Contenu du sommaire : La Suisse et les ambivalences de la neutralité

The Swiss neutrality, already evoked since the 17th century, was placed in the treaties of Vienna as a guarantee of the integrity and the inviolability of the Swiss territory. It would often serve, however, as a cover for the country's questionable commercial, banking and political dealing with foreign countries. Chateaubriand had already lamented that “neutral towards the great revolutions of the environing countries, the Swiss were growing rich thanks to the misfortunes of the others and founded a bank on the human calamities”. Since the Great War, the principle of neutrality was raised to the rank of a myth of the national identity and was included amidst the fundamental values of the Swiss policy. Nevertheless, this myth is seriously contested by recent historical research, that reveals completely the Swiss sympathy for fascist Italy, Franco's regime and Nazi Germany.

This fear has a long past. There were signs already by 1900, but at the time the solution was thought to lie in the compulsory naturalization of the immigrants. There was though a slight shift on 1915 (“We do not want any fake Swiss”, Carl Alfred Schmid wrote). In the twenties, the theory of a Swiss race saw the light. The homo alpinus helveticus was characterized by the care of his body, hygiene, manual labour, all these qualities that the foreigners were presumably short of. In 1938, Switzerland ended up by refusing to host a conference dealing with the fate of the -mainly Jewish- refugees coming from Germany and Austria right after the Anschluss. Moreover, the national exhibition of 1939 called for men to choose a fellow countrywoman as a spouse. Nevertheless, the obsession of the national decline did not match reality, as the Swiss population kept on growing during the thirties, whereas the number of foreigners declined at the same period.

Neutrality, malleable concept, is by many regards indissolubly connected to the definition of the right of asylum, at least it was considered like this until the years 1930, as well as by the federal authorities as by the political exiled. The myth of an independent, free and humane Switzerland was then indivisible from the brandished dogma of neutrality. However, due to national selfishness, latent anticommunism and anti-Semitism, neutrality and the right of asylum will be more and more related by a gradual adaptation to the new fascistic European order.

Has there been a political change in Switzerland after the defeat of France? What is new in the Swiss political landscape is the force of expression of the theme of National Revolution. Neither Switzerland was invaded nor its army was destroyed, as it was the case for France, and this difference made possible the existence of a bifold helvetism, one frankly New Order and another more attached to the resistance against the Axis, combined with the “conservatism” of those who want to keep the founding democratic institutions of the federal state, which become the best garantee of the independance of Switzerland and ot the future development of social democraty in the country.

This article analyses how the federal authorities managed left-wing —mainly communist— political refugees in Switzerland during the Second World War. The challenge they represented for the Confederation was twofold. As politics opponents, their presence was seen as being detrimental to Swiss diplomatic relations and neutrality; and they were also considered a threat to Switzerland's domestic security.

On September 2 1939, some 430'000 male citizen-soldiers left their homes and workplaces to take part in the Mob, the general mobilization of the Swiss militia-army. How did political authorities react to such an event, that could potentially destabilize gender equilibria? And what was the attitude of disenfranchised Swiss women towards demands from the state and the economy? This essay explores some dimensions of this momentous event.

The help to refugees and the assistance to foreign victims constitute two pillars of the humanitarian role of Switzerland. Its politics of neutrality was confronted to important challenges in the 1930s and 1940s. New dimensions and new actors appeared, which implicated the involvement of Switzerland in organisations such as the Intergovernmental Committee on Refugees and the International Refugees Organization.

Jean-François Bergier had presided the International Economic History Association and later the Independent Commission of Experts Switzerland-Second World War (1996-2001). He showed how long-term tendencies of the economic development in Switzerland determined its problems during the Second World War (transit through the Alps, export of war material, financial transactions, looted assets, etc.).

Industrial export and financial transactions contribute to Switzerland's prosperity. However, they pose problems in terms of neutrality. In fact, the Swiss approach is characterised by the ability to adapt and accommodate to outward circumstances. The Axis Powers benefited from it, which led to criticism by the Allies, mostly because of questions related to looted assets. Notwithstanding, Switzerland was able to preserve its interests thanks to the Cold War.