61340 Vorabseiten_e - Unabhängige Expertenkommission Schweiz

would encompass their manpower or, for example, what they spent on accommodation
in boarding houses and with private families. The question also arises
as to whether the amount the Confederation spent on supervising the refugees
was really necessary and should be included in its entirety in such calculations.
Finally, it is also impossible to estimate the amount of individual support
provided by private households, insofar as such support was not in the form of
donations to relief organisations and was therefore not included in their expenditure.
For these reasons, it is not the overall cost, but rather expenditure by the
main bodies involved which is described below.
The refugees helped to pay for their keep in three ways: firstly through
individual spending, secondly through the deductions made from their assets
which from 1942 on were being administered by the EJPD (see section 3.5),
and thirdly through a special tax levied on wealthy emigrants – the so-called
solidarity tax (Solidaritätsabgabe) – which was introduced with the Federal
Decree of 18 March 1941. As early as June 1939, discussions were held within
the Swiss Federation of Jewish Communities as to ways of encouraging wealthy
emigrants to spend more money, in particular in view of the fact that the Jewish
relief organisations were in dire straits financially. The legal basis for the special
tax had already been put in place through the Federal Council’s Decree of
17 October 1939.
American, Dutch and British refugees were not required to pay this special tax
since it presented various problems in regard to legal aspects and foreign policy:
it might well have constituted a violation of the clause concerning equal
treatment of foreigners and Swiss citizens as was included in certain residence
agreements. 130 In April 1941 Max Ruth, Deputy Head of the Police Division,
declared that it was safe to impose the discriminatory tax on other refugees since
their countries of origin (for example Germany) would hardly try to defend the
rights of those citizens who had fled their own country. From November 1943
on, all refugees and emigrants who had entered Switzerland after 1 August 1942
were subject to the solidarity tax. At least two-thirds of those involved appealed
against the assessment based on information provided by the refugees upon
their entry into Switzerland and on the estimation made for them with respect
to other types of taxes. The Federal Tax Office remarked that:
«Only limited funds are still available, since large amounts have been used
up for the refugees’ living costs, most of them being unemployed, for their
preparations for emigration, for sacrifices made to other family members,
for taxes, etc.» 131
Some of the assets declared had never even existed, the refugees being forced to
149