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Target Switzerland: Swiss Armed Neutrality in World War ll

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A slightly different version of this review appeared in "The American Enterprise" magazine.

Review by: Dave Kopel

If all you know is what you read in the papers, then you must think that Switzerland is one of the most despicable countries in the world. Switzerland, rather than joining the Allied cause, stayed neutral World War II. After the war, Swiss banks helped themselves to the deposits of holocaust victims, rather than giving the deposits to the victims' heirs. Case closed?

Not at all, historian Stephen Halbrook shows in his new book Target Switzerland: Swiss Armed Neutrality In World War II. Wrongful as was the bankers' post-war behavior, the behavior of the Swiss people during the war was morally exemplary-superior, indeed to the conduct of most of the rest of Europe. As Winston Churchill recalled, "of all the neutrals Switzerland has the greatest right distinction... She has been a Democratic State, standing for freedom in self-defense among her mountains, and in thought, in spite of race, largely on our side."

Except for Britain, France, and Canada, virtually all of the Allied nations during World War II joined the war only because the Axis declared war on them, Halbrook reminds us. Even after Pearl Harbor, the United States remained neutral in the European war, until Hitler declared war on United States a few days later.

Nazi maps showed that the Third Reich would eventually include Switzerland, just as it would include all portions of Europe with German-speaking people. While the majority of Switzerland's population is German-speaking (the rest being French, Italian, or Romansh) the nation was virtually unanimous in hoping and praying for the defeat of Germany. Infuriated by the lack of ethnic solidarity, and by the strongly anti-Nazi stance of Switzerland's free press, Hitler predicted that Switzerland would be "liquidated" and that he would be known as "the butcher of the Swiss."

As Halbrook details, in every stage of the war, the Axis had powerful military reasons to invade Switzerland. Before the fall of France, the non-alpine part of Switzerland offered at inviting path to sweep into France and avoid the Maginot Line. After France fell and Italy entered the war, Switzerland offered the only convenient transport of military men and supplies between Italy and Germany. After the Allied landing in Italy, Germany's need to swiftly deploy troops into Italy became even more urgent. As the war came to conclusion in 1944-45, the Nazi leadership laid plans to make a stand in the Alps, but Switzerland stood right in the middle.

By the summer of 1940, there was only one country on Germany's borders whose free press and rights of assembly allowed the Third Reich to be publicly and lawfully denounced as the evil empire that he was. In every country on Germany's borders--except Switzerland--Jews, Gypsies, homosexuals and other targets of Hitler's hate were sent to extermination camps. But there was no Holocaust on Swiss soil. Switzerland protected her own Jews, and sheltered many more refugees of all religious backgrounds. Had America sheltered refugees at the same per capita rate as Switzerland, the United States would have taken in over three million refugees. Instead America accepted hardly any.

In all the countries that Hitler conquered, the economy was plundered for use in the Nazi war machine. As a neutral, Switzerland did trade with Germany and Italy, and with the Allies. (For the Allied trade, the Swiss smuggled out precision ball bearings and other military equipment disguised in consumer products like watches.) But unlike in the countries which Hitler conquered, the only products that Hitler could get from Switzerland were what he could buy at full price.

Target Switzerland includes the maps of the evolving Germans invasion plans for "Case Switzerland." Yet although the Germans several times massed troops on the Swiss border for an invasion, the invasion never went forward. With so many reasons to invade Switzerland, why did the Nazis desist?

The Nazis could have eventually have conquered Switzerland, but at a fearful price. The Wehrmacht expected 200,000 German casualties; it would have taken a very long time to remove the Swiss military from the Alpine "Reduit" to which they planned to make a stand. And by the time the Swiss were defeated, every bridge and train track and everything else of value to the conquerors would have been destroyed.

The reason that Switzerland was too difficult to invade-in contrast to all the other nations which Hitler conquered in a matter of weeks-was the Swiss militia system. Unlike all the other nations of Europe, which relied on a standing army, Switzerland was (and still is) defended by a universal militia. Every man was trained in war, had his rifle at home, was encouraged to practice frequently, and could be mobilized almost instantly. The Swiss militiaman was under orders to fight to the last bullet, and after that, with his bayonet, and after that, with his bare hands. Rather than having to defeat an army, Hitler would have had to defeat a whole people.

