During World War I and World War II, the Swiss Confederation maintained armed neutrality. Consequently, it is of great concern to the warring countries as a scene for diplomacy, espionage, and commerce. In addition, it is a safe place for refugees.
Video Switzerland during the World Wars
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Switzerland maintained a state of armed neutrality during the First World War. However, with two Central Blocks (Germany and Austria-Hungary) and two Entente Powers (France and Italy) all sharing borders and populations with Switzerland, the proved proved difficult. From December 1914 to the spring of 1918 Swiss troops deployed in the Jura along the French border on fears that the trench war will spill over into Switzerland. Less attention is the Italian border, but troops are also stationed in the Unterengadin Graubensden region. Although the majority of German-speaking Swiss generally preferred the Central Block, the French-speaking population and, later, the Italian language sided with the Entente Powers, which would have led to a conflict in 1918. However, the country managed to prevent the war. During the war the Swiss were blockaded by the Allies and therefore experienced some difficulties. However, since Switzerland is centrally located, neutral, and generally undamaged, the war allows the growth of the Swiss banking industry. For the same reason, Switzerland became a haven for refugees and revolutionaries.
After the army organization in 1907 and the military expansion in 1911, the Swiss Armed Forces comprised about 250,000 men with an additional 200,000 in supporting roles. Both European alliance systems took into account the size of the Swiss military in the years before 1914, especially in the Schlieffen Plan.
After the declaration of war at the end of July 1914, on August 1, 1914, Switzerland mobilized its troops; On August 7th, the newly appointed Ulrich Wille, has about 220,000 people under his command. On August 11, Wille had deployed many troops along the Jura border with France, with smaller units deployed along the east and south border. This remained unchanged until May 1915 when Italy entered the war on the Entente side, where troops were deployed to the valleys of Unterengadin, Val MÃÆ'¼stair and along the southern border.
After it became clear that the Allies and the Central Bloc would respect Swiss neutrality, the number of troops deployed began to decline. After September 1914, some soldiers were released to return to their farms and to vital industries. In November 1916 Switzerland had only 38,000 people in the army. This number increased during the winter of 1916-17 to more than 100,000 as a result of the proposed French attack that would cross Switzerland. When this attack fails, troops begin to shrink again. Due to the widespread strike of laborers, by the end of the war the Swiss army had shrunk to just 12,500.
During the war of "warring parties" crossed the Swiss border about 1,000 times, with some of these incidents happening around the Dreisprachen Piz or Three Peak Languages ​​(near Stelvio Pass; Italian, Romansh and German). Switzerland has outposts and hotels (which are destroyed for use by the Austrians) at the summit. During the war, fierce fighting took place in the ice and snow in the area, with gunfire even crossing into the Swiss regions. The three countries made a deal not to fire the Swiss territory that jutted out between Austria (in the north) and Italy (in the south). Instead they can fire the operand, because the Swiss region is around the peak.
During the battle, Switzerland became a haven for many politicians, artists, pacifists, and thinkers. Bern, ZÃÆ'¼rich, and Geneva are central to the debate and discussion. In ZÃÆ'¼rich, two very different anti-war groups will bring lasting change to the world, the Bolsheviks and the Dadais.
The Bolsheviks are a Russian socialist faction, centered around Vladimir Lenin. After the outbreak of war, Lenin was astonished when the major European Social Democratic parties (at that time oriented towards Marxism) supported their respective countries' war efforts. Lenin (against the war in his conviction that peasants and workers are fighting against the bourgeoisie for them) adopts the view that what he describes as an "imperialist war" should be transformed into civil war among the classes. He left Austria to neutral Switzerland in 1914 after the outbreak of war and remained active in Switzerland until 1917. After the 1917 Revolution in Russia and the abduction of Tsar Nicholas II he left Switzerland on a sealed train to Petrograd, where he would soon lead the October 1917 Revolution in Russia.
