Schweiz und Der Zweite Weltkrieg


Book Description

This collection of essays sheds light on the history of Switzerland during World War II, covering such topics as: trade; financial relations; gold; refugees; defence; and foreign relations. It also touches on official post-war measures to suppress Switzerland's involvement in the war.




Faces of Neutrality


Book Description

This important book fills a historical gap and acts as a valuable corrective in the general treatment of Switzerland's role during the Second World War. In addressing all of the moral and historical charges laid at Switzerland's door in relation to Nazi Germany, it does not offer an apology but, far more valuably, provides a sustained, nuanced analysis of the issues at stake. Contending that Swiss neutrality during the Second World War has not only been misunderstood, but has also been unfairly stigmatized, the book's wide-ranging assessment offers a much-needed corrective to received wisdom on the subject. Commendably, it presents a comparative assessment, comparing the Swiss both to European neutrals, and to the U.S. - which, it is often forgotten, defended the posture of neutrality for the first two years of the war. The study highlights the need for careful assessment in the context of more than half a century ago. Seen in those terms, the behavior of the Swiss emerges far more nuanced, more driven by the desperate conditions of total war, and far less susceptible to present-day moralizations than in the work of many writers. This important contribution deepens our understanding of the Second World War.




Britain, Switzerland, and the Second World War


Book Description

This is a study of British policy towards Switzerland during World War II.




Historical Dictionary of Switzerland


Book Description

Switzerland's exceptional scenic beauty of valleys, lakes, and mountains, its central location on international trade routes, and its world famous banking system are just a few elements that have contributed to its rise in the global market. This relatively small nation is actively engaged in the maintenance of peace among nations and at the forefront of technological research. Consisting of twenty-six member states, called cantons, the history of the Swiss Confederation is as rich and varied as its culture and people. The Historical Dictionary of Switzerland features the nation's multicultural and democratic traditions and institutions, its complex history, and its people's involvement in past and present world affairs. This is done through a list of abbreviations and acronyms, a chronology, an introduction, appendixes, maps, a bibliography, and hundreds of cross-referenced dictionary entries on important persons, places, events, and institutions, as well as significant political, economic, social, and cultural aspects. This informative, concise, and accurate reference corrects the numerous false impressions of this important country.




Secret Channel to Berlin


Book Description

A revealing account of Swiss intelligence operations during WWII, including a secret backchannel between Switzerland and Nazi Germany. During World War II, Col. Roger Masson, the head of Swiss Intelligence, maintained a secret link to the German Chief of Espionage, SS Gen. Walter Schellenberg. With access to previously inaccessible documents, including newly discovered material in American archives, historian Pierre Braunschweig fully illuminates this connection for the first time, along with surprising new details about the military threats Switzerland faced in March 1943. During World War II, Switzerland was famous as a center of espionage fielded by Allies and Axis alike. Less has been known, however, about Switzerland’s own intelligence activities, including its secret sources in Hitler’s councils and its counterespionage program at home. In Secret Channel to Berlin, Braunschweig details the functions of Swiss Intelligence during World War II and sheds new light on conflicts between Swiss Intelligence and the federal government in Bern, as well as within the intelligence service itself.




Pathbreakers


Book Description

This book concentrates on how small European countries coped with economic integration and disintegration during the twentieth century. Small countries had to adapt flexibly to the drastically changing conditions outside their borders. They had to find ways of maintaining their political autonomy notwithstanding their economic dependence, and they have been quite successful in accomplishing this difficult balancing act. The authors analyse how small countries responded to the challenges of the international system and describe the different policies and strategies pursued by governments, industries and firms. Originating from the XIII. Congress of the International Economic History Association (IEHA), the contributions to this volume offer new perspectives on a widely debated topic and contribute to a better understanding of the current process of globalisation in small and large countries. The volume is divided into three sections: I. Coping with Different Regimes for International Trade and Changing Competitiveness; II. From an Open World Economy to Economic Disintegration and Protectionism; III. Trade Liberalisation, European Integration and Deregulation.