Conversely, the Swiss citizen militia, with its extensive network of fortifications, had no offensive capability. The Swiss militia was not going to sweep into Berlin; modern Swiss-bashers who condemn the nation for not declaring war fail to understand that by keeping the Axis out of Switzerland, the Swiss were already doing everything they could for the Allied cause.

From the Anschluss of Austria to the Fall of France, Hitler swallowed nation after nation where cowardly ruling elites surrendered the country to the Nazis-either before the shooting began, or a few weeks afterward. But such a surrender would have been impossible in Switzerland, explains Halbrook. The Swiss governmental system was decentralized, with the separate 26 cantons, not the federal government, having the authority. The federal government did notify the Swiss people that in case of a German invasion, any claim that there had been a Swiss surrender should be disregarded as Nazi propaganda. And because the military power was in the hands of every Swiss man, the federal government would have been unable to surrender had it ever wanted to. Nothing could stop the Swiss militiamen from fighting to the very end.

America's Founders admired Switzerland as a "Sister Republic" amidst the despotisms of Europe. The American Founders-like the Swiss-understood the moral implications of a universal militia system: a people who are trained to self-reliance and responsibility will defend their freedom to the utmost. But a people who rely on a professional standing army may not have the nerve to resist tyranny.

When, as William Shirer wrote from Berlin, the lamps of freedom were going out all over Europe, they burned brighter than ever in Switzerland, as the Swiss people maintained their democracy, their right to assemble, and their freedom of religion. And the Swiss people saved thousands and thousands of refugees from the gas chambers. A well-regulated militia really was necessary to the security of a free state.

Winston Churchill and Adolph Hitler both understood how much Switzerland damaged the Axis cause-on both a military and a moral plane. Stephen Halbrook's excellent book-the first in English to tell Switzerland's history during the war-is the story of how a small, isolated nation, faced with mighty enemies and gigantic dangers, can demonstrate true greatness.

At one point in his narrative, Stephen Halbrook quotes Philipp Etter, a Swiss federal counselor from the 1930s through the 50s. In 1937, Etter wrote, 'The armed defense of the country is a primary and substantial task of the state. The mental defense of the country falls primarily not on the state but on the person, the citizen. No government and no battalions are able to protect right and freedom where the citizen himself is not capable of stepping to the front door and seeing what is outside.' No one familiar with Halbrook's other works should be surprised that this seems to be one of the key lessons Halbrook wants us to learn from his history of Switzerland in World War II.

Halbrook makes it clear that Switzerland walked a tightrope during the War. Fierce and well trained as the Swiss citizen-army was, it was not eager to tangle with Hitler's Wehrmacht. Though unquestionably sympathetic to the allies, the Swiss were determined to maintain their neutrality. If that meant making some economic concessions to Germany in order to keep the Nazis from overrunning the country, the Swiss were willing, reluctantly, to do that. It's easier to second-guess that decision from half a century's distance than it must have been at the time, when national-socialist armies dominated the continent and liberation was still a distant dream.

As other reviewers have noted, Halbrook is clearly sympathetic, not only to the Swiss nation generally, but specifically to its armed-citizenry approach to national defense. With Switzerland being so greatly maligned in recent years, it's not surprising that voices have been raised in its defense as well. While not perhaps perfect, 'Target Switzerland' is a fascinating and enlightening explanation of the dilemma in which Switzerland found itself in the 1930s and 40s, and why and how that nation chose to do the things it did.