While Dada's art movement is also an anti-war organization, Dadais uses art to oppose all wars. The founders of the movement have left Germany and Romania to escape the destruction of war. At Cabaret Voltaire in ZÃÆ'¼rich, they performed a show that expressed their contempt for war and with an inspiring interest. By several accounts Dada united on October 6, 1916 at the cabaret. Artists use abstractions to counter the social, political, and cultural ideas of the time that they believe led to war. The Dadais view abstraction as the result of a lack of planning and logical thinking processes. When World War I ended in 1918, most of the ZÃÆ'¼rich Dadais returned to their home countries, and some began Dada activities in other cities.
In 1917, Swiss neutrality began to be questioned when the Grimm-Hoffmann Incident erupted. Robert Grimm, a Swiss socialist politician, traveled to Russia as an activist to negotiate a separate peace between Russia and Germany, to end the war on the Eastern Front for the sake of socialism and pacifism. Misrepresenting himself as a true diplomat and representative of the Swiss government, he made progress but had to recognize the fraud and return home when the Allies knew about the proposed peace deal. Neutrality was restored by the resignation of Arthur Hoffmann, Swiss Federal Advisor who had supported Grimm but did not consult his colleagues about the initiative.
During the Swiss war received 68,000 British, French and German war prisoners injured for recovery in mountain resorts. The wounded were displaced from prisoners of war camps that were unable to cope with the number of wounded and sit outside the war in Switzerland. Transfers are approved between the forces of war and organized by the Red Cross.
Maps Switzerland during the World Wars
Interwar Period
One of the potential outcomes of World War I was its own Swiss expansion during the Interwar period. In a referendum held in Austria, Vorarlberg on May 11, 1920, over 80% of the votes supported the proposal that the country join the Swiss Confederation. However, this was prevented by opposition from the Austrian Government, Allied, Swiss liberals, Swiss-Italians and Swiss-French.
But Liechtenstein successfully excluded himself from Austria in 1918 and signed a monetary and customs union with Switzerland that effectively secured his independence. In 1920, Switzerland joined the League of Nations.
In 1934, the Swiss Banking Law was passed. This allows anonymous 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 Wilhelm Gustloff was murdered in Davos; he was head of the "Auslian-Organization" of the Nazi Party in Switzerland. The Swiss government refused to extradite the alleged assassin David Frankfurter to Germany. Frankfurter was sentenced to 18 years in prison but was pardoned in 1946.
As European tensions grew in the 1930s, the Swiss began to rethink their political and military situation. The Social Democratic Party abandoned their revolutionary and anti-military stance, and soon the country began to rearm for war. Federal BGB adviser Rudolf Minger, predicting a war will come in 1939, leading the redevelopment of the Swiss Armed Forces. Beginning in 1936, he gained a larger defense budget and started a war bond system. Soldiers restructured into smaller, more complete divisions and training camps for conscripts extended to 3 months of instruction. In 1937 an economic cell of war was founded. Households are encouraged to keep food supplies and basic needs for two months. In 1938, Foreign Minister Giuseppe Motta withdrew Switzerland from the League of Nations, returning the country to its traditional form of neutrality.
Actions are also taken to prove Switzerland's unique national identity and unique culture of the Fascist forces around it. This policy is known as Geistige Landesverteidigung , or "national spiritual defense". In 1937, the government opened the Museum of Federal Charters. The increased use of Swiss Germany coincided with a national referendum that made Romansh the national language in 1938, a move designed to counter the efforts of Benito Mussolini to incite Italian nationalism in the southern regions of Grisons and Ticino. In December of that year in a government speech, Conservative Catholic Conservative Philipp Etter urged a defense of Swiss culture. Geistige Landesverteidigung then exploded, displayed on stamps, in children's books, and through official publications.
World War II
At the outbreak of World War II in 1939, the Swiss immediately began to mobilize for the possibility of an invasion. The transition to wartime went smoothly and caused less controversy than in 1914. The whole country was fully mobilized in just three days. Parliament quickly chose 61-year-old soldier Henri Guisan's career as General. On September 3, 430,000 combat troops and 210,000 people in support services, 10,000 of whom were women, had been mobilized, although most of them were repatriated during the ensuing Phoney War. At its highest point, 850,000 troops are mobilized.
