Arts and Humanities Commons^™

Political Procrastination: Swiss Neutrality And World War Ii, Maria Ott

Swiss American Historical Society Review

Among the various facts about World War II that have become practically common knowledge, the neutral response of Switzerland stands out as particularly well-known. In recent years, this renowned reaction has been scrutinized, with many accusing Switzerland of at best problematic indifference to the affairs of the world during this time and at worst near collaboration with Axis powers, particularly Nazi Germany. Though the nation cannot boast an entirely clean ethical record when it comes to its involvement in the wartime economics, these accusations seem exaggerated. The tradition of neutrality held by Switzerland for decades and its vulnerable position at …

Spiritual Leader Of A Nation, L. B. Kuppenheimer

Swiss American Historical Society Review

Willi Gautschi, translated by Karl Vonlanthen . General Henri Guisan: Commander-in-Chief of the Swiss Army in World War II. New York: Front Street Press, 2003 . xvi+ 698pp. Photographs, maps, notes and index.

For nations of the world engaged in combat during World War Two, the stakes were national survival and the price was blood and treasure. And, for the five countries that elected to remain neutral, the stakes were no less grave , for at any moment an aggressor could chose to invade with no doubt as to the outcome. Of all the neutral nations , Switzerland was both …

Review Essay: What Did You Do In The "Good War"?, Robert Messer

Swiss American Historical Society Review

Klaus Umer, "Let's Swallow Switzerland": Hitler's Plans Against the Swiss Confederation (Lexington Books, Lanham, Maryland, 2001)

Stephen Tanner, Refuge from the Reich: American Airmen and Switzerland During World War II (Sarpedon Publishers, Rockville Center, New York, 2000)

Angelo M. Codevilla, Between the Alps and a Hard Place: Switzerland in World War II and Moral Blackmail Today (Regnery Publishing, Washington, D.C., 2000)

If, as in Tom Wolfe's phrase, the 1970s were the decade of the "me generation", perhaps the 1990s could be termed the "mea culpa" decade. The United States government belatedly and properly apologized and paid reparations to thousands of …

Memories Of World War Two, Alice Schelbert

Swiss American Historical Society Review

Each family was obligated to get a plot of land in order to grow vegetables, potatoes, and Indian corn. I abhorred working in field and garden, but luckily my younger sister enjoyed such tasks. Therefore I did the household chores, mended clothes and, for instance, spent hours undoing the runs in nylon stockings with a special hair-thin hook. The stockings were so expensive, so special, and so dearly beloved, yet one was not to wear them with runs.

Book Review: Schattenkrieg Gegen Hitler: Das Dritte Reich Im Visier Der Amerikanischen Geheimdienste, Christof Muenger

Swiss American Historical Society Review

In the 1980' s the United States government decided to declassify the files of the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) which was the organization preceding the CIA. Christoph Mauch, a German historian and Deputy Director of the German Historical Institute in Washington, DC, thoroughly studied the numerous now available documents. His research in the National Archives as well as in various other archives in the United States and Europe resulted in his Habilitationsschrift [a scholar's second study after the doctoral dissertation to make one eligible for a university position in Germany]. A shortened and revised version of the study has …

Book Review: Target Switzerland: Swiss Armed Neutrality In World War Ii., Karl Wood

Swiss American Historical Society Review

Stephen P. Halbrook's 1998 book, Target Switzerland: Swiss Armed Neutrality in World War II is a well-narrated account of the Swiss preparedness to resist any possible invasion by a hostile power, but most especially by the Nazis, through the critical years of the 1930s and 1940s. The author brings to bear his considerable skills of persuasion and journalistic perception, reminiscent of the late William Shirer, of whose work he makes extensive use for historical perspective. He offers an argument that the "true Swiss experience in the war" lay not in the recently much-discussed accommodations made to the Nazis, "a regrettable …

Warrior-Club Traditions In Medieval Switzerland, Arnold H. Price

Swiss American Historical Society Review

This article endeavors to serve as an extension (as well as a confirmation) of my research on the role of warrior clubs during the era of migrations, the so-called Völkerwanderung. In regard to the Völkerwanderung terminology I am relying in this study primarily on the ground-breaking work of the late Hans Georg Wackemagel, whose novel anthropological approach unearthed and analyzed a substantial body of pagan traditions surviving in medieval Helvetia.

Bombing The Sister Republic: The United States And Switzerland During World War Ii, James H. Hutson

Swiss American Historical Society Review

At 11:10 A.M., April 1, 1944, American military authorities in London received the following "strike message" from aircraft attacking a target in Europe: "392 Group bombed Last Resort with poor results at 10:50 hours. " This terse communication described the "gravest violation " of Swiss neutrality during the Second World War--in fact, during the entire twentieth century: the bombing of the city of Schafthausen by planes of the 2nd Division of the American 8th Army Air Force.