My Sources for the “Hunting For Switzerland’s Hidden Bunkers”
I'm using the word "bunker" generally here to describe all the structures the Swiss built in mountains for defense. But technically many of these are "fortresses" because they have guns and canons. A bunker is more of a place for soldiers to hide out, often defended by machine guns.
—
Bunker Numbers
There are 9'000, all of which are "Verteidigungsbauten", so bunkers with a military and defense purpose, where people can go inside.
The number of private bunkers in Switzerland is reported differently by different agencies. The ministry of defense says there are 370'000. But other agencies say 360k or 365k. Let's just say it's somewhere between 360k-370k.
—
Swiss continued to trade with Germany -
"It’s now known that the redoubt was only part of the defense strategy, and that Switzerland continued to trade with Germany and grant them access to the Gotthard railway."
'“Switzerland needed raw materials and building supplies from Germany [to construct the fortresses], which it received in exchange for its exports and arms supplies,”' says Jakob Tanner, a professor emeritus in Swiss history at the University of Zurich.
https://www.thedailybeast.com/the-secret-military-fortresses-hidden-in-the-swiss-alps?ref=scroll
---------
"A report by an independent inquiry into Switzerland's second world war history concludes that Swiss officials "helped the Nazi regime achieve its goals" by closing the country's borders to thousands of Jewish refugees, effectively sending them back to near certain death."
https://www.theguardian.com/world/1999/dec/11/1
-----------
"Switzerland benefited from its neutrality during World War II by purchasing vast amounts of gold from Allied and Axis powers. It exchanged the precious metal for Swiss francs, the only free convertible currency at the time outside the American dollar. This trade benefitted Germany in particular, effectively turning Switzerland into an enabler of the German war effort. The Swiss acquired 79% of all German gold delivered to foreign countries, with 90% of that ending up in the Swiss National Bank and the remainder in commercial banks."
"Some of this gold was confiscated from private persons or removed from victims of concentration camps."
—
The word means "a place of retreat". Redoubts were a component of the military strategies of most European empires during the colonial era, especially in the outer works of Vauban-style fortresses made popular during the 17th century, although the concept of redoubts has existed since medieval times. A redoubt differs from a redan in that the redan is open in the rear, whereas the redoubt was considered an enclosed work.
"Online Etymology Dictionary: redoubt". Etymonline.com.
—
Rapin, J. (2004). L’Esprit des fortifications: Vaubin–Dufour, Les forts de Saint-Maurice [The spirit of
fortifications: Vaubin–Dufour, the fortresses of Saint-Maurice]. Lausanne, Switzerland: Presses poly-
techniques et universitaire romandes.
—
As the eminent left-wing Swiss writer Friedrich Dürrenmatt (1986) trenchantly expressed the issue in the postwar years, “The idea of the Redoubt was a brilliant idea. It consisted in the army saving itself and leaving the people in the lurch” (p. 46). Or, as McPhee (1983) put it more charitably and reflectively, “The only place that will never need defending represents what the Swiss defend” (p. 11)
—
I'm referring to the fact that "Switzerland served as a repository for Jewish capital smuggled out of Nazi Germany and the states threatened by it, and also for vast quantities of gold and other valuables plundered from Jews and others all over Europe. Right up until the end of the war, Switzerland laundered hundreds of millions of dollars in stolen assets, including gold taken from the central banks of German-occupied Europe. At the war's end Switzerland successfully resisted Allied calls to restitute these funds, and in the Washington Agreement of 1946 the Allies contented themselves with acceptance of a mere 12% of the stolen gold. Holocaust survivors and the heirs of those who perished met an implacable wall of bureaucracy and only a handful managed to reclaim their assets. As it turns out, some of the dormant accounts were taken by the Swiss authorities to satisfy claims of Swiss nationals whose property was seized by Communist regimes in East Central Europe."
