One of the staples of the Swiss wartime diet was the ubiquitous two-day-old potato bread. A 1944 episode was devoted to its production and rationing. A Swiss-flagged ship on the high seas—a little known supplier of products from abroad—is shown, but as a reason for shortages. (A handful of Swiss-flagged ships did in fact transport goods from countries outside the Axis, with the cargos arriving in Switzerland via overland routes through Italy.) Land is cleared by animals or tractors pulling up roots and by rows of men with picks. Women then do the final hoeing. The rationing plan for the month is explained, and the edition ends with the exhortation “Zusammenhalten und Disziplin wahren!” (Hold together and keep discipline!).48
The Wochenschau dealt with the poor as well. One episode contrasts the relative well-being of the average Swiss with the plight of the poor. There are flashes of a wheat harvest, people employed, a soccer game and healthy children; shop windows full of food and watches are contrasted with six somber people living in a single room. A woman washes clothes on a scrub board; children have holes in their shoes and torn clothes; newspapers are used in a wood stove; the family is down to its last potato; there is not enough bread; the ration cards are running out; the bills cannot be paid. Help arrives—suddenly there are plenty of potatoes, the children get new clothes, there is wood for the stove. The edition ends: “Wenn Du zögerst frage Dein Herz” (When you hesitate, ask your heart).49 Such appeals to charity and goodwill helped the Swiss support one another, aid the thousands of refugees in Switzerland, and fund the work of the International Committee of the red Cross in many other countries during the war.
Episodes about shortages and hardship often featured women and children. They, after all, were the ones who had to make it on their own while husbands and fathers were away on military service. “The Woman in Our Time” flashes “Das Swing-Girl”—caricatures of stylish women—but quickly shifts to Swiss women in military service and in ordinary walks of life. The housewife sees the basket of eggs shrink; she bundles hay; she runs low on ration coupons; and just when she is feeling low, the air raid alarm sounds; she checks on her precious sleeping child; the alarm awakens her at 6:00 a.m. And she is at once on the run; she dons her apron; throws wood in the stove; feeds the children; her daughter’s shoe has a huge hole; she sends the children off to school and goes to the pharmacy, where a crowd competes to redeem ration coupons—then back home for housework and more ration coupon clipping. This depiction of the obviously exhausting routine was clearly designed to be a tribute to the hard work of women in Swiss wartime society.50
Women in Service
Several episodes are devoted to women in hospitals, factories, the military, farms and the home. Women from all walks of life joined the Frauenhilfsdienst (FHD), the Women’s Auxiliary Service. FHD women awake in hotels or apartments turned into barracks; they don their military uniforms; practice marching; they work as aides for the General Staff, scan the skies for enemy aircraft and serve all along the communications line for air defense.51 The FHD films were intended to celebrate and affirm their work as well as to recruit.
The FHD included contingents of dispatch carriers on skis. In one episode, a group of women are sleeping in a barn; an alarm awakens them and they rush outside and strap on their skis; while delivering an important message from a soldier, a woman falls and is injured; six women come to her rescue; the snow is deep, the scenery beautiful.52 The adventure depicted here, while simplistic, was intended to attract young women to join the FHD and perform tasks which could release men for actual combat.
Another military assignment for FHD women was with the carrier pigeon units which were still a part of the Swiss army.53 They also ran kitchens and canteens for soldiers who were mobilized.54 These films were little different in their themes from, for example, American advertisements for the Women’s Army Corps (WACS) later made and distributed to the U.S. population.
