Volume 17, Number II. Defensive Humanitarianism: Swiss Internment
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Strategic Visions: Volume 17, Number II. Defensive Humanitarianism: Swiss Internment Camps in WWI Holden Zimmerman University of Kansas 2018 Edwin H. Sherman Prize for Undergraduate Scholarship in Force and Diplomacy Abstract During World War I, the Swiss state interned nearly 30,000 foreign soldiers who had previously been held in POW camps in Germany, France, Britain, Belgium, Austria, and Russia. The internment camp system that Switzerland implemented arose from a Swiss diplomatic platform that this thesis describes as defensive humanitarianism. By offering good offices to the belligerent states of WWI, the Swiss state utilized humanitarian law both to secure Swiss neutrality and to alleviate, to a degree, the immense human suffering of the war. This thesis fills a gap in the historiographical literature as one of the few papers in English on the topic, as well as one of the only to holistically consider the internment camp system as a panacea for the crises that the Swiss state faced during WWI. By mixing domestic concerns with international diplomacy and humanitarianism, a domestic policy platform taken to the international diplomatic level succeeded in building enough trust between the signatory states to create an internment system that reconceptualized the treatment of foreign soldiers from the holding of prisoners to the healing of men. Defensive Humanitarianism: Swiss Germany, Austria-Hungary, Belgium, and Internment Camps in WWI Russia.2 Introduction Three distinct legal factors that shaped and allowed for the creation of the On July 27, 1916, William McGilvray, a internment camp system emerged over sergeant in the London Scottish Regiment, the course of the previous centuries. First, found himself riding in a passenger train a body of international law developed in travelling south through Germany, Europe beginning in the mid-nineteenth surveying the landscape of the Rhine century, particularly in the form of the River valley. It was quiet, the sounds of Geneva Convention of 1864 and The the sloshing mud and whizzing bullets of Hague Conventions of 1899 and 1907. trench warfare far off to the west. He had Both specifically evaluate and offer started that day in Friedrichsfeld, one of guidance on the rules of war and the the many prisoner of war camps in treatment of soldiers, POWs, internees, Germany that detained Allied soldiers. He and civilians during war. These would arrive that evening in Darmstadt to assemblies dictated, to an extent, the connect with another train brimming treatment of soldiers and civilians, with other British prisoners of war. His captive or not, in times of war. A second journey would bring him to Konstanz, factor that emerged was Switzerland’s Germany, for examination before neutrality, created in 1848 with the internment in Switzerland; Konstanz was foundation of Swiss federal state. Third, for many internees the last stop before humanitarianism began to truly explode entry into Switzerland.1 McGilvray, along onto the European scene with the with 305 of his compatriots, comprised founding of the International Committee the first British POWs imprisoned in of the Red Cross by Henry Dunant in Germany to be evaluated for internment Geneva, Switzerland in 1863. in Switzerland, which offered better International law, and Swiss neutrality, conditions than those in Friedrichsfeld. humanitarianism emerged and expanded Crowds of Swiss citizens at the train around the same time and in the same stations of Zurich, Lausanne, Montreux, intellectual spaces in Europe. In response and finally Chateaux D’Oex would soon to the political, social, and economic greet him. Speeches by Swiss and British crises of World War I, Swiss diplomats military, government, and Red Cross and statesmen utilized the tools at hand officials would welcome him and the to merge international law, Switzerland’s other soldiers throughout their journey, neutrality politics, and the ideology of as well as music, gifts, and warm meals. humanitarianism into a cohesive His experiences and perceptions have diplomatic platform to protect Swiss been echoed by many soldiers who were sovereignty, while at the same time interned during World War I in asserting Switzerland’s commitment to Switzerland, including those from France, the ideology of humanitarianism. This strategy necessitated the Swiss state to 1 The city’s English name is Constance and it is located on the Bodensee, or Lake Constance, in 2 “Letter from Sergeant William McGilvray,” The southern Germany along its border with London Scottish Regimental Gazette, July 1916, Switzerland. 136. 