Target Switzerland: Swiss Armed Neutrality In World War II |
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Target Switzerland: Swiss Armed Neutrality In World War II
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by Stephen P. Halbrook
Sales Rank: 471701
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$13.00
At Amazon
on 6-21-2008.
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Features
Cover Type: Paperback with 336 pages
Published by: Da Capo Press December 4, 2003
Written in: English
ISBN 10 Number: 0306813254
ISBN 13 Number: 978-0306813252
Book Dimensions:
9 x 6 x 0.9 inches
Weighs: 1.1 pounds
From Publishers Weekly
The recent focus on Swiss accommodations to the Third Reich has obscured the facts surrounding Switzerland's success in deterring Nazi invasion, argues Halbrook in this narrative of Switzerland's preparations for armed resistance during WWII. Concessions on commercial or refugee issues, Halbrook contends, were not enough by themselves to fend off one of history's most ruthless dictatorships. What was decisive, he finds, was Swiss determination to defend itself by an armed force based on armed citizens. In contrast to Holland, Denmark or Norway, Switzerland during WWII successfully maintained its neutrality. It did so, argues Halbrook, by convincing Nazi Germany and its own citizens that any invader would pay in blood for every foot of ground, and in the end would find only devastation. Halbrook, a practicing attorney rather than an academic scholar, relies primarily on journalistic sources to make the points that Switzerland was prepared to abandon most of the country and fight to the last man from an Alpine redoubt. Among other questionable premises he accepts uncritically, he takes as given that militiamen armed primarily with bolt-action rifles and 50 rounds of ammunition constituted an effective fighting force in an age of mechanized war. His account, while written from a limited vantage point, nevertheless establishes a series of elements in danger of being submerged by the recent furor over bank accounts and trade figures. 16 pages of photographs not seen by PW.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From Booklist
Halbrook vigorously and, inevitably, controversially argues a conservative defense agenda with his thesis that Switzerland's federal system, which lacks a central authority capable of surrendering the country, and its militia-based defense (shades of the Minutemen, the Second Amendment, and the NRA!) effectively enabled Swiss neutrality during World War II. He offers much evidence that the Swiss armed and equipped themselves at considerable cost to defend their independence, for which most of them were prepared to fight even against the might of the Wehrmacht. Whatever the range of Swiss sympathies was, and however much the necessary bribes to the Third Reich may have benefited the Axis, the Swiss deterred the Germans, remained neutral, and thereby benefited the Allies--and the many thousand refugees allowed into Switzerland--far more. Whether the Swiss would have offered a last-ditch resistance in the face of the full range of German terror tactics remains an open question, of course, but Halbrook suggests that the question of Swiss "complicity" with the Third Reich should also remain open. Roland Green
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Reader Reviews
This review is from: Target Switzerland: Swiss Armed Neutrality in World War ll (Hardcover)
At one point in his narrative, Stephen Halbrook quotes Philipp Etter, a Swiss federal counselor from the 1930s through the 50s. In 1937, Etter wrote, 'The armed defense of the country is a primary and substantial task of the state. The mental defense of the country falls primarily not on the state but on the person, the citizen. No government and no battalions are able to protect right and freedom where the citizen himself is not capable of stepping to the front door and seeing what is outside.' No one familiar with Halbrook's other works should be surprised that this seems to be one of the key lessons Halbrook wants us to learn from his history of Switzerland in World War II. Halbrook makes it clear that Switzerland walked a tightrope during the War. Fierce and well trained as the Swiss citizen-army was, it was not eager to tangle with Hitler's Wehrmacht. Though unquestionably sympathetic to the allies, the Swiss were determined to maintain their neutrality. If that meant making some economic concessions to Germany in order to keep the Nazis from overrunning the country, the Swiss were willing, reluctantly, to do that. It's easier to second-guess that decision from half a century's distance than it must have been at the time, when national-socialist armies dominated the continent and liberation was still a distant dream. As other reviewers have noted, Halbrook is clearly sympathetic, not only to the Swiss nation generally, but specifically to its armed-citizenry approach to national defense. With Switzerland being so greatly maligned in recent years, it's not surprising that voices have been raised in its defense as well. While not perhaps perfect, 'Target Switzerland' is a fascinating and enlightening explanation of the dilemma in which Switzerland found itself in the 1930s and 40s, and why and how that nation chose to do the things it did.
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Target Switzerland: Swiss Armed Neutrality In World War II
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Price: $13.00
Updated on 6-21-2008.
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