61340 Vorabseiten_e - Unabhängige Expertenkommission Schweiz

– first Italy, then Germany – were falling behind in their payments. The Swiss
Confederation had to help out with the outstanding debts, which ran to
89 million francs by the end of the war. Now the companies turned to the
authorities with increasing frequency, but the answers they received were
evasive or non-existent, so that the railways largely acted as they saw fit.
Loan of rolling stock
There was no disputing the fact that, in practice, a smooth-running international
transport system required close co-operation between European railway
companies. But transnational freedom of movement was severely restricted
during the war years. Most of the wagons which Switzerland sent abroad (about
85% or 100,000 wagons per year) went to Germany and Italy, and were used
exclusively to supply goods to Switzerland. However, only 22% to 32% of its
imports could be transported in this way. Only an astonishingly small number
of these internationally-deployed wagons got lost. In the summer of 1944, only
24 wagons had gone missing. Towards the end of the war however, more than
1,000 wagons were reported missing. Given the overall situation, we can
conclude that Switzerland, with around 18,000 freight wagons, was unable to
lend any assistance relevant to the war in terms of rolling stock to the German
Reichsbahn, which had over 973,000 freight wagons. The 25 locomotives
demanded by the Reichsbahn in February 1942, destined likewise to carry
goods to Switzerland, were authorised by SBB with the consent of the Federal
Council without further ado, but the request for a further 25 locomotives was
not met, despite pressure exerted by the Germans through the temporary
suspension of coal deliveries. Later, in October 1944, the SBB provided the
French National Railways (Société Nationale des Chemins de Fer, SNCF) with 37
locomotives to facilitate imports from liberated France.
Swissair
The Swiss airline Swissair could have taken on an important role in view of
the difficulties which the war had created for road and rail traffic, and the
counter-blockade by the Axis powers. In reality however, it had to be satisfied
mainly, and for a very long time, with flying a route which was totally
dependent on the German regime, first to Munich and then, from the end of
1941, to Stuttgart-Berlin, keeping its business alive through the war years
by taking on repair contracts. Orders were also placed with the Company first
by the Swiss company Dornier-Werke, then at their instigation by the
German Lufthansa company and peripherally for the German air force
(Luftwaffe), and finally by the Swiss army and indirectly for the Western
powers for safeguarding and dismantling aircrafts which had gone down over
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