Badge of the French-Swiss Internment Association of the Vichy Regiment AIMS from the Second World War, 1940-41
During the initial period of the Second World War, the question of the possible internment of foreign military personnel in Switzerland did not arise for the administration and army. In 1939, for example, only three German paratroopers were interned in the Bernese Oberland. Parts of the Swiss army were also extremely skeptical about the internment of foreign military personnel for a long time. As late as June 1940, General Guisan was still expressing negative opinions about possible internment. One of the reasons for this was that he feared a deterioration in relations with Germany and thus in Switzerland's position. After the fall of Paris, German armored units pushed the 45th French Army Corps into the Jura. Their General Marius Daille requested asylum from the Swiss Federal Council in order to escape German captivity, which was granted on June 20, 1940. During the night of June 19-20, 12,000 French and 16,000 Poles (including 12,500 Poles from the 2nd Rifle Division), 7,800 horses and 1,600 motor vehicles, including equipment and ammunition, crossed the Doubs at the border crossing near Goumois (today the municipality of Saignelégier). With the 12,000 already interned, the number grew to 40,000 and with the defections of the following days to a total of 43,000 soldiers, who were disarmed and interned by the Swiss army. The Polish soldiers were deployed throughout Switzerland, particularly in road construction. These roads were called Polish roads by the population. The French were repatriated to France from February 1941 following Germany's armistice with France. The approximately 15,000 Poles who remained in Switzerland were the only group of internees who remained permanently interned in Switzerland until the end of the war and beyond. It was only after the collapse of fascism in Italy that large numbers of members of foreign military units, initially Italians and from summer 1944 onwards also members of the German1 There were also isolated groups, such as US military pilots who had landed in an emergency. In September 1944, the maximum number of internees present in Switzerland at any one time was around 44,000. An estimated 3,000 partisans from the Italian partisan republic of Ossola fled to Switzerland in 1944 and were interned. In the final months of the war, new internees continued to arrive in Switzerland as a result of the general wave of migration in Europe. In addition, Soviet prisoners of war managed to escape from Germany in the spring of 1945. In total, over 100,000 foreign military personnel from 38 countries were interned in Switzerland between 1940 and 1946. In addition, there were special categories of civilian refugees, some of whom were also interned, like the so-called “political refugees”. However, the civilian internees were not under the supervision of the army, but of civilian authorities. Another special case was the internment of German ships on Lake Constance in Switzerland in 1945. Overall, there was an internment camp in about every sixth town in Switzerland. After the end of the war, the Swiss authorities forced the rapid return of the internees, sometimes against their will. However, internees remained in Switzerland until the summer of 1946.
