»Concentrationslager« Büren an der Aare

During World War II, Switzerland remained an exception in Europe: unlike other neutral countries such as Belgium and Norway, Switzerland was not attacked by the German Wehrmacht. In fact, in June 1940, the German military, together with the Italian army, drew up an attack plan against Switzerland under the code name »Operation Tannenbaum«, but they never carried it out as they set their priorities on the war against Great Britain and later the Soviet Union instead. As a result, Switzerland was largely spared from war-related destruction during the war, although some cities such as Zurich and Basel were damaged by accidentally dropped bombs. Nevertheless, Switzerland played an important role in the war, primarily through trade and financial cooperation with both the Axis powers and the Allies. Between 1939 and 1945, Nazi Germany conducted over 75 percent of its gold transactions with foreign countries via Switzerland and sold gold worth around one billion Swiss francs to the Swiss National Bank. At the same time, Switzerland purchased gold worth almost 3 billion Swiss francs from the Allies. Moreover, Switzerland concluded parallel agreements with the Axis powers and the Allies to grant loans to both sides. This active economic involvement with Nazi Germany drew increasing criticism from the Allies, especially after the military turning point of the winter of 1942-1943. Switzerland also served as a country of first arrival for refugees during World War II. In total, Switzerland took in 290,000 protection seekers, including 104,000 soldiers and 60,000 civilians who stayed for a longer period of time. Most of the soldiers were interned in camps such as the »Concentrationslager« Büren an der Aare and the Girenbad internment camp. As for the civilian refugees, around 28,000 of them were Jews. However, due to Switzerland’s restrictive refugee policy, Jews were initially not recognised as political refugees, which led to numerous rejections. In addition, from 1938 onwards, German and Austrian Jews received a »J-stamp« on their passports, which made it easier for the Swiss authorities to deny them entry. Sinti and Roma were also affected by entry bans and expulsions. It was not until July 1944 that the Swiss authorities issued official instructions to take in all civilians whose physical integrity and lives were in danger. In total, over 20,000 civilians were denied entry at the Swiss border between 1939 and 1945, including around 5,500 Jews and an unknown number of Sinti and Roma. At the same time, almost 1,000 Swiss citizens who had been living abroad during World War II were deported to German concentration camps. 200 of them lost their lives. In the immediate aftermath of the war, rather little was done to critically assess Switzerland’s role in World War II. However, Carl Ludwig’s refugee report (1957) and Edgar Bonjour’s report on Swiss neutrality (1970), as well as critical works by authors such as Max Frisch and Stefan Keller, provided impetus for change. However, it was not until the 1990s that progress was made in critically examining Switzerland’s history during the war. An important step was taken at the end of 1995 by the then President of the Swiss Confederation, Kasper Villiger, when he apologised for the first time for the injustice committed against persecuted Jews. The following year, the Swiss parliament commissioned an Independent Commission of Experts headed by historian Jean-François Bergier to conduct a thorough assessment of Switzerland’s economic and refugee policy during World War II. The Commission published its final report, known as the Bergier Report, in March 2002. Although the report was criticised both by the public and by historians, it opened the door to a more nuanced examination of Swiss history and dispelled the myth of Switzerland as a safe haven for refugees. At the same time, several major Swiss banks started looking into dormant assets belonging to Holocaust victims. Switzerland has been a member of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) since 2004. Today, there are 54 local Holocaust memorials in Switzerland, as well as new initiatives such as the Memorial for Refugees during World War II in Riehen and the commemorative trail in Thônex at the French border. In addition, the opening of the first national memorial to the victims of Nazism in Switzerland is planned for 2027/28. The memorial will consist of a central memorial site in Bern and a documentation centre in the canton of St. Gallen.