Bergier report: Thousands of Jews turned back, “widespread anti-semitism”

An international report on Switzerland’s role during World War II finds that anti-semitism played a key role in Switzerland’s turning back thousands of refugees, many of them Jews, at the Swiss border.

An international report on Switzerland’s role during World War II finds that the broad guidelines of Switzerland’s refugee policy did not contradict the international law of the day. But anti-semitism played a key role in Switzerland’s turning back thousands of refugees, many of them Jews.

The findings are part of the much-awaited Bergier report, which was published on Friday and takes its name after Swiss Professor Jean-Francois Bergier. He heads a nine-member multi-national commission whose experts have been digging through historic documents since March 1997 to probe Switzerland’s war past.

Focussing on Swiss refugee policy, the experts criticised the government-approved introduction of the “J” stamp for Jewish passports in 1938. The commission said Switzerland thus adopted Nazi Germany’s racist ideology and applied it to its own immigration policy.

The report notes that Switzerland took in just over 51,000 civilian refugees during the war. Just over 20,000 of them were Jews. But 24,000 people, many of them Jews, were turned back between January 1940 and May 1945.

The Bergier report says Switzerland either failed to recognise the severity with which Jews were persecuted or, if the authorities did not know about it, they certainly failed to take any action in favour of the victims.

The experts say Switzerland did not, as stated, close its borders in 1942 because of a precarious food situation or military and political pressure, but because of widespread and pervasive anti-semitism.

“The rejection of Jewish refugees was motivated by a widespread attitude of cultural, social and political rejection of Jews,” the report says.

It adds that the Swiss authorities knew very well that a rejection at the border often meant a death sentence: “The Swiss government, the police and justice authorities and the military top brass knew by the summer of 1942 that refugees who were turned back at the Swiss border would face deportation to eastern Europe and therefore would meet certain death.”

The Bergier report says the press only briefly protested about the rejection of refugees at the Swiss border.

“The press hardly drew a connection between Nazi Germany’s persecution measures and the refugees’ fate. The press largely ignored the fact that most of the refugees were Jews,” says the document.

The panel of experts points out that Swiss decision makers of the time did not go against the letter of international law on refugees.

“But neither did Switzerland interpret the law in favour of refugees where it would have been possible — and that was a political decision.”

From staff member Beat Witschi.