61340 Vorabseiten_e - Unabhängige Expertenkommission Schweiz

discourage refugee smugglers and thus to reduce the stream of refugees «to an
acceptable number». Entry into Switzerland would continue to be allowed,
however, at those crossing points where there was no additional surveillance.
The contradictory character of this document illustrates the alarm and
confusion of a senior official who asked his superior to «give him an
appointment tomorrow evening or Saturday morning to discuss the matter». 26
We do not know whether the two men did meet to discuss the problem and, if
they did, what Federal Councillor von Steiger said. On 4 August 1942,
Rothmund drew up a presidential order which von Steiger and Philipp Etter,
the Federal President, approved and which was only passed by the Federal
Council in plenum retrospectively since it did not meet between 29 July and
14 August 1942. This order closed with the remark that «in the future more
foreign civilian refugees must therefore be refused entry, even if this might
result in serious consequences for them (threat to life and limb)». 27
The circular letter dated 13 August 1942 and sent by the Police Division to
civil and military authorities laid down the measures to be taken. It stated that
the influx of refugees and «in particular of Jews of all nationalities» was
reaching a level similar to that of the exodus of Jews in 1938. In view of the
country’s limited supply of food, of the need for internal and external security
and of the impossible task of housing and supervising so many refugees, as well
as finding them a third country to which they could emigrate, it was necessary
to refuse them entry: «Refugees who have fled purely on racial grounds, e.g.,
Jews, cannot be considered political refugees». Such people should be refused
entry without exception. The first time they tried to enter Switzerland they
should be simply sent back across the border; if they tried again they should be
handed over to the relevant authorities on the other side. In practice, stateless
refugees were subject to these regulations without the possibility of recourse,
while the authorities were prepared to show more consideration towards
refugees from countries such as Belgium and the Netherlands, whose exiled
governments took steps to help their citizens. Deserters, escaped prisoners of
war and other military personnel, political refugees in the strict sense of the
word and so-called hardship cases – old people, the sick, children and pregnant
women – should not be refused entry. 28 Against their better judgement, the
authorities thus kept to the strict definition of a political refugee. While
Rothmund likened the situation to a farce, a note in the unofficial minutes of
the Police Directors’ Conference held on 28 August 1942, records von Steiger’s
remarks: «Political refugees. Theory is no good. Jews are also in a way political
refugees». 29
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