Switzerland and Refugees in the Nazi Era
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Independent Commission of Experts Switzerland – Second World War Switzerland and Refugees in the Nazi Era This version has been replaced by the revised and completed version: Unabhängige Expertenkommission Schweiz – Zweiter Weltkrieg: Die Schweiz und die Flüchtlinge zur Zeit des Nationalsozialismus, Zürich 2001 (Veröffentlichungen der Unabhängigen Expertenkommission Schweiz – Zweiter Weltkrieg, vol. 17). Order: Chronos Verlag (www.chronos-verlag.ch) Edited by Independent Commission of Experts Switzerland – Second World War P.O. Box 259 3000 Bern 6, Switzerland www.uek.ch Independent Commission of Experts Switzerland – Second World War: Switzerland and Refugees in the Nazi Era. Bern, 1999. ISBN 3-908661-07-2 English version has been translated from German and French original texts Distributed by BBL/EDMZ, 3003 Bern www.admin.ch/edmz Art.-No. 201.282 eng 12.99 1000 H-UEK 07-10-99 Independent Commission of Experts Switzerland – Second World War Switzerland and Refugees in the Nazi Era Members of the Commission / General Management Jean-François Bergier, Chairman Sybil Milton, Vice-Chairman/Report Management Joseph Voyame, Vice-Chairman Wladyslaw Bartoszewski Georg Kreis, Report Management Saul Friedländer, Report Management Jacques Picard, Delegate Harold James Jakob Tanner General Secretary Linus von Castelmur Project Direction Gregor Spuhler Academic Advisor Marc Perrenoud Authors Valérie Boillat, Daniel Bourgeois, Michèle Fleury, Stefan Frech, Michael Gautier, Tanja Hetzer, Blaise Kropf, Ernest H. Latham, Regula Ludi (team leader), Marc Perrenoud, Gregor Spuhler (team leader), Hannah E. Trooboff Researchers Thomas Busset, Frank Haldemann, Ursina Jud, Martin Lind, Martin Meier, Laurenz Müller, Hans Safrian, Thomas Sandkühler, Bernhard Schär, Daniel Schmid, Marino Viganò, Daniel Wildmann, Bettina Zeugin, Jan Zielinski, Regula Zürcher Administration/Production Estelle Blanc, Armelle Godichet, Regina Mathis Translation from the German: Susan M. Steiner (senior translator), Craig Childers, Sabine Leffler, Frank F. Wagner Translation from the French: Anna Gilcher, Flora Singer, Ralph Tarica Copy Editor: Gary Fliszar Acknowledgements The Independent Commission of Experts Switzerland – Second World War received support from many sides during the preparation of this report. We wish to thank the Swiss Federal Archives in Bern, the Swiss National Library in Bern, the Archive for Contemporary History at the Federal Institute of Technology (ETH), Zurich, and the Foundation for Contemporary Jewish History at the ETH Zurich for their generous response to the needs of the Commission and for supporting its research in myriad ways. In carrying out archival research, the Commission also received assistance from the archives of the cantons, the Swiss National Bank, Bern/Zurich; the Credit Suisse Group, Zurich; the Public and University Library, Geneva; the International Committee of the Red Cross, Geneva; the archives of the Ecumenical Council of the Churches, Geneva; the Political Archives of the German Foreign Office, Bonn; the U.S. National Archives in College Park, Maryland; the Archives of the American Friends Service Committee, Philadelphia; the Archives of the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, New York; the American Jewish Archives, Cincinnati; the Andover-Harvard Theological Library of Harvard Divinity School, Cambridge, Massachusetts; and the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Library, Hyde Park, New York. The Commission thanks the following colleagues for their cooperation, valuable suggestions and numerous comments: Prof. Christoph Graf, Daniel Bourgeois, and Guido Koller (Swiss Federal Archives, Bern); Prof. Klaus Urner, Uriel Gast, Jonas Arnold, and Claudia Hoerschelmann (Archive for Contemporary History, Zurich); André Salathé and Beat Gnädinger (State Archive of the Canton of Thurgau), Catherine Santschi (State Archive of the Canton of Geneva), Maurice de Tribolet (State Archive of the Canton of Neuchâtel), Maria Keipert (Political Archives of the German Foreign Office, Bonn) as well as Gérard Bagnoud, May B. Broda, Mauro Cerutti, Joelle Droux, Laurent Droz, Prof. Jean-Claude Favez, Ruth Fivaz-Silbermann, Pierre Flückiger, Nathalie Gardiol, Katrin Hafner, Thomas Huonker, Peter Kamber, Stefan Keller, Prof. André Lasserre, François Loeb, Stefan Mächler, Arnulf Moser, Lucia Probst, Paul Rechsteiner, Antonia Schmidlin, Henry Spira, Jürg Stadelmann, Hans Stutz, Luc von Dongen, Anne Weill-Lévy, and Reto Wissmann. Thanks are also due to the translators and editors for their critical comments and their great dedication to the project. Finally, we thank all those witnesses who provided information on the subjects covered in this report and made their private documents available to the Commission. Contents 1 INTRODUCTION 9 1.1 The Swiss Federal Council’s Mandate 9 1.2 The Epoch and its Turning Points 10 1.3 Political and Scholarly Debate in Switzerland 15 1.4 Figures and Categories 19 1.5 Introduction to the Subject: The Story of the