TARGET SWITZERLAND
TARGET
SWITZERLAND
Swiss Armed Neutrality
in World War II
By
STEPHEN P. HALBROOK
Copyright © 1998 by Stephen P. Halbrook
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First Da Capo Press edition 2003
Originally published by Sarpedon, an imprint of Combined Publishing, in 1998
ISBN 0-306-81325-4
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1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9—07 06 05 04 03
One of several plans for an invasion of Switzerland submitted to the German Army High Command (OKH) after the fall of France. (Adapted from Kurz, Operationsplanung Schweiz, 41.)
Preface
Even the most casual student of World War II is familiar with the “white spot” that appears in the center of maps depicting the conquests of the Third Reich. This territory, of course, was Switzerland: the one nation on the European continent from the Iberian peninsula to the Volga River that never succumbed to German occupation or submitted to Nazi threats. Over half a century since the end of the war, the story of how this small democracy maintained its independence while completely encircled by aggressive, totalitarian powers seems to have been forgotten. It was a time when Switzerland’s existence as a democratic nation was imperiled and a time when Switzerland, alone among the nations of central Europe, successfully deterred Germany from invading and occupying her territory.
Switzerland “has one tenth of its population under arms; more than any other country in the world. . . . They’re ready to fight to defend their way of life,” wrote William L. Shirer, the eminent war correspondent, in 1939, just after Hitler launched World War II.1 In 1940, only weeks before the Wehrmacht would topple most of the nations of Western Europe, Shirer predicted that “the Dutch will be easy pickings for the Germans. Their army is miserable. Switzerland will be a tougher nut to crack, and I doubt if the Germans will try.”2 While the Swiss would put closer to a fifth of their population under arms during the war, rather than a tenth, the key to why Switzerland escaped Nazi occupation while others succumbed is revealed in these observations.
What was Switzerland’s secret? Why did a state with a German-speaking majority choose to reject the siren songs of Nazism and the pan-European fascist movement which proved enticing to large portions of the populations of neighboring countries? Where did a small nation find the resolve and strength—military and spiritual—to resist against overwhelmingly larger and more powerful foes?
One answer lies in two words which describe Switzerland’s national military doctrine: armed neutrality. Yet that alone is not sufficient, for an equal—perhaps greater—part of the story is that Switzerland’s long tradition of democracy, together with the racial, religious, ethnic and linguistic tolerance inherent in her decentralized federal state, gave the Swiss a fierce determination to resist any threats to their independence, particularly in the form of ideologies wholly foreign to the Swiss experience. Other European nations were characterized by centralized governments often headed by elites with the power to surrender their sovereignty to Hitler, either with a short (even token) resistance or no fight at all. By contrast, in Switzerland, sovereignty began with the individual, not the central authorities. And every man kept a rifle for the defense of his home, his family, his canton and, finally, Switzerland herself.
This book describes how Switzerland’s war-time mobilization and armament—rooted in the centuries-old policy of active, armed neutrality—effectively deterred invasion by the most powerful and aggressive totalitarian state in modern European history. As such, it fills a void on a subject not covered in English-language publications and contributes to the understanding of the military history of the period before and during World War II. Memories dimmed by the passage of over half a century, certain revisionists today denigrate Switzerland’s military preparedness as mythical. They are wrong. As the sources utilized for much of this book demonstrate, during the war many Americans and Britons saw Switzerland as a heroic island of democracy in a sea of Axis tyranny.
The book begins with a brief account of Switzerland from its founding in 1291, including her medieval warrior tradition, and continues through the modern era, from Napoleonic times to the period following World War I. It discusses the Swiss institutions of federalism and a citizens army that deeply influenced the development of similar American institutions.
Our primary focus, however, is on Switzerland’s political and military efforts to defend her independence during the period 1933–45. Switzerland was immediately threatened when Hitler came to power in 1933. The threat did not abate until the final defeat of the German Wehrmacht in 1945. This is the first publication in English to give a year-by-year account of Switzerland’s preparations to resist a direct Nazi attack and to combat fifth column subversion. This is also the story of the Nazi abhorrence of Swiss democracy and the reciprocal hatred—by most Swiss—of Nazism. It is the story of Swiss determination to avoid being swallowed up in the German Reich—a fate which would have meant the extinction of Swiss identity and culture, the extermination of large numbers of political dissidents who had fled to Switzerland, and the almost certain death of 50,000 Jews, both natives and refugees, who lived in Switzerland during the war. (This fact attains added meaning when one considers that within Germany and Austria only 28,000 Jews survived the war.)
Switzerland was the only country in Europe that had no single political leader with the authority to surrender the people to the Nazis. On Swiss soil there were no Jewish victims, no Gestapo jurisdiction and no slave labor for the German war machine. Every man in Switzerland had a rifle in his home. Switzerland was the only European country which proclaimed that, in the event of invasion, any announcement of surrender was to be regarded as enemy propaganda, and that every soldier must fight to the last cartridge and then with the bayonet.