During the war, detailed invasion plans were made by German military command, such as Operation Tannenbaum, but Switzerland was never attacked. Switzerland was able to remain independent through a combination of military prevention, economic concessions to Germany, and good fortune as a larger event during the war delaying the invasion. Attempts by the Swiss Nazi party to influence Anschluss with Germany failed, largely as a result of a sense of national identity and tradition of Swiss civil liberties and democracy. The Swiss press criticized the Third Reich, often angering his leadership. In turn, Berlin denounced Switzerland as a medieval remnant and its people denied the Germans. Under General Guisan's central command, the Swiss military is mobilized to defend the country from possible disruptions. The Swiss military strategy was changed from one of the static defenses at the border, to a strategy of diversion and withdrawal to a strong position, well stockpiled in the Alpine known as the National Redoubt. This controversial strategy is basically one of prevention. The idea is to make the cost of raiding too high. During the invasion, the Swiss Armed Forces will surrender the control of economic centers and population centers, but retain control of important rail networks and passes at the National Redoubt.
Switzerland is the basis for espionage by both parties in conflict and often mediates communication between the Axis and the Allied forces by serving as a protective force. In 1942, the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) was established in Bern. Through the efforts of Allen Dulles, the first relevant US intelligence service in Western Europe was created. During the allied Italian invasion, the OSS in Switzerland guided the tactical effort to take over Salerno and the islands of Corsica and Sardinia.
Regardless of the public and political stance in Switzerland, some of the higher-ranking officers in the Swiss Armed Forces have pro-Nazi sympathies: in particular Colonel Arthur Fonjallaz and Colonel Eugen Bircher, who leads Schweizerischer VaterlÃÆ'¤ndischer Verband. In the Letter with Suzanne (French: Lettres ÃÆ' Suzanne, Lausanne, Switzerland, 1949), the Swiss journalist LÃÆ' © © in Savary retrospectively denounced in this sense "the influence of Hitlerism's occultism on the Swiss during World War II, which they unconsciously are under ".
Nazi Offenses
Nazi Germany repeatedly violated Swiss airspace. During the French Invasion, German aircraft violated Swiss airspace at least 197 times. In several air incidents, Switzerland shot down 11 Luftwaffe aircraft between 10 May 1940 and 17 June 1940. Germany protested diplomatically on June 5, 1940, and with a second record on June 19, 1940 which contained a clear threat. Hitler was furious when he saw that German equipment was used to shoot down German pilots. He said they would respond "in other ways". On June 20, 1940, the Swiss air force was ordered to stop intercepting aircraft violating Swiss airspace. The Swiss fighters have even begun to force a disturbing plane to land at a Swiss airfield. The anti-aircraft unit is still operating. Later, Hitler and Hermann GÃÆ'¶ring sent saboteurs to destroy the Swiss airfield. However, the saboteurs were captured by Swiss troops before they could cause damage. Fighting between German and Swiss troops took place on the northern border of Switzerland during the war.
Bombings and allied violations
From 1943 Switzerland stopped American and British aircraft, especially bombers, Swiss overflying during World War II: six times by Swiss air force fighters and nine by flak cannons, and 36 pilots were killed. On October 1, 1943, the first American bombers were shot near Bad Ragaz, with only three survivors. The officers were detained in Davos and the pilot at Adelboden. Representatives from the Bernese-based US intelligence group Barnwell Legge (a US military attaché to Switzerland), instructed the soldiers not to run away but most of them thought it was a diplomatic joke and did not honor his request. Allied aircraft also broke through Swiss airspace during the war, most of which were damaged Allied bombers returned from raids over Italy and Germany whose crew preferred Switzerland's internment to be prisoners of war. More than a hundred Allied planes and their crew were interned. They were then housed in various ski resorts that had been emptied of the lack of tourists due to war and held to an end. At least 940 American aviators attempted to flee to France after the Normandy invasion, but the Swiss authorities intercepted 183 internees. More than 160 of these pilots were locked up in a Swiss prison camp known as Wauwilermoos, located near Lucerne and ordered by Andrà © à © BÃÆ'Ã… © guin, a pro-Nazi Swiss officer. The American internees remained at Wauwilermo until November 1944 when the US State Department protested against the Swiss government and ultimately guaranteed their release. The American military attache in Bern warned Marcel Pilet-Golaz, the Swiss foreign minister in 1944, that "the persecution inflicted on US pilots could lead to 'navigation errors' during a bombing in Germany."
