Hunted down like criminals, the Jews, whose fault was to exist, only saw, as a last resort, flight to another country. After the United States as their first destination, they quickly turned to Switzerland, the "salvation of the Jews" as the Swiss would have liked to call it. However, access was difficult. Joseph Spring recounts in court, January 21, 2000, how he was refused entry and how he ended up on a train to Auschwitz. Was Switzerland as neutral as it claims? Or would its alleged neutrality serve as a defense against the German armies?
The Swiss used to not go to war, but to send soldiers to fight in other armies and take advantage of it to get rich. In 1940, the Vichy regime in France and its collaboration with the Germans shocked Switzerland. Despite its mountains, the Swiss Confederation has a small area, and it is unthinkable to engage in combat against Hitler. The latter will even try to seize Russia, so why would he be afraid of Switzerland? The Confederation thought about it, and it is thus, by making itself useful to the Führer, that the country of the mountains will remain unscathed – or almost:trade agreements are signed with the Reich , and Hitler himself ensured the protection of the Swiss thanks to, or because of the weapons which came to reinforce the artillery of the Wehrmacht . This was the party of Switzerland in 1942, and its position while being at the center of Europe. Its inhabitants even went so far as to denounce the illegal immigrants who tried to save their lives, and to put their fate in the hands of the Germans, which was tantamount to condemning them. The "Riegner telegram" testifies to this, and the Swiss were aware of it:dating from August 8, 1942, it clearly shows the stages of the process that was the Holocaust.
However, on September 7 of the same year, young Swiss girls sign a petition in favor of welcoming refugees, and loudly express their indignation at the refoulements that take place. Although Switzerland refused a certain number of illegal immigrants, it is important to remember that part of the population welcomed Jews and thus saved their lives. There are several examples, such as Gertrud Kurz, Carl Lutz, or even Paul Grüninger, which are just three examples, among many others, of Righteous Among the Nations.
The Swiss army would probably not have made the weight against the German army. As Nazi Germany had taken power all around Switzerland, the inhabitants of the Confederation were already demanding a form of resistance in keeping their political freedom, but this was not the case economically speaking. In 1997, the New York Times says:“Switzerland is the land of clean streets and dirty consciences. Historians agree on the role of Swiss banks in the service of Nazi Germany, harvesting the fortune accumulated in the concentration and extermination camps. Without the Swiss banks and without the commercial agreements signed with the Reich, would the duration of the war have been shortened? Historians argue about this, while Switzerland remains a wealthy country, precisely since the end of the war in 1945.