Forgive me for NOT adding the link to verify this information, but the American group Jews for Justice, in some of its counterarguments to current Israeli land aggression, documents that there was a Zionist push to detour European Jews after the Holocaust to the new Israeli state, even working to keep migrants from Canada and the US, where many European Jews were eager to go.
Karen Watters Cole -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]On Behalf Of Christoph Reuss Sent: Friday, July 05, 2002 5:34 PM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: Horrific traditions Oh well, more clichés from a NYT reader... Brad McCormick wrote: > I seem to have read that Switzerland did indeed preserve > its @#$%neutrality*&^%$ by saying Yes to all, including > sheltering Nazi gold and stolen art. This is not exactly > "neutrality", but rather middle-man opportunism. Mistakes of individuals happened under the immense pressure of food and coal scarcity, stuck between the two Axis powers. (Also note the difference between private banks and a gov't.) But compare this to the actions of other neutral countries like Sweden (not between the two Axis powers) who supplied the _steel_ of which Nazi Germany built its tanks, warplanes, submarines, gunships etc., and violated international law by allowing Nazi _armed_forces_ to transit their "neutral" country (to occupy Norway). Everything is relative! How many people were killed by the armaments from Swedish steel, and how many people were killed by the stolen art? > I also seem to have heard that Switzerland's > border was not as "porous" for jews wishing to flee > THe Reich as the jews had hoped for. Oh really? In fact, the Jewish community in Zurich asked the Swiss authorities to take up _less_ Jewish refugees. (They preferred that they go directly to Palestine -- Zionism and all that, you know.) Anyway, Switzerland took up tens of thousands of them (with an own population of 4 million), despite extreme scarcity of food and other basic necessities, not to mention that this really pissed off Berlin, increasing the likelihood of German incursions into the flat areas of Switzerland. Compare that to the rest of Europe where the persecution and deportation of local Jews was either tolerated or actively participated in by the local population. Or compare it to America which rejected Jewish refugees by the shipload, despite having lots of resources and space and no imminent danger at all. I know it's really easy to pass judgement on the 1940s' Switzerland from your NY armchair in 2002, but please at least try to see the whole picture... Chris
