Switzerland facing genocide. New research and perspectives As part of Switzerland’s chairmanship of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance

During the Second World War, Switzerland was the neutral power whose geostrategic position was most threatened, having been isolated in the heart of German Europe since November 1942. What was the asylum policy of Switzerland towards persecuted Jews, from the beginning of Nazism until 1942 and then from 1942 to the end of the war? Was Switzerland a place of refuge? Within the framework of this symposium, historians who specialize in these issues share with us their latest work on Switzerland’s attitude towards persecution and the Shoah.

German and Swiss soldiers on the German-Swiss border, 1940. Shoah memorial/coll. Museum of resistance citadel of Besançon.

9:30 am Opening

10 h Switzerland and the Third Reich
Chair: Mauro Cerutti, Emeritus Professor, University of Geneva

Diplomatic, military, economic and financial issues
Thomas Maissen, professor, University of Heidelberg, director, German Historical Institute, Paris

Restitution and discussions on accounts in disgrace in the post-war period
Jakob Tanner, Professor Emeritus, University of Zurich

Switzerland information platform on persecution and genocide, and Jewish organizations
Jacques Picard, Professor emeritus, University of Basel

Official research on Switzerland and the Second World War: from the Ludwig report (1957) to the Bergier report (2002)
François Wisard, historian, historical service, Federal Department of Foreign Affairs

11 h 30 The passage to Switzerland. 1933-1945
Chair: Renée Poznanski, Ben-Gurion University, Israel

The refoulement of Jewish refugees at the Swiss border
Serge Klarsfeld, historian

The report of the Bergier commission on refugees. Introduction
Marc Perrenoud, historian

The passage from France to Switzerland
Ruth Fivaz-Silbermann, historian

The passage from Italy to Switzerland
Fabrizio Panzera, State Archives, Canton of Ticino

The influx of Jewish refugees from Italy to Switzerland during World War II. Quantitative aspects and case study: the border guard post in Caprino.
Adriano Bazzocco, historian

The transition from Germany to Switzerland
Guido Koller, historian

15h Actions and inaction: Swiss abroad and foreigners in Switzerland
Chair: André Kaspi, Emeritus Professor of Universities

The silence of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in the face of deportations
Daniel Palmieri, Historical Researcher, ICRC, Geneva

The Swiss Red Cross – Child Relief. The great figures of Just and Rescue
Helena Kanyar-Becker, historian

Allied intelligence services in Switzerland
Christian Rossé, historian

Foreign diplomats in Switzerland and false documents
Jakub Kumoch, Ambassador of Poland to Switzerland and Markus Blechner, Honorary Consul of Poland in Switzerland

17 h History and memory of Switzerland during the Second World War
Chair: Denis Peschanski, Research Director, CNRS

The places of memory of the Shoah in Switzerland
Fabienne Meyer, historian

Challenges for education and memory in a neutral country and context of diversity
Monique Eckmann, Emeritus professor, University of Applied Sciences of Western Switzerland, Geneva

History and memory of Switzerland in the face of the Shoah. General conclusion
Georg Kreis, Professor Emeritus, University of Basel
Mauro Cerutti, Emeritus Professor, University of Geneva

Programme subject to change.