61340 Vorabseiten_e - Unabhängige Expertenkommission Schweiz

image of the Confederation was to a large extent founded on its tradition of
granting asylum, its good offices, humanitarian aid, and the services provided
by the Geneva-based International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).
Inherent in this tradition was the fact that, economically speaking, the Swiss
government had always supported the free, cross-border exchange of goods,
capital, and services and in this respect opposed restriction, or accepted it only
very reluctantly. The policies pursued as regards asylum-seekers, refugees and
other undesirable immigrants, however, represented a stark contrast to the
image of Switzerland as a humanitarian and open country. Foreign money, of
course, protected by the principles of client protection and banking secrecy, was
very welcome; desperate people attempting to flee from the threat of deprivation
and persecution by the Nazi regime were often refused entry. The results
contained in this report on the whole endorse the findings of earlier research:
measured against its previous stand in terms of humanitarian aid and asylum
where its refugee policy was concerned, neutral Switzerland not only failed to
live up to its own standards, but also violated fundamental humanitarian
principles.
By and by, draconian measures were introduced: in 1938, that is to say before
the outbreak of war, the Swiss authorities asked Nazi Germany to mark the
passports of Jewish citizens of the Reich with a «J»; as they did not want to
recognise persons persecuted by the German authorities for racial motives as
worthy of asylum. In a move that marked a watershed in 1942 at a time when
Switzerland, due to its geographical position, was for many people the only hope
of flight and rescue, the country closed its borders and refused to include Jewish
children among the children brought into Switzerland for a holiday. It is clear
that anti-Semitic attitudes, open or concealed, contributed to such decisions by
the authorities; such attitudes had become apparent in the discrimination
experienced from the 1920s onwards by those Jews who wished to become
naturalised after living in Switzerland for many years. Even the diplomatic
protection the Swiss government extended to Swiss Jews and their assets abroad
was grudging both on the legal and the political plane after the spring of 1938.
Mention must be made of the fact that, after the war, when the compensation
of Nazi victims was being discussed, attempts were made to «dispose of» the
consequences of the erstwhile refugee policy if possible without any public
debate.
Even after 1944/45, it was only after a long struggle that Switzerland decided
to grant long-term residency to former victims of persecution. It continued to
uphold the view that these refugees should be tolerated only temporarily. Well
into the post-war period, people who had been persecuted during the Nazi era
were still refused entry on cultural or ethnic grounds. Despite evidence of a
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