61340 Vorabseiten_e - Unabhängige Expertenkommission Schweiz

papers, had to go back to France. The woman, Elisabeth S., who was stateless
but had an entry visa, was allowed to stay. Three days later one of the men, Julius
K., also a stateless person, tried to enter Switzerland illegally again, in the
vicinity of Martigny. This time he was allowed to stay. There is no further
information concerning the third refugee. 2
Before Elisabeth S. and Julius K., both Jewish, sought refuge in Switzerland in
autumn 1942, they had lived for several years in exile. In summer 1938, a few
months after Germany had annexed her Austrian homeland, Elisabeth S. settled
in Paris. Two years later she was forced to flee from the approaching German
army. For a while this doctor of law lived in relative safety in the unoccupied
part of France. She worked as a maid and took the necessary steps to emigrate
overseas. Her plans fell through, however, when the USA joined the war in
1941. Julius K. had fled from Poland to Switzerland in 1936. When the canton
of Zurich refused a residence permit to this Jewish communist, he also moved
to France. Thus in autumn 1942 these two refugees were risking life and limb
by staying in France. Elisabeth S. was interned and awaiting deportation to an
extermination camp. Her only hope was an entry visa issued by a country
outside the Nazi-controlled area. Thanks to the intervention of Johannes Huber,
a National Councillor from St. Gallen, Elisabeth S. was issued an entry permit
for Switzerland. 3 She was thus allowed to leave the detention camp and could
be sure that she would not be turned back at the Swiss border. Like most
refugees, however, her two companions had no visa. When they were stopped
at the Swiss border they were totally dependent on the decision of the Swiss
authorities. They had to reckon with the possibility of being refused and sent
back, which would have meant imprisonment, deportation and death.
It is clear that between 1933 and 1942 there was a fundamental change in the
importance of Switzerland for people who were persecuted by the Nazis.
While in the 1930s it was one of many countries where persecuted people
could find refuge, in 1942 it was almost the only hope for the refugees who
reached the border. The aim of the following chronological overview is
therefore to combine information concerning the number and types of
refugees and the main turning points of Swiss policy on refugees, with a
description of the radicalisation of Nazi persecution and the refugee
movements caused by the war.
Civilian refugees between 1933 and 1937
A large number of people left Germany immediately after the National
Socialists took power in January 1933. The two largest groups were, on the one
hand, politically persecuted communists and social democrats; and on the other,
Jews who were under threat of anti-Semitic violence, boycotts and legalised
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