Thousands of Swiss people helped liberate France from German occupation. Hundreds of them were punished by Switzerland. They are now set to be pardoned.
Thousands of Swiss people helped liberate France from German occupation. Hundreds of them were punished by Switzerland. They are now set to be pardoned.
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Neutrality is a core value of Switzerland, it’s normal here.
Many others, including me, were raised with “silence means acceptance”.
We don’t even blame the Swiss for having been neutral in France. They are mentioned for 2 sentences in the history books for WW2 and this is probably what the country wanted
What will shock most here is normal per Swiss standards.
It’s also (one of the) why I’ll never ask for the nationality. And I am not trying to bash the Swiss here.
Pardoning them won’t change what has been done. I don’t know why suddenly they decide to move away from their neutrality standpoint and to align on the side of the winner (if we were on a post Adolf world would they have gave the pardon to the other side too then?)
I mean to be fair, too many Swiss fighting against the Germans without Switzerland doing something against it would have sooner or later lead to German agression against Switzerland. I think ensuring the survival of Switzerland (= keeping out of the war at any cost, which is what neutrality means) more than justifies these sentences.
A few years late i’d say, but better late than never i guess?
Yeah, speaking as someone who has served in the swiss army, this glorification of neutrality which is still so prevalent in our nation really annoys me. I mean seriously the things we did to ensure that we did not enter the conflict are pretty horrendous (e.g. selling weapons to Germany). And even if the country would have been invaded by any force, the strategy would have been to retreat the army and government to the mountains, leaving the population at the will of the invaders. Seriously? This is not something to be proud about, it was a tricky game played by the people in power to stay in power while also turning a profit during the whole thing.
* France and Napoleon run rampant in Europe … wage war and occupy every other nation … including Germany … no one bats an eye
* several decades later Germany returns the favor by occupying half of France … everybody loses their minds
Shameful.
“Denn ich will lieber Tee wie ein französischer Freiheitskämpfer”
France has always been the secret ally of Switzerland, at the start of ww2 plans where made to let the french army into switzerland in case of a german attack.