61340 Vorabseiten_e - Unabhängige Expertenkommission Schweiz

and resulted in improving in the flow of information between themselves and
the authorities, and on the other, it led to their adopting a more moderate policy,
the authorities’ delegates to the relief organisations playing an important role
in this connection. This became clear for example in March 1943, when the
Association of Swiss Jewish Welfare and Refugee Relief (Verband Schweizerischer
Jüdischer Fürsorgen/Flüchtlingshilfen, VSJF) once again protested against the
EJPD’s refusal to recognise racial persecution as a reason for granting asylum.
Briner said he was prepared to intervene with the EJPD on behalf of the Jewish
refugees, but at the same time he threatened to resign if the Swiss Central Office
for Refugee Relief were to demand that the authorities stop turning people away
at the border. In the ensuing vote, the relief organisations backed Briner by 22
votes to 2; the Association of Swiss Jewish Welfare and Refugee Relief (VSJF)
was henceforth isolated from the other relief organisations. 121 By so doing the
relief organisations accepted the framework laid down by the authorities as the
legal basis for their work. It is true that in some cases they could have adopted
a more courageous approach and backed the cause of the Jewish refugees with
more determination, but they can hardly be considered, for this reason, as coresponsible
for the policy of the time.
The Swiss Federation of Jewish Communities
The Swiss Federation of Jewish Communities (SFJC) together with the Association
of Swiss Jewish Welfare and Refugee Relief was among the central players
insofar as it provided support for Jewish refugees, bore the main burden for
private aid to refugees and was the authorities’ official contact for issues which
concerned Jewish refugees. From the authorities’ point of view, the SFJC represented
the 19,000 or so Jews living in Switzerland, of which only around half
were Swiss citizens.
After the publication of the report on refugees in December 1999, an attempt
was made to allot a degree of responsibility for the restrictive policy on refugees
to the SFJC, using isolated quotations out of context. 122 Below we set out the
SFJC’s attitude to the official policy: three aspects are of major importance. 123
Firstly, the SFJC defended the legal status which had been achieved since
emancipation and which it saw endangered by such singular standards as
adhered to by anti-Semitism and National Socialism. This stand was marked by
the fierce campaigns of self-defence which the SFJC had fought during the prewar
years, including for example the defamation case in Bern surrounding the
«Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion». At the time there was no adequate
legal basis for effectively combating anti-Semitism and racism. In addition, the
SFJC was concerned about the Federal Council’s Decree of 4 October 1938 as
well as administrative measures against refugees which were bound seriously to
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