Between the Alps & A Hard Place: Switzerland in World War II and Moral Blackmail Today

Between the Alps & A Hard Place: Switzerland in World War II and Moral Blackmail Today by Angelo Codevilla. Hardcover: 480 pages. (Washington, DC: Regnery, 2000), Amazon.com $27.95.

Review by Ryan Setliff

Between the Alps & A Hard Place: Switzerland in World War II and Moral Blackmail Today is a energetic defense of the Swiss and their role as a non-belligerent neutral power in WWII. This thorough and well-documented book challenges the myth of Swiss collaboration with the Nazis and charges the Clinton Administration for obfuscation of historical fact and betraying the national interest. The Swiss have been wrongly slandered, scapegoated and extorted for their role in WWII as a neutral power, and were no more culpable for the Holocaust than the United States was. They had nothing to gain from declaring war on Germany, and it would have only meant more loss of life. As Winston Churchill recalled, "of all the neutrals Switzerland has the greatest right distinction... She has been a Democratic State, standing for freedom in self-defense among her mountains, and in thought, in spite of race, largely on our side."

With the precision of a veteran intelligence analyst, the respected Angello Codevilla offers an accurate assessment of Switzerland's geostrategic situation with a chapter-by-chapter breakdown on economics, political, and military considerations for the tiny alpine nation before and during WWII.

The Swiss people have a proud past and are one of the more unique countries in Europe, since it's a confluence of cultures situated on the Alps at the ceiling of Europe. Switzerland encompasses cantons that speak four languages including French, German, Romansch, and Italian. Swiss confederates united against the counts of Habsburg on the Rütli back to 1307. Their confederation began to grow and take shape as an alliance against the domineering Hapsburg dynasty as the Holy Roman Empire was slowly withering away. The Swiss patriarch is William Tell who personifies their patriotic spirit. The Swiss have a firey zeal for local self-government and have preserved their relatively decentralized federal body politic. Over the years, the Swiss have gained some renown for their reputation as international bankers and fine craftsman whether it is as manufacturers of precision machinery, watches or firearms. Today, the Swiss have a prosperous market economy—with one of the highest standards of living in the world and they continue their traditions of local self-government. So, one may wonder why the freedom-loving Swiss were bullied and slandered as Hitler's willing executioners by the mass media around the turn of the century?

Codevilla's opening chapter Pseudo-Event versus Reality chronicles the smear and extortion campaign against the Swiss by U.S. politicians and activists like liquor magnate Edgar Bronfman. Codevilla elaborates how the Swiss were berated and demonised. He describes how the Swiss banks operating in New York became the target of a political game of state-sponsored legal plunder with the help of former Sen. D'Amato (R-NY), the Democratic Party machine in NYC and the Clinton Administration. They staged a media sideshow in the U.S. Senate and talked of economic sanctions with contrived evidence in an effort to fleece the Swiss. Their campaign of moral blackmail succeeded. Codevilla meticulously documents the $1.25 billion shakedown of Swiss banks operating in America. He records how the anti-Swiss campaign failed to produce any substantive evidence to substantiate its shocking claims. Moreover, he makes light of how U.S. foreign policy can be bought by powerful lobbying groups. "Compromising America's standing in the world by franchising foreign policy to interest groups has become all too commonplace," notes Codevilla. This exposé makes light of the disgraceful selling of foreign policy for selfish political gain. As political payoffs and domestic prerogatives of private interests are being entertained, vital national interests are swept to the sidelines. Historical reality has been besmirched and the Swiss are erroneously and shamefully accused of supporting Nazi Germany and sharing culpability for the Holocaust. The settlement resulted in a mad scramble at the money trough for a cut of the $1.2 billion. The massive extortion ended up enriching Bronfman constituencies and lawyers far more than it did any remaining Holocaust survivors.

Foremost, the vast majority of the Swiss populace, even in the German-speaking regions, hoped for Allied victory. The fear of a Nazi invasion was a legitimate concern of the Swiss. Codevilla captures the excellence of Swiss military preparedness given their circumstances and limited resources. Switzerland is widely known as a mountainous country atop the Alps. The Swiss deterred Nazi aggression by keeping their country more valuable to the Germans as free nation than a conquered one. Switzerland has its back to the Alps and is well protected from the south and east, but was vulnerable to invasion from the north on an open plateau and the northwest through the Rhone Valley. The Swiss recognised their weaknesses, and as such planned accordingly. They supplied and fortified a huge military redoubt in the rugged mountainous country in the south. The underdog Swiss accepted Germany's military prowess, and defined their defense measures so as to make war against the Swiss a long and costly affair. Their plans were to hold off any invasion as long as possible with vehement resistance with border troops. If guerilla warfare ensued than productive assets, bridges, and roads would be sabotaged. No doubt, such resistance would buoy the aggressiveness of the invader, but the Swiss were adamant in their plans to vehemently resist an aggressor. The Swiss had a well-supplied military redoubt in the south where the bulk of the military was stationed and the remnant. The redoubt was a veritable fortress with earthworks, trenches, tunnels, AA guns, and machine guns. If attacked, the underdog Swiss planned to exploit the terrain (i.e. towering mountains, narrow passes) to harness every possible tactical advantage in much the same way the as the beleaguered Spartans did at Thermopylae. Codevilla chronicles their military preparations and strategic considerations with incisive detail. Even Hitler deemed an excursion into Switzerland as vain because of its well-armed militia and military preparedness.

