61340 Vorabseiten_e - Unabhängige Expertenkommission Schweiz

sight of the German border police they jumped into the Rhone and swam back
to the Swiss bank where they begged and pleaded to be admitted, but without
success. One of the men tried to cut his wrists. Anticipating this suicide
attempt, the Swiss border guards and soldiers dragged the three men, who were
clinging firmly to each other, away from the river bank to hand them over to
the German officials who were waiting nearby. This attempt to oust them,
however, failed. Since there was a general desire to avoid scenes which might
draw attention, Daniel Odier, a Geneva territorial police officer, arranged with
the German border officials that the refugees would be officially handed over on
the territory of occupied France. There the three Jews were arrested by the
German border police and, as reported subsequently by other refugees, transferred
to the prison in Gex. On 18 September 1942 Eduard Gros and Hubert
and Paul Kan were deported to Auschwitz via Drancy. 139
This example illustrates the difficulties and risks involved in trying to cross the
border. Because the possibilities of crossing the border were limited since visas
were compulsory and the borders were closed, the success of an attempt to
escape depended on the help of a third party. To actually get across the border,
refugees often had to rely on a person who was familiar with local conditions –
a so-called passeur – and then had to entrust their lives to him or her for better
or for worse. Their distress was no guarantee of safety for the refugees; it did not
protect them from theft or blackmail, or from being abandoned or even
denounced by the smuggler after payment had passed hands. And even once
they had crossed the border, the refugees were not out of danger since the Swiss
authorities had established a 12 km wide border zone in which refugees who
were caught had to reckon on being turned away.
After successfully crossing the border into Switzerland themselves, many
refugees tried to ensure that their relatives and friends followed so as to escape
deportation. Mendel Willner, for example, helped young Belgian Jews to
escape. When questioned by the authorities, he admitted telling his contacts in
Brussels and Antwerp that «they should make sure that the young Zionists
came to Switzerland because it was better for them to risk their lives trying to
make it to the Swiss border rather than to be deported or shot by the
Germans». 140 Escape assistance groups and other organisations provided
refugees with false papers which they used not only for getting as far as the Swiss
border but also for entering Switzerland. During the course of the war, escapehelpers
such as Mendel Willner were instrumental in spreading knowledge back
in the occupied territories on the Swiss practice of admitting refugees or turning
them back. When it became known that, according to a rule concerning
hardship cases, young people under the age of 16 or 18, families with small
children, and pregnant women were to be admitted, the refugees organised
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