During the war, 6304 Allied aircraft violated Swiss airspace.
Switzerland, surrounded by the territory controlled by Poros, also suffered Allied bombing during the war; mainly from the unintentional bombing of Schaffhausen by American aircraft on April 1, 1944. It was mistaken for Ludwigshafen am Rhein, a German city 284 kilometers away. 40 people were killed and more than 50 buildings destroyed, among them a group of small factories producing anti-aircraft bullets, ball bearings, and parts Bf-109 for Germany.
The bombings limit most of the Swiss allowances against Allied airspace breaches. Finally, the problem becomes so bad that they declare a zero-tolerance policy for offense by either Axis or Allied aircraft and official attacks on American aircraft. The victims of this bombardment are not confined to Swiss civilians, but, including the often confusing American aircrews, were shot down by Swiss fighters and some Swiss fighters were shot down by American aviators. In February 1945, 18 civilians were killed by Allied bombs dropped on Stein am Rhein, Vals, and Rafz. The most famous incident occurred on March 4, 1945, when both Basel and Zurich were accidentally bombed by American planes. Attacks at the Basel train station caused the destruction of passenger trains, but no casualties were reported. However, a Liberation B-24 dropped his bomb load on ZÃÆ'¼rich, demolishing two buildings and killing five civilians. The crew believe that they attacked Freiburg in Germany. As John Helmreich points out, pilots and navigators, in choosing target opportunities, "miss the base they are headed for, miss the city they are headed for, and even miss the country they are headed for".
The Swiss, though somewhat skeptical, reacted by treating their neutrality violations as "accidents". The United States is warned that single aircraft will be forced down, and their crew will still be allowed to seek shelter, while bomber formations in violation of airspace will be intercepted. While American politicians and diplomats try to minimize the political damage caused by this incident, others take a more hostile view. Some senior commanders argued that since Switzerland was "full of German sympathizers" (claims not verified), it was worth bombing. General Henry H. Arnold, commander-in-chief of the US Air Force Air Force, even suggested that it was Germany itself that flew the Allied planes captured over Switzerland in an attempt to gain a propaganda victory.
Refugees
As a neutral country bordering Germany, Switzerland is easily accessible to the refugees from the Nazis. However, Swiss refugee laws, particularly those relating to Jews who fled from Germany, are very strict and have caused controversy since the end of World War II. From 1933 to 1944 refugee sanctuaries can only be given to those who are under personal threat because of their political activities; it does not include those who are under threat due to race, religion or ethnicity. On the basis of this definition, Switzerland granted asylum to only 644 persons between 1933 and 1945; of these, 252 cases were accepted during the war. All other refugees were received by each canton and were given different permits, including a "tolerance permit" that allowed them to stay in the canton but did not work. During the war, Switzerland accommodated 300,000 refugees. Of these, 104,000 are foreign troops interned in accordance with the Rights and Obligations of Neutral Power outlined in the Hague Convention. The rest are foreign civilians and interned or tolerated or residence permit by local authorities. Refugees are not allowed to hold jobs. Of the refugees, 60,000 civilians escaped from the persecution by the Nazis. Of this, 26,000 to 27,000 Jews. Between 10,000 and 24,000 Jewish civilian refugees were denied entry. Although Switzerland harbored more Jewish refugees than any other country, these refugees were denied entry on the grounds that inventory had been reduced. Of those who refused entry, a Swiss government representative said, "Our little sloop is full." At the beginning of the war, Switzerland had a Jewish population of between 18,000 and 28,000 and a total population of about 4 million. At the end of the war, there were over 115,000 refugees searching for people from all categories in Switzerland, representing the maximum number of refugees at one time.
Switzerland also acted as a refuge for detained Allied prisoners of war, including from Oflag IV-C (Colditz). Service
Intellectual Support to War Prisoners (READY)
In 1939, the Intellectual Aid Service to War Custody (SIAP) was created by the International Bureau of Education (IBE), an Geneva-based international organization dedicated to educational matters. In collaboration with the Swiss Federal Council, which initially funded the project, and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), SIAP provided over half a million books for prisoners of war during World War II, and arranged educational opportunities and study groups in prison camps.