1 cooperate with international NGOs and needed the cooperation and collaboration other humanitarian and charitable bodies, of the other to further their humanitarian such as the International Committee of ventures. This this relationship deepened the Red Cross, the Swiss Red Cross, and through the actions of actors like Gustave the Vatican. Of these relationships, this Ador during WWI. thesis focuses the most on the relationship between the ICRC and Swiss The internment camp system in state. Switzerland during World War I The close relationship between the represented the institutional intersection ICRC and Swiss state existed long before among international law, Swiss neutrality WWI, but during this period many politics, and humanitarianism. This overlaps existed between the two. Most intersection formed a new policy referred important of these was Gustave Ador. to in this thesis as defensive Ador, born to the elite of Geneva in 1845, humanitarianism.6 Due to its successes in acted as president of the ICRC from 1910 WWI, this policy platform would later to 1928. As ICRC president during the come to define Swiss international conflict, he pushed in 1914 for the relations and the Swiss image creation of the International Prisoners of internationally in the decades that War Agency. He also frequently followed. WWI acted as the culminating communicated with and called on Arthur moment during which the combination of Hoffman, Minister of Foreign Affairs in international law, neutrality politics, and the Swiss government, to intervene on the humanitarianism forged modern Swiss behalf of sick and injured POWs in captor diplomacy and international relations. states.3 After Hoffmann’s resignation, Ador replaced him on the Federal The topic of internment camps in Council.4 Many historians see Ador’s Switzerland during World War I and their appointment within the Federal Council impact on humanitarianism, Swiss to Minister of Foreign Affairs was a politics, and European history is symbolic act on the part of the largely understudied. These areas rarely overlap German-speaking government to prove with each other in the literature, as Switzerland’s commitment to neutrality historians generally treat them and international humanitarianism.5 The separately. In the twentieth century, these connections between the ICRC and the individual themes dominate the larger Swiss state will only be explored in this historical narrative of Switzerland during thesis in regards to their impact on WWI. Looking at the situation from the defensive humanitarianism and the perspective of international diplomacy, internment camp system, both the role of Swiss good offices, or the theoretically and practically. Both the offering by a third party state to facilitate ICRC and the Swiss state have historically peaceful mediation between two opposing states, in the formation of 3 Irène Herrmann, “Ador, Gustave,” International international treaties was especially Encyclopedia of the First War, accessed April 12, popular as historians began to look back 2018, https://encyclopedia.1914-1918- online.net/article/ador_gustave. 4 The Federal Council has 7 members and acts as 6 This is a term created for this thesis in order to the executive body of the Swiss government. succinctly explain Swiss diplomacy since WWI. I 5 Herrmann, “Ador, Gustav.” have found no records of this term elsewhere. 2 on the legacies of WWI. 7 Swiss good system in their discussion of WWI offices greatly informed the idea of diplomacy, but only as a small-scale defensive humanitarianism in this paper, humanitarian project that did not as the Swiss state operated with more significantly impact the war, arguing authority than the ICRC or Vatican in instead that it merely created enough international diplomacy during WWI; this proof of good intentions to allow for the idea will be discussed in section two. larger belligerent states to collaborate on Historians do not dispute that the later bilateral agreements.10 In an international laws, treaties, and atmosphere that focused on the actions agreements surrounding POWs, and diplomatic platforms of belligerent, internees, and civilians in WWI expanded major-player states, the historiography of in scope during the conflict. However, this period failed to look at the other many scholars have greatly understated smaller, but still influential, actors. This the role of the Swiss state and the Swiss paper seeks to amend the shortcomings internment camp system in their of this historiography by acknowledging conclusions.8 These historians minimize the central role of international the importance of small-player states in diplomacy in WWI as facilitated through their explanatory framework, which the good offices of smaller actors, views this evolution as an effort on the specifically highlighting the Swiss case part of major-player states, specifically and its unique contributions to the legacy Great Britain, the United