The 650th Anniversary of the Confederation
In 1941, the Wochenschau seized upon the opportunity of celebrating the 650th anniversary of the founding of the Swiss Confederation in 1291 by creating productions depicting Switzerland’s medieval victories against the great European powers of the day.55 Praising the production “Notre pain quotidien” (Our Daily Bread), Federal Councilor Philippe Etter wrote Ladame requesting an all-out effort for the anniversary:
Switzerland must survive, as our ancestors wished. We will fight until the end so that the red flag with white cross flies over the Gotthard. You made excellent movies so that our people do not die of hunger. You helped Dr. Wahlen to fill stomachs. For myself, I ask you to help save the spirit, the courage, and the will to resist. Little Switzerland, curled up like a hedgehog, must draw strength through courage and confidence from her over six-hundred-year history, in order to support the soldiers who are feverishly working to fortify the Réduit, our ultimate defense.56
The result was the production of the film La Suisse héroique (Heroic Switzerland), the script of which was personally reviewed by Councilor Etter. The “Pact of the Rütli” concerned the founding events occurring around the lakes of the first Alpine Cantons—Uri, Schwyz and Unterwald. The film depicted the medieval battles of Morgarten, Sempach, and Morat, where small numbers of Swiss peasants defeated large armies of knights. The film featured the breast-plated cavaliers of the Remonte fédérale (Federal Troop), the best horsemen of Switzerland, with standards and pennants flowing, attacking Habsburg cavalry. Ladame remembered the production:
Everywhere we went, people received us with joy and cooperated with zeal. I will always remember the mountaineers of the Muotathal interpreting, truer than nature, the pact of the three Cantons Uri, Schwyz and Unterwald. They believed in it. They relived it. 1291, for them, was like yesterday. The Duke of Habsburg who wanted to invade their country was Hitler today.57
By the end of the year, the film would be shown to over 100,000 Swiss children. The film was generally met with spontaneous applause. While some critics questioned whether its depiction of events was historically accurate, 58 the film successfully contributed to the program of geistige Landesverteidigung (spiritual national defense).
Sports Films
A soccer match between Switzerland and Germany in Zurich depicted in film in April 1941 had obvious symbolic value. Crowds swamp the stadium and citizens anxiously listen on the radio; the German players line up and give the Heil Hitler salute as a band plays; the members of the Swiss team coolly keep both arms down at their sides; the game is filled with exciting plays; the crowd is ecstatic as Switzerland wins 2 to 1.59 Once again little Switzerland has defeated the giant to the north. The fans were thinking of more than a soccer match.
Another episode encouraged every Swiss, man or woman, to participate in sports and to earn the Swiss sport medal for general fitness. It contrasted group calisthenics on an athletic field with factory work. The choices: gymnastics, 100-meter sprinting, swimming, biking, fencing, pistol shooting, wrestling, rowing, skiing, horseback riding, long-distance racing with rifle on back, track and field.60 The message was that active participatory sports contributed strong defenders and encouraged a spirit of resistance.
The collapse of the tourism industry, which thrived before the war, resulted in massive unemployment in hotels throughout the country. One film encourages Swiss to take advantage of various outdoor recreational activities available at or near these hotels.61
Refugees and Humanitarian Aid
Helping refugees and humanitarian priorities were distinguishing characteristics of Switzerland for the entire war, and the Wochenschau created several episodes highlighting these themes. One featured Switzer land’s program to bring children from occupied countries into Switzerland for three months of rest and recuperation. Trains arrive with the children, who are taken by nuns to a mess hall to eat what must have been their best meal since the war began; they are then taken by individual families, who depart by horse-drawn wagons or taxis; each child receives medical attention; attends educational cla
sses; helps out with household chores; gains about five kilograms in weight; and there are tearful scenes when they depart for home.62 This film does not identify the country of origin of the children, but in fact most came from France.
