The Jews of Switzerland by Dr. Willy Guggenheim

The file contains an essay written by Dr. Willy Guggenheim, published by the Swiss Federation of Jewish Communities, entitled as 'The Jews of Switzerland'. It deals with the history of Jews in Switzerland, in detail the history before the World War I, between the two Wars, during World War II and after the War is described. Switzerland was for example the last country of all Western Europe which grant Jews full civic rights (1866) and only under strong foreign pressure. The fight for emancipation started from the canton of Aargau. From there the Jews fanned out to other places in Switzerland. The Jewish population rose from 3,000 in 1850 to 20,000 at the beginning of World War I, due to immigration from the neighboring regions. The modern history of Swiss Jews started after the first World War. The community structures were set, the Jews considered themselves as Swiss, although two thirds of them did not have Swiss citizenship. During World War II the Swiss refugee policy is a controversial chapter of the Swiss history. Already in the thirties the influx from Germany and Austria had greatly increased and during the War the refugee policy was not one of the most glorious chapter in Swiss history.The borders were closed, and for some time in 1942 the head of the Swiss federal police department, Heinrich Rothmund, even gave orders to sent Jews, who succeeded in entering Switzerland, back to where they came from. Guggenheim describes the Swiss Jewry community today as small, but rather well organized, like the country itself.