When I saw the ads for this book, I was skeptical. The timing seemed too good, with a book that reflects well on the Swiss coming out just as Swiss Banks were getting a lot of bad publicity. But having read it, I've changed my tune. Halbrook doesn't waste time defending Swiss banks (who at any rate may have been no worse than Chase Manhattan -- read Charles Higham's "Trading with the Enemy" for the disgusting story of American business' collaboration with the Nazis), but rather tells the story of the Swiss people and the Swiss Army. Those two entities are more or less the same thing, which in part explains how the Swiss mobilized one-fifth of their population (and armed most of the rest) to deter a Nazi invasion. The most persuasive part of the book consists of quotations from fulminating Nazis -- Hitler, Goering, Himmler, etc. -- about those damned Swiss and their incomprehensible willingness to die fighting rather than surrender to the Reich. Halbrook also notes how the Swiss traditions of armed citizenry, federalism, and democracy made the kind of surrender-by-elites that took place in Belgium, Denmark, the Netherlands, etc. impossible and pretty much unthinkable in Switzerland. If the rest of Europe had done as the Swiss, Hitler would never have made it out of Germany. Even though I knew the ending (naturally) the book kept me turning pages until the end. I highly recommend it.

I am a history buff and have always been interested in World War II, especially in Europe. In TARGET SWITZERLAND, Stephen P. Halbrook gives a fascinating explanation of Switzerland's role in that epic conflict.

I had never given much thought to the Swiss experience in the Second World War. About the only current material I had seen on Switzerland tended to be critical of it for staying neutral and maintaining a certain level of commercial cooperation with Hitler and his allies. Jean Ziegler's THE SWISS, THE GOLD AND THE DEAD, is an example of contemporary Swiss bashing.

Halbrook's book provides a well-written, thorougly researched antidote. He describes how a polyglot republic with a population of only 4 million could defend its territory while surrounded by 120 million Nazis and Fascists devoted to Hitler's and Mussolini's dreams of conquest.

Switzerland placed an unprecedented one-fifth of its population under arms in the process. That didn't leave enough people for agriculture so the Swiss were hungry throughout most of the war, and cold. German coal heated most of their homes.

Yet, when Luftwaffe aircraft invaded Swiss airspace they came under attack and several were shot down. It is interesting to compare the Swiss response to that of the Great Powers and their policy of Appeasement.

I enjoyed this book and came away with a new found respect for the Swiss and their determination to keep the Holocaust off of their soil.

This book is a must read for any ex-patriot living in Switzerland or for any tourist visiting Switzerland.

It provides insight into the current Swiss mentality and shows how close the Swiss came to being swallowed up by the Germans.

The book is a bit technical and tends to focus on the same theme throughout , which at times is somewhat laborious.

Overall, a good read and very educational.

A well documented and crafted book. It explains that Swiss neutrality during WWII was not accidental, or granted by the other powers in Europe, but was enforced by the Swiss themselves. I fee there are only two minor shortcomings. One is the method the author used to introduce facts and statistics is confusing, as the fact is introduced and then restated, without noting whether the item is a repeat, or in addition to, the previously mentioned fact. The second is I would have appreciated a deeper discussion of how the Swiss stayed out of WWI. I understand that Switzerland nearly came apart, and would have liked more information on how dissolution was avoided. All in all, and excellent book!

The author presents an interesting account of wartime Switzerland, but does not do a very good job analyzing the facts he has presented. He is convinced that Switzerland escaped invasion due to the deterrent effect of her army, but he does not mention or discuss any other hypotheses. The book is poorly edited, with some almost identical paragraphs separated only by a few pages. Nevertheless, the author does a good job conveying a feeling of what the Swiss must have experienced during the war, and provides a chronology of events that is interesting to read.

Halbrook tells a compelling story--of a tiny nation, entirely surrounded by Axis forces, which refused to join the Third Reich's 'New Europe.' Despite a German food blockade which reduced the Swiss to growing potatoes on their lawns and public squares, and several planned German invasions, the Swiss never capitulated. Every Swiss man had a rifle and ammunition, and the instructions to use it against any invader, and fight to the death. Virtually every German-speaking population in any country of Europe sided with Hitler--except the Swiss. Indeed, the Swiss German-speaking press was so anti-Nazi that Goebbels labelled the Swiss, contemptuously, 'Berg-Semiten,' or 'Mountain-Jews.' While the Swiss kept up their tradition of political neutrality, they were never morally neutral. They clearly sympathized with the Allies, even smuggling the RAF bomber guidance devices through German territory disguised as Swiss watches. They also harbored far more refugees per capita than the U.S.A. During the war, The NY Times called Switzerland "an island of democracy in a sea of tyranny." Surprisingly readable--and relevant, now that Switzerland is so much in the news. -- John Zmirak, Ph.D.