The Swiss recognised that military power is requisite at the table of diplomacy and international relations. Codevilla makes light of intriguing details about how the Swiss stood their ground against Nazi encroachment and how Swiss military preparedness actually discouraged Nazi invasion:

1. The Swiss enjoy the distinction of being a well-armed populace. Prohibition of firearms to the great multitude of Swiss is an unthinkable as it is to most Americans. All males most render service in the Swiss militia and they keep a state-issued rifle at home. The Swiss military tradition is strong, and historically Swiss mercenaries are among the most coveted.

2. Unlike neighboring Austria, the Swiss dealt with Nazi fronts and political sympathisers in much the same way as America dealt with fascists and communists during the time. They were treated as subversives, and quite a few organisations were shut down, and jailed for espionage and sedition.

3. Before and during the war, the Swiss press regularly condemned Hitler and insulted him in his own language. In the 1930s, when the Third Reich tried to initiate agreements with surrounding German-speaking countries to keep their newspapers "friendly," only the Swiss said no. The Swiss foreign minister reminded the Germans that the Swiss press was not an instrument of government and as such they could make no commitments regarding the press.

4. While Switzerland's role as a neutral prevented her from harboring refugees under legal auspices, Swiss citizens covertly aided Jewish refugees and helped quite a number make their way into Switzerland.

5. In devising a plan of Swiss defense, Swiss General Henri Guisan established a well-understood decorum that if Switzerland were invaded that every man was to fight as long as he had ammunition or a bayonet. Surrender was not a viable option.

6. Some 328 modern Swiss fighters including Messerschmitt 109s and 202 C36 bombers were based in the fortified region. Much of the Swiss air force was securely hangered in tunnels and most of the nation's anti-aircraft guns strategically placed. The idea was to maintain air superiority over the southern fortress which could have effectively countered Nazi paratroop infiltration.

7. The Swiss would have thwarted traffic through the St. Gotthard and Simplon tunnels and simply blown them off if necessary. It was readily apparent that the strategic tunnels, roadways connecting to Italy would have been controlled by the Swiss resistance and were susceptible to sabotage if the Axis were to invade.

8. To lessen Swiss dependence upon Germany for food, the Swiss adopted the plan of agronomist Friedrich Wahlen to plant every arable plot of soil in the country, which effectuated an autarkic agricultural policy. Though parts of the nation had rationing during the war, the rations were never below 2,400 calories per day.

9. The Swiss had a near monopoly on the high-tech jewel bearings for aircraft navigation. And even after German embargos, select Swiss manufacturers managed to continue the trade through smugglers and intermediary countries which helped the Allied war effort.

10. Under U.S. statute during the war, a great deal of property including that of Jews in Nazi Germany was requisitioned by the U.S. government. In all reality, the U.S. appropriated way more unclaimed Jewish property than Switzerland. In many cases, unclaimed property was simply escheated to the U.S. or some state government for lack of a will.

Codevilla explains the art of realpolitk, and he credits the Swiss for their shrewd diplomacy and military preparations given their dire circumstances. Codevilla further explains the economic and political warfare that both the Axis and the Allies played against the small alpine country. Switzerland was indeed between a rock and a hard place but made the best of a bad situation and made the best of its geo-strategic situation. The Swiss reacted accordingly by ratcheting up their willingness to resist Nazi strong arm tactics by 1943 and would not submit to their trade demands.

With a dwindling number of Holocaust survivors still living, it is not clear how much of the settlements went to them. Bronfmann's cohorts, writers, and lawyers managed to come ahead though, as well as a rubber-stamp artist that happened to read a book on Swiss gold transactions for a $5,000 fee. The Swiss government made a separate payoff in Europe of $200 million to the WJC. Thereafter, the press told of Holocaust survivors lamenting that no payments were forthcoming. It turns out the WJC only disbursed 10% of those funds received. It had become readily apparent that politically-connected organisations were the chief beneficiaries of this fleecing campaign and the Swiss people were the victims and their honor was impugned. The event led neoconservative columnist Charles Krauthammer to characterise the incident as "the worst of racial hustling and class action opportunism in the United States." Even ADL chair Abe Foxman lamented that the claimants were making "an industry on the memory of the victims." This book carries the endorsement of former CIA chief and Secretary of Defense James Schlesinger. Quite a few historians and no doubt much of the Swiss populace are very much cognizant of the blatant hypocrisy of 'moral complacency' or 'aiding and abetting' accusations coming out of America and bombarded at the Swiss. Given that a substantial number Jewish refugees from Nazi Germany were turned away at American ports and left in limbo at sea, the Swiss can rightly retort Tu que que or as Jesus Christ would say, "first cast the plank out of your own eye before you can see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye."