User:Joel Mc/sandbox
As I look around the books in my study, I come up with the following writers:
Refugee policy
Since the 19th century, Switzerland had a positive humanitarian image based upon the tradition of granting asylum, providing good offices, humanitarian aid, particularly through the work of the Geneva-based International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). However, after the First World War, Switzerland was not immune to xenophobic and anti-semitic sentiments that were spreading through Europe. As in other Western countries in the 1930s, Switzerland, increasingly applied restrictions on the admission of foreigners in the name of national security.[1]
Switzerland, apparently on its own initiative began to openly apply racist selection criteria according to the Nazi definition. In 1938, even before the war broke out the Swiss Government requested the Nazi authorities to stamp all passports of German Jews with a "J" as the Swiss did not recognize the right to asylum of those fleeing racial persecution. With the increasing persecution of Jews by the Nazi regime, Swiss restrictive was set apart from other restrictive policies of the Allies due to its geographical location: it was the easiest country on the continent for refugees to reach. Thousands of refugees were sent back even though authorities knew that they were likely sending them to their deaths.[2]
The ICE concluded:
"Switzerland, and in particular its political leaders, failed when it came to generously offering protection to persecuted Jews. This is all the more serious in view of the fact that the authorities, who were quite aware of the possible consequences of their decision, not only closed the borders in August 1942, but continued to apply this restrictive policy for over a year. By adopting numerous measures making it more difficult for refugees to reach safety, and by handing over the refugees caught directly to their persecutors, the Swiss authorities were instrumental in helping the Nazi regime to attain its goals."[3]
Refugee figures are hard to come by. However the Commission concluded that during the Second World War Switzerland offered refuge from Nazi persecution to some 60,000 refugees for varying periods of time, a little under 50% of whom were Jewish.[4]
The commission carefully explained the difficulty of estimating the number of refugees, most of whom were probably Jewish, turned away. In a preliminary report for the Commission, an estimate of 24,000 "documented rejections" was published.[5] However in the final report, perhaps having taken into account criticism of the earlier figures,[6] the commission was more cautious, indicating that it must be assumed that "Switzerland turned back or deported over 20,000 refugees during the Second World War." Specifically, they reported that during the period from 1 January 1942, after the borders were closed, to 31 December 1942, 3,507 refugees were turned back.[7][8]
In August 2001 when the Commission issued a final conclusion, with respect to refugee policy, stating that, "measured against its previous stand in terms of humanitarian aid and asylum where its refugee policy was concerned, neutral Switzerland not only failed to live up to its own standards, but also violated fundamental humanitarian principles."[9]
Uniqueness
Dr. Shimon Samuels, director for International Liaison of the
Notes
- ^ ICE (2002)pp. 498-499
- ^ ICE (2002)p. 168.
- ^ ICE (2002)p. 168.
- ^ ICE (2002)p. 117.
- ^ ["Switzerland and Refugees in the Nazi Era" http://www.uek.ch/en/publikationen1997-2000/fbere.pdf ICE (2000) p. 263]
- ^ Klarsfeld (1999)
- ^ ICE (2002)p. 115.
- ^ More recent research carried out by University of Geneva historian, Ruth Fivaz-Silbermann, comes up with the figure of a little under 3,500 cases of refoulement at the Franco-Suisse border, which she estimates to be some 2,600 persons.Fivaz-Silbermann 2014
- ^ ICE (2002)p. 499.
- ^ Samuels 2001, p. 209 .
- ^ Novick 1999, p. 9 .
- ^ Jones 2010, p. 254 .
- ^ Courtois 1999, p. 9 .
- ^ Möller 1999 ; Rosefielde 2009 .
- ^ Stephen G. Wheatcroft. The scale and nature of German and Soviet repression and mass killings, 1930–45. Europe-Asia Studies Vol. 48, No. 8 (Dec., 1996), pp. 1319–1353.
- ISBN 0-8032-5945-X.
- ISBN 978-1-84545-948-2.
- ) "The claims of Holocaust uniqueness are intellectually barren and morally discreditable, yet they persist. The question is, Why? In the first place, unique suffering confers unique entitlement."(pg. 47) "In effect, Holocaust uniqueness – this 'claim' upon others, this 'moral capital' – serves as Israel's prize alibi."(pg. 48)
- ^ Novick 1999, pp. 196–197 .