Swiss Review 1/2020

Swiss Review / January 2020 / No.1 3 The guns may have fallen silent, but the war is by no means over. Pain and shock linger and cast their shadow across subsequent generations. Neutral Swit- zerland is discovering this now as the public is – at last – developing a clearer image of the Swiss Holo- caust victims. For hundreds of these victims the Swiss passport offered no protection. They were locked up inDachau, Auschwitz and other horrific places. Some survived. Many did not. This may be history, but it is by no means the past as these victims still constitute an empty space in the official historiography of Switzerland to this day. Until now, theywere primarily viewed as difficult “compensation cases”. However, thanks to a remarkable new book (page 6), the question now being asked is why the Swiss victims found themselves in such a situation in the first place. They are without a doubt first and foremost victims, because the horrors of theNazi regime knewno limits. However, looking back, a night- mare picture of the behaviour of Switzerland and its diplomats also comes to light. Admittedly therewere Swiss diplomats who fought bravely for their countrymen and women and for humanity. However, it is unsettling to hear about those cases where the victims were basically abandoned. The behav- iour of the diplomatic team in Berlin in the latter years of thewar, for instance, was one of sycophantic, silent restraint. Except in certain cases, they gener- ally did not advocate for Swiss concentration camp prisoners, as they were fearful of angering the Reich. This distinction between Swiss citizens whowere deemedworthy of pro- tection and those who were not is one of the dark shadows of war that Swit- zerland must address. Swiss citizens who were considered unworthy of pro- tection and thus second-class sometimes included Jews, gypsies, homosexuals, “asocial persons”, socialists and even those with dual citizen- ship. During and after the war, they were accused in not so many words of being partly responsible for their own fate.What thatmeans is that the Swiss ultimately followed the same criteria used by the Nazis to judge human be- ings. If we are to properly address this period in history, we need to be brave enough to ask a crucial question: are we any different today than we were then? More specifically: do Swiss Jews encounter less hostility today than they did in the past? Are the Sinti people with roots in Switzerland, who re- ceived no protection back then and were labelled gypsies, accepted today? Do we now look at people with dual citizenship without suspicion? These are not questions for historiography but rather for the present. MARC LETTAU, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Editorial 4 Mailbag 6 Focus Swiss citizens in Hitler’s death camps 10 Report Corippo: when an entire Alpine village becomes a hotel 13 Society Sign language is seeking recognition 16 Politics/Elections 2019 The Council of States too is greener, contains more women and is younger News from your region 17 Politics Switzerland plans to modify its development aid The great dilemma: what should be done with Swiss jihadis? 22 Literature series GertrudWilker’s view of the USA 23 OSA news Studying in Switzerland Camps for children and adolescents 26 news.admin.ch 28 Images 30 Books/Sounds 31 Top pick/News Contents The shadows of war Cover photo: Autumn in the Alpine village of Corippo, in Ticino. Photo: Keystone “Swiss Review”, the information magazine for the “Fifth Switzerland”, is published by the Organisation of the Swiss Abroad (OSA).