61340 Vorabseiten_e - Unabhängige Expertenkommission Schweiz

population. Anti-Semitism could be detected in Switzerland as early as the mid-
19 th century, but after 1900 was directed above all against immigration by Jews.
At the beginning of the 20 th century, discrimination started against Roma, Sinti
and Jenisch, founded as much on a deep-rooted mistrust of the itinerant peoples’
culture as on eugenic and ethno-political doctrine. These few observations show
that it is impossible to explain the conduct of the Swiss unless a longer temporal
perspective is considered, going back to 1914 at least.
The Second World War was, to a far greater extent even than the First, an
economic, military and ideological conflict, which with its persecution and
annihilation of entire ethnic groups descended to depths of unparalleled
barbarity. Switzerland lived through it in a «holding position». Its economy was
deeply involved, not least because it had neither access to the sea nor significant
natural resources. The country’s closeness to the continent and the rest of the
world was all the stronger since it had for many years been economically interlocked
with the outside world and could not therefore become «self-sufficient»,
even for a short time. From June 1940 until autumn 1944, this neutral country
was surrounded by the Axis powers and Vichy-France, from which it purchased
industrial raw materials and food, but to which, on the other hand, it also
exported goods, and on which it was therefore doubly dependent. As a highly
developed industrial country, Switzerland thus had no choice but to continue
commercial exchanges with these powers. After 1943, imports and exports to
the Allied powers were steadily built up again. The question which arises is not
whether Switzerland should or could have maintained its business contacts and
foreign trade with the warring powers in the first place, but rather how far these
activities went: in other words, where the line should be drawn between
unavoidable concessions and intentional collaboration. After 1945 Switzerland
found itself, unharmed by war, in a relatively favourable position: its intact
manufacturing resources, retained markets and political stability, the latter
particularly remarkable in a world so marked by the upheaval and destruction
of war, assured it a leading position in post-war Europe. This, together with the
effects of the Cold War, meant that in Switzerland hardly any critical questions
were posed regarding the past, not to mention the fact that self-criticism of any
kind would not have been permitted at the time. Generally speaking, recollections
were coloured by positive aspects of the war period and lent credence to a
one-sided view of history. The problem with this idealised collective memory is
not the impression it gives of having been entirely made up of «phoney»
elements, and any criticism is not intended to belittle the contribution made
by the soldiers, women and men who made tremendous efforts in different
places for worthwhile causes and wanted to resist the Nazi regime. But after
1945, this view of history, which highlighted resistance whilst ignoring
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