The Swiss, by their timely and prudent decision to mobilize in anticipation of conflict, deterred invasion and occupation. As a consequence, Switzerland was, for the duration of the war, a strategic stumbling block in the heart of Europe, complicating significantly Axis, and in particular, German, movements on land and in the air. By contrast, most of the other countries of Europe failed to forestall invasion and long-term occupation, thereby vastly increasing the cost of the war in lives and treasure. Many of these countries surrendered to Hitler without armed resistance or after brief fights, following which the standing armies were ordered to lay down their arms. One consequence of this widespread collapse was the ceding to Germany of naval and air bases along the Atlantic, Mediterranean and North Sea coasts—providing a significantly expanded scope of operation for German naval and air power.
Much has been made in recent years of what are described as Swiss accommodations to Germany during World War II, part
icularly in banking practices. These accommodations—a direct, if regrettable, consequence of encirclement—merit serious and detailed treatment. The media focus on international banking transactions, however, has resulted in a distortion of the historical record that misrepresents the true Swiss experience during the war. The extraordinary and courageous efforts of the Swiss military to prevent invasion and preserve a haven in which individual rights were protected, and in which thousands of refugees and escaped prisoners of war found respite in the midst of the savagery of World War II and the Holocaust, have been ignored or forgotten.
The Swiss, with a long and vigorous tradition of academic and press freedom, have not run from their historical demons, as readers of the Swiss press and current historical scholarship know. It is important that others who judge Switzerland not run from the reality of Switzerland’s dogged, successful resistance to tyranny during a time in which every surrounding country failed the first test of sovereignty. Even when completely encircled by Nazi Germany and its allies, the Swiss remained defiant of the New Order in Europe, their citizens army inspired by the simple two-word concept: “no surrender.” This book is an effort to render justice to Switzerland’s heroic resistance to Hitler during World War II. It would be difficult to find a more enduring democracy in the world than Switzerland, or one that has faced greater challenges to its continued existence.
The author would like to acknowledge the assistance of several persons who graciously gave of their time and effort in providing information for this book. However, the opinions expressed herein and any inaccuracies are solely those of the author.
A number of current and retired members of the Swiss Military Department provided extensive information about Swiss defenses during World War II as well as today. Special thanks are due to Lt. General Arthur Liener, Chief of Staff of the Swiss Armed Forces; Dr. Hans Senn, Lt. General (Ret.) and former Chief of Staff of the Swiss Armed Forces; and Ernst C. Wyler, Lt. General (Ret.) and former Commander-in-Chief of the Swiss Air Force.
Ambassador August R. Lindt provided valuable insights into the events that took place in Switzerland during and immediately after the war, in light of hisr own fascinating experiences. Prof. Ernst Leisi also provided unique insights from the perspective of a young soldier of the time.
Several historians with special expertise in the German invasion plans and the Swiss will to resist assisted me by providing guidance through the voluminous literature on the subject in German. They included Dr. Willi Gautschi, Dr. Hans Rudolf Fuhrer, Prof. Klaus Urner and Dr. Oskar F. Fritschi. Thanks also goes to Dr. and Mrs. Robert Vögeli for their scholarly tour of the Reuenthal fortification.
Dr. Jürg Stüssi-Lauterburg, Dr. Josef Inauen and the staff at the Federal Military Library in Bern have provided the author with research over several years on Swiss military history. Bruno Suter, a doctoral candidate, has worked tirelessly to assist with archival material. Additional thanks go to Dr. Daniel Bourgeois, H. von Rütte and the staff of the Federal Archives in Bern, particularly for making available their vast wartime photographic library.
Major Peter C. Stocker of the General Staff rendered invaluable assistance by providing current information on the Swiss military and by arranging tours of the Sargans fortifications, which Master Sergeant Malnati kindly guided. Lt. Colonel Daniel Lätsch gave an enlightening lecture tour of the defenses of the Linth Plain. For a tour of the Gotthard fortification, thanks go to Master Sergeant Beat Wandeler.
Special thanks go to Hermann Widmer for his review of archival material and to Ferdinand Piller for making these sources available at the Swiss Schützenmuseum in Bern. Friedrich E. Friedli kindly assisted in the location of archival sources from several cantons.
George Gyssler provided invaluable assistance by coordinating numerous interviews and by reviewing the manuscript. Mary Kehrli- Smyth assisted with bibliographical material. For their insights on Nazi policies for preventing Jewish armed resistance, I am indebted to Jay Simkin and David B. Kopel. Thanks go, too, to Donn Teal of Sarpedon Publishers for his scrupulous attention to detail while copy-editing the manuscript, and to Karen Schmidt for lending her aesthetic talents to arranging the illustrations. Photographs used as illustrations were provided courtesy of the Schweizerisches Bundesarchiv and the Eidgenössisches Militärdepartement in Bern.
Over the years, a number of graduate students and law students have assisted in locating sources on Swiss history and Swiss influences on the American Constitution. Special thanks go to Heather Barry for her indefatigable efforts in locating both wartime sources and early American sources. Noreen Cary, Bob Nagel, and Dave Fischer also provided assistance. Gratitude for much hard work is also due to my paralegal and researcher, Lisa Halbrook-Stevenson. Thanks go to Russelle Rusczak for assisting in the manuscript preparation.
