Refugee Camps in Switzerland during World War II

Swiss authorities treated refugees according to their status and situation. Religious affiliation was not a consideration in such decisions.

Military personnel, mainly members of the French and Polish armies, were interned in camps in accord with Article 11 of the Hague Convention of 18 October 1907 concerning rights and duties of neutral countries in case of war. The army was responsible for operation of these camps.

Civilians were the responsibility of the Swiss federal police department. Healthy people were housed in work camps. Children, the elderly, and ailing were placed in homes. People who could support themselves or had relatives or friends in Switzerland were free to choose their own housing. Hundreds of refugees who found themselves in work camps received permission to complete studies at Swiss universities.

A statistical study carried out on 1 April 1944 on the roughly 25,000 refugees subject to Swiss federal police department shows that only 15% of them were housed in work camps and that comparably more refugees lived independently.

Refugees (Jews and gentiles) had to work for the common good in the often very small work camps and received housing and remuneration for it. Thus construction of the camps in spring of 1940 served primarily to help offset the loss of farmhands caused by the mobilization of numerous farmers and horses.

Working hours ranged from 42 to 44 hours per week. The authorities granted leaves twice weekly as well as a free weekend within neighboring communities. Moreover a three-day vacation was guaranteed every six weeks.

Conditions varied from camp to camp and depended to a large extent on the commanding officer. Unfortunately, we know since the war that conditions were especially difficult in the Wauwilermoos camp in the canton of Lucerne. This camp was the only disciplinary camp run on severe authoritarian principles. It was thus no labor camp in the literal sense of the term. After the war, the commanding officer was convicted for the abuses for which he was responsible and sentenced to several years in prison.

Numerous relief organizations picked up refugees from the camps and assumed responsibility for them. Thus Swiss Protestants, for example, acted on the initiative of Rev. Paul Vogt to finance housing for 1,100 Jewish refugees in families and homes.

In addition, it should be pointed out that all Swiss between the ages of 16 and 65 were obliged since 1939 to provide mandatory labor. Hence pupils, students, and apprentices among others were summoned for this service. From 1941 to 1946 nearly 550,000 people supported farming by their work for an average of one month a year.

Owing to eye-witness reports and studies — especially one by historian André Laserre, Frontières et camps (1995) — we possess today precise knowledge about conditions at the time.

The Association of Swiss Jewish Refugee Relief wrote in 1944:

"Even if the labor service did not result from our initiative, we still welcome its creation as a certain final realization of our long-time efforts to provide emigrants steady jobs. Our efforts were directed particularly toward protecting the interests of those under our care regarding pay, working clothes, vacation, etc." (Ein Jahrzehnt Schweizerische Jüdische Flüchtlingshilfen 1933-1943, p. 32).

© 1998 EDA — Task Force Switzerland – Second World War — designed by Stauch & Stauch