61340 Vorabseiten_e - Unabhängige Expertenkommission Schweiz

in work camps and homes. What Heinrich Rothmund noted in 1950, however,
probably applies:
«In conclusion it can be said that during the war and in the first few postwar
years, thousands of emigrants and refugees provided welcome and
valuable help for the army and the civilian population during a difficult
period. They fulfilled tasks which were often not of financial benefit to the
Confederation, but served the purposes of national economic and military
defence at the time.» 147
Private accommodation for refugees
The camp structure and the obligation to work led to many refugee families
being separated: while the women were admitted to homes and the men to work
camps, the children were billeted with foster parents. At the beginning of 1944,
more than 800 men and women were living at a great distance from their
spouses and over 200 mothers were waiting to be reunited with their children.
Desperate parents appealed to the relief organisations. One woman wrote as
follows to pastor Paul Vogt:
«Today, Wednesday, we are allowed to be with our children from 2 to 5
p.m. but the thought of our imminent separation is depressing. We go for
walks, we hold our children in our arms like tormented souls, we hug them
because they will be taken away from us again shortly. [...] My husband is
in the Andelfingen camp, my son is in Winterschwil (Aargau), my
daughter and I are in Langenbruck – she is on the first floor and I’m on the
second. At night I wake up wondering if my little one is sleeping.» 148
The separation of parents and their children – which raised legal problems too 149
– was not due solely to regulations laid down by the authorities, but was also
encouraged by the Swiss Committee for Aid to Children of Emigres (SHEK).
In the SHEK’s opinion for the sake of the development of the children, a
«normal» family atmosphere was preferable to living with their mothers in
refugee homes. Out of the 2,000 or so children and young people cared for by
the SHEK in 1943, of whom many had made their way into Switzerland alone,
over 1,300 were placed in Swiss foster homes. Two years later this figure had
risen to almost 2,500. In most cases, the foster families paid for the children’s
board and lodging. 150 Over 90% of the refugee children were Jewish and the
SHEK managed to find foster families among the small Jewish community in
Switzerland for only a minority of them. Most of the children lived in Christian
families, which understandably led many parents to worry that their children
155