61340 Vorabseiten_e - Unabhängige Expertenkommission Schweiz

«The nations which are today fighting to destroy each other will be little
inclined after the war to show consideration for us, merely because we have
been astonishingly successful in escaping the general fate. This moral
viewpoint will one day be of vital importance, and we must take it into
account right now. Our descendants too, will one day ask not whether we
were cold and hungry during these years, but whether we had the strength,
despite hunger and need, to preserve for the Swiss state the prestige which
it deserves and needs.» 38
The answer of the Federal Councillor responsible, the Minister of Economic
Affairs Walther Stampfli, was short and to the point:
«Prof. Muschg has suggested that our descendants will not be particularly
interested in whether we did enough freezing and starving. I am not interested
in what our descendants will say. I am much more interested in what
the present generation would say if it had no coal and nothing to eat. [...]
I have not yet, in the brief period that I have shared some responsibility for
supplying our country, remarked any inclination on the part of our compatriots
to forgo essentials in a sudden attack of idealised heroism.» 39
The trade policy agreed between the administration and the economic associations
towards the German dictators enjoyed wide political support and also the
support of the media. It is true that there was criticism within the Vorort of the
occasional high-handed approach of the association director Mr. Homberger,
and the National Bank also recognised a monetary policy risk in the Federal
Council’s loan campaign. But as the Federal Council and its negotiators were
under pressure not only from the Germans but increasingly, from 1941
onwards, from business owners seeking to export, there was in retrospect little
alternative. As an additional argument, the state clearing loans were seen as
evidence that Switzerland had succeeded in reducing its expenditure on defence
policy through comprehensive contractual arrangements with Nazi Germany.
The director of the Trade Division, Jean Hotz, looking back on the agreement
of 18 July 1941, explained: «In the absence of an agreement, the result would
have been additional expenditure on mobilisation amounting to around 1
billion francs per year.» 40
The pre-financing of Swiss exports to Germany allowed other Swiss interests to
be served. What the Western powers called the compensation deal, which
enabled Switzerland to send goods which were important to the war effort
through German occupied territories to Great Britain and the USA, represented
a significant German concession to Switzerland over the longer term. This «self-
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