~Target Switzerland: Swiss Armed Neutrality In World War II~ by researcher Stephen Halbrook is an erudite work, illustrating the dilemma that Switzerland faced in the 1930s and 1940s. The Swiss have been wrongly slandered, scapegoated and extorted for their role in WWII as a neutral power, and are wrongly belittled for supposed accommodations to the Third Reich. Sandwiched between hostile two Axis powers, the Swiss were between the alps and a hard place literally. Her terrain was her best ally.

Halbrook has taken to the task of an honest, forthright treatment of the Swiss diplomatic and political scene during this time, and offers a remarkable look at her anti-Nazi international posturing amidst her proclaimed neutrality. Swiss newspapers insulted Hitler in his own language. Afterwards, when the Nazi government demanded that the insults be quelled, the Swiss attaché politely informed him that the newspapers were not organs of the Swiss state, and they could take no such action. At movie reels, when the Swiss were shown pictures of German crowds greeting Hitler with their salute, throngs of them erupted in laughter, mocking the lampoonish nature of the spectacle and their willing subservience. Needless to say, they were few friends of Hitler and Mussolini in Switzerland.

The Swiss were realistic to the possibility of an Axis invasion, and they made ample military preparations to deter invasion, and make it totally unfruitful. The Swiss were prepared for an all out war of resistance. Herein, Henri Guisan, the Commander in Chief of the neutral Swiss Army during World War II is presented as an unlikely hero. Huisan realized that the German Panzers had the upper hand, and could easily descend upon the northern plateau of Switzerland, and posited that free partisans operating from a fortified alpine redoubt as their base of operations would wage a fierce war against the invader, and make them pay heavily for every inch of Swiss soil. Fortresses were established at passes in the southwest, south, and southeast, and a barrage of artillery fire and gunfire from every direction would pummeled the German Panzers and troops entering through the narrow vallies.

The vast majority of the Swiss populace, even in the German-speaking regions, hoped for Allied victory. The fear of a Nazi invasion was a legitimate concern of the Swiss. The Swiss had a well-supplied military redoubt where the bulk of the military was stationed and the remnant. The redoubt was a veritable fortress with earthworks, trenches, tunnels, AA guns, and machine guns. If attacked, the underdog Swiss planned to exploit the terrain (i.e. towering mountains, narrow passes) to harness every possible tactical advantage in much the same way the as the beleaguered Spartans did at Thermopylae.

This book is complimented by the book by intelligenbce analyst Angelo Codevilla, and is much more detailed. The Swiss were not taking chances with national security before and during World War II. The few Nazi saboteurs in Switzerland were rightly executed for treason against the Confederation, and others imprisoned for their activities aimed at subverting the Swiss government, and submerging the free nation into the Third Reich. The Swiss shot down Nazi Luftwaffe planes that strayed into her territory.

All things considered, this is a needed reassessment of the Swiss role before and during World War II. The Swiss have a proud heritage of free-markets and limited government, and deserve our empathy not our scorn.

Switzerland was a neutral nation surrounded by the Axis during World War II. With the fall of France, this country was literally surrounded. However, Germany chose not to invade. The reason--the Swiss population was mobilized and ready for an invasion. They were also deadly marksmen, who would have taken many German soldiers done with them. At the beginning of WWII, Switzerland had 10% of its population under arms. At the end of the war, it had 20% mobilized and ready for invasion. The Germans thought about an invasion, but they realized it would be very costly. What they sought to control was Swiss politics and they couldn't even do that. Switzerland was a democratic republic that respected fair journalism.

This is a revealing book about an unknown aspect of World War II. Although the author paints a positive portrait of Switzerland, it does not show how the Swiss kept some Jewish refugees out and turned them away at the border to their certain death. It does show how a ready posture of its armed forces certainly deterred the Axis from invading. It also shows how Switzerland helped the Allies in certain ways, even though she was a neutral. An interesting book about an unknown theater of WWII.