https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/nazis/readings/sinister.html
—
The Orientierungsheft Schweiz (a summary of the military conditions in Switzerland
known to the German Supreme Command) from 1944 reveals how this was
assessed by the potential attacker Germany:
“However, since the Swiss army has only had sufficient time since the beginning of
the war to compensate for weaknesses in its lacking peacetime training, its
operational capacity is expected to have increased. With significant development
of the country’s natural obstacles, it will be able to put up temporary resistance
even against a surprise attack at the borders and hold out for an extended
period in the high mountains. But so long as there is no possibility of outside
assistance, the futility of combat, the loss of vital regions and the shortage of
essential military materials will inevitably cripple the resistance of the troops
eventually.
So far, there is no doubt regarding the resolve of the government and population to
defend Swiss neutrality against any attack with arms.”
—
A decade later, statistics ranked Swiss civil defense first in terms of total spending: in 1982/83 Switzerland put an average of twen- ty-eight dollars per capita into civil defense, an amount that even self-declared civil defense nations such as Sweden (twenty dollars) or the Soviet Union (eighteen dollars) came nowhere near matching. Berger (2017) pg 939 citing:
Lawrence J. Vale, The Limits of Civil Defense,
–
Two referenda held after the dual crisis of 1956 ultimately put civil defense and the right to civil protection on a constitutional basis, and assigned responsibility for both to the civil authorities. The construction of the Berlin Wall and the Cuban Missile Crisis in turn forged the legislative anchors of civil defense; after agreeing to the foundation of a Federal Office for Civil Protection (FOCP), the Swiss parliament in 1962 voted in favor of the first phase of the new civil defense legislation, pertaining to organizational matters (the Council of States backed the law unanimously, whereas the National Assembly agreed by 143 to 9 votes).
Berger Ziauddin (2017): Page 925
—
Federal Council on swiss neutrality:
https://www.eda.admin.ch/eda/en/fdfa/fdfa/aktuell/newsuebersicht/2022/03/neutralitaet.html
Most important thing about swiss neutrality: That is doesn't favour any side
–
Debate from right wing politcal assembly, that switzerland should not join in on sanctions but rather offer diplomatic help for both sides:
—
"Switzerland had no colonies – yet some Swiss worked hand in hand with the colonial powers and profited from their seizure of land and resources on other continents."
Learn about how Switzerland profited from colonialism even without having colonial possessions themselves: https://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/how-switzerland-profited-from-colonialism/45961280?utm_campaign=teaser-in-focusmeta&utm_content=o&utm_medium=display&utm_source=swissinfoch
—
Extra Sources
By 2006 the authorities announced that Switzerland has enough shelter space for 114 percent of its population.No other country in the world has ever established such a comprehensive system of subterranean survival cells.
To this date, a total of 360,000 private and 2,300 public shelters have been built. Federal Office for Civil Protection, Jubiläumsbuch 50 Jahre Schutz und Hilfe, 71 Cited Superpower Underground: Switzerland's Rise to Global Bunker Expertise in the Atomic Age by Silvia Berger Ziauddin
in Technol Cult 2017;58(4):921-954.
—
The Swiss haven’t fought a war in 176 years.
"The Swiss military forces engaged in their last major conflict during the Napoleonic Era and saw their last combat action in 1846" SOURCE: J.E. Kaufmann;Robert M. Jurga. Fortress Europe: European Fortifications Of World War II (Chapter 5).
—
After World War II, politicians, military leaders, and the public alike glorified the alpine fortress and the active servicemen and elevated them to a symbol of forceful resistance against Nazi Germany. The belief that Switzerland survived the war un- scathed thanks to these military components masked the fact that due to the intensive economic cooperation with the National Socialist regime during the war, Germany indeed had little interest in disrupting its valuable partnership with Switzerland. Jakob Tanner, “Reduit national und Aussenwirtschaft.
Superpower Underground: Switzerland's Rise to Global Bunker Expertise in the Atomic Age by Silvia Berger Ziauddin in Technol Cult 2017;58(4): Page 929.
—