Family H. 25 2 FOUNDATIONS OF SWISS REFUGEE POLICY 35 2.1 The League of Nations System, Refugees, and Switzerland 35 2.2 National Aspects of Policies towards Refugees 43 2.2.1 The tradition of asylum and humanitarian policies 43 2.2.2 The battle against «foreign overpopulation and domination» («Überfremdung») 45 2.2.3 Economic factors 47 2.2.4 The argument for national security and the role of the army 54 2.2.5 The authority to make decisions and the agencies that implemented them 55 2.3 Relief Organizations 59 3 CONTROLS AND CLOSING THE BORDER 73 3.1 The «J»-stamp and Switzerland in 1938 73 3.2 The Year 1942: Closing the Border and Protests 85 4 FLIGHT, EXPULSION, ACCEPTANCE 101 4.1 On the Run 101 4.1.1 Dwindling options 102 4.1.2 The visa requirement and its consequences 105 4.2 Border Situations: Help on Both Sides of the Border 111 4.2.1 «Smuggling people»: The border ferrymen («passeurs») 114 4.2.2 «Filières»: organized escape routes to Switzerland 117 4.2.3 Escape help by Swiss officials 124 4.3 Asylum Denied 127 4.3.1 Categories and their application in practice 130 4.3.2 The development of the practice of expulsion in the 1930s 133 4.3.3 Despite dangers to life and limb: the expulsion of refugees after 1938 136 4.3.4 Expulsion and removal of «undesirable» foreigners 149 4.4 Life in Exile 152 4.4.1 The camp system 154 4.4.2 Refugees in the military acceptance process 155 4.4.3 Civilian accommodations for men, women, and children 159 4.4.4 Ban on work, obligation to work: work by refugees 164 4.5 Looking Across Borders: Refugees and the End of the War 167 4.5.1 The thorny path to autonomy 169 4.5.2 Remigration and transmigration 171 5 FINANCIAL AND PROPERTY CONSIDERATIONS 175 5.1 Nazi Germany’s Expropriation and Spoliation Policies 176 5.2 Switzerland’s Clearing Transactions with Nazi Germany and German Occupied Countries 177 5.2.1 Asset transfers for emigrants and refugees from Nazi Germany 178 5.2.2 Asset transfers for emigrants and refugees from occupied countries 189 5.3 Financing Swiss Refugee Policy: From Private Help to the Inclusion of the Public System 191 5.4 Managing the Dollar: Blocking Relief Funds from the United States 204 5.5 Property Measures relating to Emigrants and Refugees 210 5.5.1 Collateral (Kautionen) 210 5.5.2 Mandatory deposit of currency and valuables 214 5.5.3 «Solidarity tax» 226 5.5.4 Freezing German assets 230 6 THE FEDERAL AUTHORITIES’ HUMANITARIAN POLICY 235 6.1 The Attitude of the Federal Authorities to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and the Swiss Red Cross (SRC) 236 6.2 The de Haller Bureau: the Federal Council’s Delegate to International Aid Societies 238 6.2.1 Relations with the ICRC 239 6.2.2 De Haller’s role in the SRC and the SRC’s Relief for Children 242 6.2.3 The delegate’s relationship to international organizations 247 6.3 New Directions and Functions for the Postwar Period 249 CONCLUSION 259 ANNEXES, SOURCES, AND LITERATURE Appendix 1 Chronology: Swiss Refugee Policy 1933–1948 in International Context 275 Appendix 2 Biographical Information 297 Sources and Bibliography 307 List of Abbreviations 335 ABSTRACTS OF SUPPLEMENTARY PUBLICATIONS 337 Introduction 9 1 Introduction 1.1 The Swiss Federal Council’s Mandate This preliminary report is an expression of Switzerland’s commitment to confront its history during the Nazi era. On December 13, 1996, the Swiss parliament passed a decree to establish an Independent Commission of Experts. This Commission received a mandate from the Federal Council on December 19, 1996, to examine the period prior to, during, and immediately after the Second World War.1 At the center of the mandate is the investigation of money and assets, which found their way to Switzerland in connection with Nazi politics. The Independent Commission of Experts Switzerland – Second World War (ICE) presented a preliminary report in May 1998, on one of the first important aspects of the investigation, namely gold transactions during the Second World War.2 Switzerland’s refugee policy will be the main focus of this report. Refugee policy between 1933 and 1950 has for some time occupied a central position in Swiss historical research.3 The discussion about «heirless property», which stood at the center of the current debate, revealed however that the financial and property law aspects of Swiss refugee policies had received negligible attention. Moreover, the circumstances surrounding the expulsion of refugees and the living conditions of the refugees who were granted asylum required clarification. This report provides an overview of current knowledge about Swiss refugee policies in chapters 1 – 3. Chapter 4 focuses on the flight, expulsion, and acceptance of refugees, as well as the living conditions of those admitted into Switzerland. Chapter 5 examines financial and property law aspects and Chapter 6 concerns the humanitarian policies of the Swiss government. The report focuses on refugees persecuted by Nazi Germany.4 Thus, subjects such as the internment of soldiers or the protection of Swiss citizens living abroad from Nazi persecution will be dealt with only peripherally.