61340 Vorabseiten_e - Unabhängige Expertenkommission Schweiz

situation. 83 As was customary, the Federal Council often approved proposals
made by the head of a Federal department and his team of civil servants,
including those concerning policy on refugees. For this reason the Federal
Department of Justice and Police becomes the focus of attention.
The EJPD was more or less solely responsible for two crucial areas. Firstly, since
the end of the First World War, it had drawn up the ideological and legal basis
for Swiss population policy and between the wars it had implemented a policy
on foreigners that had an anti-Semitic bias. As regards the theoretical underpinning
of Swiss population policy, it was not so much Heinrich Rothmund as
Max Ruth, a lawyer who was well known at the time but has since hardly been
taken notice of, who played the main role. 84 Secondly, after the outbreak of the
war, the EJPD was the principal body responsible for implementing policy on
refugees, as between 1938 and 1942 responsibilities were shifted from the
cantonal to the Federal authorities. With its numerous instructions and circular
letters, the EJPD largely determined how policy on refugees was put into
practice. Decisions – without further appeal – concerning whether (non-
«political») refugees were to be admitted or turned back were taken by the
Police Division, often in fact by Heinrich Rothmund personally. It is a known
fact that there were strong xenophobic and anti-Semitic tendencies within the
EJPD and that the Police Division concentrated its efforts on refusing
admission to refugees. At the same time, the EJPD was not the only factor to
influence Swiss policy on refugees. This policy was drawn up in consultation
with other Federal departments, the Swiss parliament, the cantonal authorities
and other interest groups. Economic interests, for example, were also taken into
account, which is why the Federal Department of Economic Affairs was also
often involved in the decision-making process. The border police, whose job it
was to control Switzerland’s borders, was responsible to the Federal Department
of Finance and Customs (Eidgenössisches Finanz- und Zolldepartement, EFZD),
which is why the latter was regularly consulted by the EJPD and tried to exert
influence on its own initiative. In relation to policy on refugees the strongest
player in the Federal administration, however, was the Political Department.
The Federal Political Department and the Delegate for International Relief
Organisations
The Federal Political Department (Eidgenössisches Politisches Dempartement, EPD)
had little say in drawing up internal policy on refugees; it did, however, have a
large degree of responsibility insofar as many questions concerning refugees
touched on foreign policy. The EPD was particularly influential with regard to
negotiations with other countries on the question of refugees. This was clearly
the case, for example, in the agreement with Germany on the subject of the
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