Swiss Foreign Policy, 1945-2002


Book Description

Swiss Foreign Policy, 1945-2002 presents for the first time a comprehensive collection of eight essays, addressing the post-war foreign policy of Switzerland. The essays deal with a diverse range of issues: general foreign policy and neutrality; defense and security policy; relations with the United Nations; the Swiss policy of good offices; relations with the International Committee of the Red Cross; Swiss human rights policy; arms control and non-proliferation and foreign economic policy. Through these essays, the dualistic nature of Swiss foreign policy, being at once both strongly internationalist and strongly unilateralist, is examined.




Western and Northern Europe June 1942–1945


Book Description

In summer 1942 the Germans escalated the systematic deportations of Jews from Western and Northern Europe to the extermination camps. In most of the countries under German control, the occupying forces initially focused on arresting foreign and stateless Jews, thereby securing the cooperation of local authorities. However, before long the entire Jewish population was targeted for deportation. This volume documents the parallels and differences in the persecution of Jews in occupied Norway, Denmark, the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg and France in the period from summer 1942 to liberation; it records the implementation of the systematic deportation and murder of Jews from Western and Northern Europe, and it also records the rescue of more than 5,000 Danish Jews. In letters and diary entries the persecuted Jews describe their attempts to flee, life in hiding, the transit camps, and deportation transports that often took several days. In Westerbork camp in the occupied Netherlands, Bob Cahen, himself an inmate, recorded in his diary the arrival in the camp of 17,000 Jews from across the Netherlands in October 1942: ‘People arrived here herded like livestock. Some were buried beneath their luggage, others without any possessions at all, not even properly dressed. Women in poor health who had been hauled out of bed in thin nightgowns, children in undergarments and barefoot, the elderly, the ill, the infirm – more and more new people came to the camp.’ The sources in the volume show how the perpetrators attempted to dupe their victims regarding the destination of the transports, and how Jewish organizations attempted to alleviate the suffering of the deportees. The documents additionally illustrate how the resistance movement gained momentum during this period. Learn more about the PMJ on https://pmj-documents.org/







God's Bankers


Book Description

New York Times Bestseller: A “deeply researched” exposé of the money and the clerics-turned-financiers at the heart of the Vatican (Chicago Tribune). From a master chronicler of legal and financial misconduct, a magnificent investigation nine years in the making, God’s Bankers traces the political intrigue of the Catholic Church in “a meticulous work that cracks wide open the Vatican’s legendary, enabling secrecy” (Kirkus Reviews). Decidedly not about faith, belief in God, or religious doctrine, this book is about the church’s accumulation of wealth and its byzantine financial entanglements across the world. Telling the story through two hundred years of prelates, bishops, cardinals, and the popes who oversee it all, Gerald Posner uncovers an eyebrow-raising account of money and power in one of the world’s most influential organizations. God’s Bankers is a revelatory and astounding saga marked by poisoned business titans, murdered prosecutors, and mysterious deaths written off as suicides; a carnival of characters from popes and cardinals to financiers and mobsters to kings and prime ministers; and a set of moral and political circumstances that not only clarify the church’s aims and ambitions, but reflect the larger tensions of more recent history. Posner also assesses Pope Francis’s potential to overcome the resistance to change in the Vatican’s Machiavellian inner court and rein in the excesses of its seemingly uncontrollable financial quagmire. “As exciting as a mystery thriller” (Providence Journal), this book reveals with extraordinary precision how the Vatican has evolved from a foundation of faith to a corporation of extreme wealth and power. “Reads like a sprawling novel, full of complex characters and surprising twists. . . . Readers interested in issues involving religion and international finance will find Posner’s work a compelling read.” —Library Journal “An extraordinarily intricate tale of intrigue, corruption and organized criminality. . . . Posner’s gifts as a reporter and storyteller are most vividly displayed in a series of lurid chapters on the American archbishop Paul Marcinkus, the arch-Machiavellian who ran the Vatican Bank from 1971-1989.” —The New York Times Book Review