Tragedy struck at home in 1944 when the American Eighth Air Force accidentally bombed the Swiss city of Schaffhausen, which lies on the northern side of the rhine. As shown in the newsreel, parts of the city are in flames and 37 are dead; firemen, soldiers, Scouts, and citizens of all kinds are putting out fires and looking for loved ones; buildings are shown completely bombed out and gutted. The film barely mentions that it was American bombers and expresses no animosity. Three days later, a funeral service is held at a church; a column of mourners marches to a mass grave, a circular trench with coffins facing the center; a child’s coffin is seen beside an adult one; people crowd around expressing their sorrow.63
As the war ebbed and flowed, refugees by the thousands continued to flow into Switzerland. Basel appears first in these films as a city enjoying peace and security, without hunger. Then, images from December 1944 depict deafening artillery and machine gun fire from across the border. Elderly people, children, women, and the wounded—some 5,000 of them—are fleeing across from Germany. Swiss soldiers help them enter; nurses examine the babies.64
Switzerland was a neutral zone where severely wounded soldiers of both sides could be exchanged. Sponsored by the International Committee of the red Cross, trains transported wounded Americans, English, Middle Easterners, Indians, and Africans as well as Germans into Switzerland, where they were exchanged and put on other trains to be returned to areas under the control of the Allies and Axis respectively. Doctors and nurses treated those in immediate need.65 The facial expressions of the wounded in these films show the reality of war close up.
Just after the war in Europe ended, the Wochenschau featured Russian soldiers who were still interned in Switzerland. They had apparently escaped to Switzerland from German POW or work camps. Perhaps some were deserters seeking to escape from Communism. Located in Wallis Canton, the internees are shown picking potatoes, singing, hearing a harangue by a Bolshevik political commissar under a picture of Stalin, and then doing the Russian step dance. After meeting with Swiss authorities, the Russian military delegate informs the assembled internees that they will be returning to Russia, which leads to wild applause; they leave in trains, still singing.66
The events which transpired after their departure, however, were not so happy. Although the Soviet Union had never joined the Geneva Convention Covering Treatment of Prisoners of War, the Swiss protected the Russian internees as if they had. Russian internees were given very limited leave and their Slavic language did not facilitate their getting acquainted with the Swiss people. However, the freedom these internees witnessed in Switzerland was believed to be too subversive. In blatant violation of the assurances given to the Swiss who negotiated with the Soviets about the treatment of the Russian internees, the vast majority were sent to Gulags—labor camps—instead of being returned home to their families.67 It is believed that some may have simply been shot for surrendering rather than dying for the Motherland in combat. In fact, most of them were never heard from again once they reentered the Soviet Union.
Military Exercises
Military activities were the common theme of Army Film Service productions and were also featured in the Wochenschau. This was calculated to give the Swiss people confidence and to encourage participation while at the same time sending the message to Germany that the Swiss military was prepared and would resist fiercely.
Alpine snow scenes were highlighted in various military episodes. The message was that Switzerland was a rugged land where certain death awaited invaders. In one edition, soldiers in white camouflage sweep the terrain with binoculars; they spot something and take off on their skis, executing high jumps; the scene flashes to hard farm work with hand tools and plows pulled by animals.68 In another, soldiers ascend snow-capped mountains, using picks and climbing gear.69
One episode showing snow maneuvers features live firing of rifles, machine guns, and mortars. Soldiers sprint out of small holes in the snowcovered mountainside and move to the attack; ski troops swoop down from steep inclines in full battle gear; a mortar is loaded and fired into a mountainside, causing an avalanche.70
An edition on units of Swiss cavalry appears strangely anachronistic in the age of the tank and the fighter plane, although horse troops would have been useful in certain terrain. However, the film shows classic horse training in various gaits, as well as movements through uneven ground. The grand finale is a troop of mounted soldiers with helmets, carbines on their backs, and swords hanging from their sides!71
Even a militia army needs a band. One newsreel featured a performance in a large hall. However, it is a strange concert indeed, because the band members are all wearing helmets, totally ready for action of another kind. The music they play, moreover, sounds every bit as martial and bombastic as anything on the German Wochenschau. 72
Some training exercises were created as public demonstrations for both military and civilian visitors—including, no doubt, spies who carried their observations back to Germany. One such exercise, in which the audience of men, women, and children included General Guisan himself, was a “mini D-Day” conducted by pontoon troops. It begins with shock troops swimming across a river; then three-man paddleboats are launched from concealed locations along the wooded shore; once a bridgehead is secure, larger boats with more soldiers cross to assault fortified positions on the other side. Gunfire and artillery fire punctuate the attack.73
“Shhhhh!” Spies…
Wochenschau episodes did not tend to be overly dramatic. They were matter-of-fact. One film from 1941 began innocuously enough. From rugged Alps with glaciers the camera moves to hard farm work with hand tools and plows pulled by animals. This is the usual fare. However, the tone suddenly changes to the dramatic and surreal. A phantom human skull, growing ever larger, is superimposed over a Swiss city.74 The message is the danger of espionage in Switzerland.