TARGET SWITZERLAND
Prologue
Companions of the Oath
IT IS JULY 25, 1940. GENERAL HENRI GUISAN, COMMANDER OF the Swiss Army, has summoned 600 of his highest officers to a jagged mountainside in central Switzerland near Lake Lucerne overshadowed by Alpine peaks—the Rütli Meadow.
During the preceding weeks, France, the Netherlands and Belgium have fallen to the forces of Nazi Germany, and the British Army has evacuated the continent, leaving its heavy equipment behind. Denmark and Norway had succumbed to German arms a few months before, Poland the preceding fall. Austria and Czechoslovakia were swallowed up by the Third Reich through bloodless coups, wrought by intimidation, during the previous two years. Fascist Italy threatens Switzerland’s southern border.
Surrounded by totalitarian aggressors and occupied lands, the Swiss stand alone.
General Guisan faces his officers, who are arrayed in a semicircle before him. Urging them to prepare for total resistance to aggression that could come from any direction, he says:
I decided to reunite you in this historic place, the symbolic ground of our independence, to explain the urgency of the situation, and to speak to you as a soldier to soldiers. We are at a turning point of our history. The survival of Switzerland is at stake.1
The General had chosen his site well to deliver this call to resistance. For history and tradition tell that in this spot, the Rütli Meadow, the Swiss Confederation was formed on August 1, 1291. On that date, leaders of the three Alpine cantons of Uri, Schwyz and Unterwalden, who had successfully defended their democratically governed communities from foreign invasion, came together to form an alliance for mutual defense. They called themselves the Eidgenossen— Companions of the Oath—and vowed to help each other in fighting any enemy who threatened their independence.
The history of Switzerland’s armed neutrality in the modern era, including the Swiss’ valiant defense of their homeland in World War II, cannot be divorced from the record of her men-at-arms since that first meeting at the Rütli Meadow more than seven hundred years ago. For centuries, Swiss fighting men earned a reputation as the most ferocious in Europe, and their dominance of the battlefield, combined with their refusal to live under the rule of foreign kings, became a unique example in Europe of the successful defense of a nation’s freedoms.
In the centuries after 1291, Switzerland would grow from the original 3 to 26 cantons and half-cantons. Switzerland today consists of an ethnic mix of 72 percent German speakers, 20 percent French, and 6 percent Italian—with 1 percent of Swiss, primarily in the mountainous southeast, speaking Romansh, a survival of ancient Latin combined with Italian and a trace of an ancient and once widespread Celtic tongue. Surrounded today by Italy, Austria, Germany, and France, Switzerland occupies a strategically important position in the heart of Europe. Nevertheless, with one brief interruption during the Napoleonic period at the turn of the nineteenth century, Switzerland has successfully maintained her integrity and defended her borders against foreign aggressors. At every stage of her military history, Switzerland would use her terrain to military advantage.
Switzerland is a landlocked, 41,293 square kilometer countr
y, about the size of Maryland. The Alps in the south and east constitute 61 percent of the country, the Jura mountains in the northwest another 12 percent. Most of the remainder, the Swiss Mittelland (Plateau), is a flat area from Lake Geneva in the southwest to Lake Constance in the northeast. While the Plateau is the most vulnerable part of the country, it is dotted with natural barriers of rivers, lakes, and streams. The majority of the land—the mountains—constitutes a natural fortress, centering on the Alpine Redoubt, or Réduit National.
The first detailed account of the people who inhabited Switzerland in ancient times describes the Helvetii, a large Celtic tribe against whom Julius Caesar launched his 10-year Gallic War, known to generations of schoolchildren who learned Latin from reading Caesar’s account of his campaigns in Gaul. (Today, multi-lingual Switzerland’s stamps and coins are marked “Helvetia,” and the country is known formally as the “Confederatio Helvetica,” the Swiss Confederation.) The ancient Helvetic tribe Caesar described was at the time attempting to migrate to western Gaul (modern France) to escape Germans who were threatening their homeland. Caesar claimed to have killed three-quarters of the Helvetii before ordering the survivors back to their original land to serve as a buffer against the warlike German tribes living beyond the Rhine.2
The familiar legend of William Tell exemplifies Swiss resistance to foreign domination and cultivation of the martial spirit. Today, Tell is portrayed on the modern 5-franc piece and occupies a place as a Swiss folk hero similar to that of Robin Hood in English-speaking countries. Immortalized by Schiller in his 1804 play (written to encourage resistance to Napoleon’s occupation of Europe), the feats of William Tell bear a striking resemblance to earlier tales from Scandinavian mythology (although archaeological evidence from Tell’s time demonstrates that a number of castles in the area of Tell’s exploits were burned or destroyed). Yet the reality behind the story illustrates both the fierce determination of Swiss to maintain their freedom and independence and their proud tradition of marksmanship.
Target Switzerland Page 1