. Brager (2006). The Office of Strategic Services. MilitaryHistoryOnline.com. Retrieved January 17, 2016.
- ISBN 978-0-7391-0274-9.
- ISBN 3-7193-0681-X.
- ISBN 978-1-316-60894-4.
- ^ Rosch, Benjamin (May 31, 2020). "Kriegsverbrecher - Der KZ-Führer mit dem Schweizer Pass: Johannes Pauli, ein Leben mit Gewalt". bz Basel (in German). Retrieved November 26, 2023.
- ^ Time Life Books, 1995) states 25,000
- ^ Essential Militaria, Nicholas Hobbes, 2005
- ^ de:Schweizer Luftwaffe#Im Zweiten Weltkrieg
- ^ a b The Diplomacy of Apology: U.S. Bombings of Switzerland during World War II Archived May 5, 2007, at the Wayback Machine
- ^ Dwight S. Mears, "The Catch-22 Effect: The Lasting Stigma of Wartime Cowardice in the U.S. Army Air Forces," The Journal of Military History 77 (July 2013): 1037–43.
- swissinfo. Retrieved October 23, 2015.
- ^ "Stadtarchiv Schaffhausen : Willkommen beim Stadtarchiv Schaffhausen" (PDF). stadtarchiv-schaffhausen.ch.
- ^ a b US-Bomben auf Schweizer Kantone Archived September 28, 2007, at the Wayback Machine
- ^ "Military Agency Records". National Archives. August 15, 2016.
- ^ Regan, Geoffrey. Blue on Blue – A History of Friendly Fire. Avin Books, New York, 1995.
- ISBN 0-306-81325-4.
- ISBN 1-55750-433-4.
- ISBN 0-271-01485-7.
- ^ Franz Kasperski (September 7, 2015). "Abgeschossen von der neutralen Schweiz" (in German). Schweizer Radio und Fernsehen SRF. Retrieved October 23, 2015.
- ^ "Forced Landing". climage.ch. Retrieved October 23, 2015.
- ^ "Gedenkstein für Internierten-Straflager" (in German). Schweiz aktuell. October 23, 2015. Retrieved October 23, 2015.
- ^ ISBN 3-85842-603-2.
- ^ Asylum in German, French and Italian in the online Historical Dictionary of Switzerland.
- ^ Second World War-Refugees in German, French and Italian in the online Historical Dictionary of Switzerland. states 28,000
- ^ Switzerland from the Shoah Resource Foundation accessed February 4, 2009
- ISBN 978-3-907262-09-2.
- ^ Drozdiak, William (December 10, 1999). "Panel Finds Switzerland Complicit in Holocaust". The Washington Post. Retrieved January 14, 2022.
- ^ Reid, Pat The Colditz Story, The Latter Days at Colditz
- ^ Leo Schelbert. "Linking the Hideously-Sundered Nations" Neutral Switzerland as Protecting Power" in Leo Schelbert, ed., Switzerland Under Siege 1939-1945: A Neutral Nation's Struggle for Survival (2000) pp 153-182, at p. 156-159.
- ISBN 92-3-101733-0.
- ISBN 978-0-203-98429-1.
- ^ Independent Commission of Experts Switzerland – Second World War. "Switzerland, National Socialism and the Second World War Final Report" (PDF). Independent Commission of Experts Switzerland – Second World War. Retrieved June 25, 2017.
- ^ Laird, Michèle (November 7, 2013). "A race against time Swiss urged to provide missing links to Nazi-looted art". LootedArt.com. Retrieved June 25, 2017.
- ^ Helmreich, Dr. Jonathan E. (Summer 2000). "The Diplomacy of Apology: U.S. Bombings of Switzerland during World War II". Aerospace Power Journal. Archived from the original on May 5, 2007.
- ^ Golson, p. 294
Further reading
- Bonjour, Edgar (1978). "Swiss Neutrality During Two World Wars". In Luck, James Murray; Burckhardt, Lukas F.; Haug, Hans (eds.). Modern Switzerland. The Society for the Promotion of Science and Scholarship Inc. pp. 419–438. ISBN 0-930664-01-9.
- Codevilla, Angelo M. Between the Alps and a Hard Place: Switzerland in World War II and the Rewriting of History, (2013)
- Golson, Eric Bernard, The Economics of Neutrality: Spain, Sweden and Switzerland in the Second World War (2011) PhD thesis, LSE, 500pp. full text
- Kreis, Georg. Switzerland and the Second World War (2013) excerpt and text search
- Petropoulos, Jonathan, "Co-Opting Nazi Germany: Neutrality in Europe During World War II." Dimensions 14.1 (2000): 13+. excerpt
- Schelbert, Leo, ed. Switzerland Under Siege 1939–1945, editor ISBN 0-89725-414-7
- Wylie, Neville. Britain, Switzerland, and the Second World War (Oxford U.P. 2003)
External links
- Moos, Carlo: Domestic Politics and Neutrality (Switzerland), in: 1914-1918-online. International Encyclopedia of the First World War.
- Bürgisser, Thomas: Internees (Switzerland) , in: 1914-1918-online. International Encyclopedia of the First World War.
- Switzerland's Neutrality
- Switzerland and the First World War
- Switzerland and the Refugees Fleeing Nazism, on Yad Vashem website