“Wer nicht schweigen kann, schadet du Heimat!” (Whoever cannot be silent, you harm the Homeland!), an oft-repeated slogan, was the basis for the title of a film shown in May 1943,75 just after the “March Alarm” in which a Wehrmacht invasion was expected. It was No. 145 of the Wochenschau, and the topic was ordered by General Guisan.76 This film is a masterpiece of drama, visualization, and contrast. Its story: day and night, our army guards our borders and country for “Verteidigung, Freiheit und Arbeit, Heim und Familie” (defense, freedom and work, country and family). Soldiers march and sing patriotic songs; a mother tucks in a girl, who says a prayer; the father is standing guard on a dark, rainy night.
The father’s guard unit is relieved, a train rushes through a tunnel, and the guards slosh to a dry building filled with other soldiers. The guards unchamber the rounds in their rifles and take off their soaked raincoats; a foxtrot plays; the camera sweeps across the room; soldiers are sleeping or reading on their blankets in the straw, with pinups to keep them company. An American might title this film “Swiss GIs.” These scenes set a mixed tone of deadly earnest and carefree relaxation, the two sides of army life.
The film then moves to the easy dangers of talking too much about military matters. Soldiers at a train station mix with the general public; soldiers at a table in a restaurant are laughing and talking; a man sits listening at the next table—is he suspicious? A soldier is getting a shave—what is he saying to the barber? Another soldier walks out of a store talking to a female clerk; another walks by three pretty women. Anyone can be a spy! Men are playing cards; the music becomes ominous. Men and women are talking on the telephone laughing; talking at a bowling alley; what are they saying? A messenger reports to an officer, who checks a map and then tells the messenger too much; in the next scene, that messenger repeats every word to another soldier during a card game.
The camera returns to the scene where the mother was tu
cking in her daughter… to soldiers deep in thought… to a grandmother and grandfather… to the soldiers’ quarters, where they are all asleep on the hay… and each one is dreaming now… one dreams of his loved ones; then the sergeant wakes him up; once more it is time to relieve the other guards. A rendition of the Swiss patriotic song “My Fatherland” concludes this dramatic and stimulating film.
The War for Europe
With the Normandy invasion of June 1944, newsreel episodes begin to reflect the dramatically changed security risks for Switzerland. There is again war on the very borders. A Swiss officer lectures his men about the new perils now that the Allies are battling the Axis in France. Mountain troops with ropes and picks climb up massive vertical cliffs; Swiss Me-109 fighters fly over rugged mountains with machine guns blazing; assault troops fire and move forward as flamethrowers blaze away; an explosion causes huge logs to roll down a steep slope and block a tank speeding along a mountain road. The war is not over but it is entering a new phase.77 This film is designed to depict the Swiss as ready to repulse an attack by “any invader.”
The army needs wireless operators, announced the newsreel, which proceeded to show potential recruits the adventures to be expected. Airmen sprint to their Me-109s and, once airborne, communicate ob servations to ground personnel via telegraphic Morse code (the Swiss had no voice radio communication with their aircraft); the ground operators pass the message to a courier, who sprints away to another radio station, where the message is retransmitted to troops in the field; soldiers rush to their preassigned positions and prepare for an attack; a mock battle commences; assault troops cross a shallow river; messages about enemy positions are passed from one unit to another in the field; maps are surveyed, calculations are rapidly made and heavy camouflaged guns begin firing; riflemen with fixed bayonets advance under the cover of machine guns through smoke, flames and barbed wire.78
Swiss and the Nazis Page 8