Financial ties with Nazi Germany
Swiss trade is blocked by allies and shafts. Each party openly puts pressure on Switzerland not to trade with others. The economic cooperation and extension of credit to the Third Reich varies according to the possibility of perceived invasion, and the availability of other trading partners. Concessions peaked after an important rail line through Vichy France was cut in 1942, leaving Switzerland completely surrounded by Poros. Switzerland relies on trade for half of its food and is basically all fuel but controls the vital trans-alpine rail tunnel between Germany and Italy. Switzerland's most important exports during the war were precision machine tools, watches, gem bearings (used in bomb sights), electricity, and dairy products. Until 1936, the Swiss franc was the only freely convertible currency in the world, and both the Allies and the Germans sold large quantities of gold to the Swiss National Bank. Between 1940 and 1945, Reichsbank Germany sold 1.3 billion francs of gold to the Swiss Bank in exchange for Swiss francs and other foreign currencies, used to purchase strategically important raw materials such as tungsten and oil from neutral countries. Hundreds of millions of francs worth of gold are monetized gold looted from the central banks of the occupied nations. A total of 581,000 francs worth of "Melmer" gold taken from victims of the Holocaust in eastern Europe were sold to Swiss banks. In total, trade between Germany and Switzerland contributed about 0.5% to the German war effort and did not significantly extend the war.
In the 1990s, the controversy over a class action suit filed in Brooklyn, New York, on Jewish assets in Holocaust-era bank accounts prompted the Swiss government to conduct a recent and authoritative study of Swiss interactions with the Nazi regime. The final report by an independent panel of international scholars, known as the Bergier Commission, was issued in 2002 and also documents the role of Switzerland as a major center for the sale and transfer of art looted by the Nazis during the Second World War.
Under pressure from the Allies, in December 1943 quotas were imposed on the import and export of certain goods and foodstuffs and in October 1944 ammunition sales ceased. But the transit of goods by train between German, Italian and French occupied continues. The North-South transit trade in Switzerland increased from 2.5 million tons before the war to nearly 6 million tons per year. No troops or "war goods" should be moved. Switzerland is worried that Germany will halt the supply of coal it needs if it blocks coal shipments to Italy while the Allies, despite some plans to do so, take no action as they have an interest in maintaining good relations with Switzerland. Between 1939 and 1945 Germany exported 10.267 million tonnes of coal to Switzerland. In 1943, this import supplied 41% of Switzerland's energy needs. In the same period Switzerland sold power to Germany equivalent to 6,077,000 tonnes of coal.
See also
- The Swiss bombing in World War II
- The power of neutral during World War II
Notes and references
Further reading
- Bonjour, Edgar (1978). "Swiss Neutrality During Two World Wars". In Luck, James Murray; Burckhardt, Luke F.; Haug, Hans. Modern Switzerland . Society for Science Promotion and Scholarship Inc. p. 419-438. ISBN: 0-930664-01-9.
- Codevilla, Angelo M. Between the Alps and the Hard Place: Switzerland in World War II and Rewrites History , (2013) ISBN 0-89526-238-X footage and text search
- Kreis, Georg. Switzerland and the Second World War (2013) are excerpts and text search
- Schelbert, Leo, ed. Swiss Under Siege 1939-1945 , editor of ISBNÃ, 0-89725-414-7
- Wylie, Neville. England, Switzerland and the Second World War (Oxford U.P. 2003)
- Golson, Eric Bernard, Economic Neutrality: Spain, Sweden and Switzerland in the Second World War (2011) PhD thesis, LSE, 500pp. full text
External links
- Moos, Carlo: Domestic Politics and Neutrality (Switzerland), in: 1914-1918-online. International Encyclopedia of the First World War.
- BÃÆ'¼rgisser, Thomas: Internees (Switzerland), at: 1914-1918-online. International Encyclopedia of the First World War.
- Swiss Neutrality
- Switzerland and the First World War
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