61340 Vorabseiten_e - Unabhängige Expertenkommission Schweiz

Nazi regime were forced to leave as quickly as possible. The question arose as
to whether they should go back to the country they had left or attempt to build
a new life in a third country, be it in Europe, overseas or in Palestine. Even at
this time only a few were granted a residence permit by the Swiss authorities.
From 1947 on, refugees who could not be expected to leave for reasons of age
or poor health were allowed to apply for asylum. Only 1,345 people took
advantage of this opportunity – far fewer than had been expected. Since many
former refugees could no longer support themselves, the Swiss parliament
decided at the end of 1947 that they should receive financial support from the
Federal coffers, cantonal authorities and aid agencies. 33
Statistics concerning the admission and refusal of civilian refugees
In November 1947, a representative of the EJPD explained at a meeting of the
Committee of Experts for Refugee Matters that Switzerland had admitted
300,000 refugees during the war, to which Paul Vogt, known as the «pastor of
refugees», replied:
«It is not quite accurate to say that only a small fraction of the refugees had
to be refused entry at the time; in all some 300,000 were admitted. What
we were so concerned about at the time and really gave rise to pangs of
remorse was that the Jews were not considered political refugees for such a
long time and were therefore refused entry». 34
The total of 300,000 refugees admitted that was quoted by the authorities was
based on the sum of all possible categories of people who sought refuge in
Switzerland, thereby drawing attention away from the central problem: the
restrictive policy adopted with regard to Jewish refugees. In the report he
published in 1957, Carl Ludwig based his claims on the same figures and
arrived at a total of 295,381 refugees that Switzerland took in during the war
for a shorter or a longer period. In addition to the military personnel, emigrants
and interned civilian refugees, he added 60,000 children who were sent to
Switzerland temporarily to recuperate and 66,000 border refugees who stayed
in Switzerland only for a short time. 35 Such an overall total does not really mean
a lot, neglecting as it does various phases of political and military developments
as well as the gradual radicalisation of the Nazi policy of persecution. Too, it
does not take into account the fact that it was for a great variety of reasons that
those seeking refuge came to Switzerland, where they were treated differently
on the basis of international and national law and, according to a practice that
was in some respects problematic, were classified according to different administrative
criteria by the authorities.
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