Swiss shame, and solace
No country likes admitting it behaved badly. At least the Swiss have now done so
“OF ALL the neutrals, Switzerland has the greatest right to distinction,” wrote Winston Churchill in 1944. Neutrality, for the Swiss, has long been an emblem of national pride, never one of moral ambivalence. Along with their system of direct democracy, it is a centrepiece of Swiss identity, even in a post-cold-war world where it is unclear quite what neutrality means. So it is with some discomfort that the Swiss have been digesting a report, published on December 10th, compiled by an independent commission of historians, which exposes a less honourable side to the country's official neutrality in the second world war. Soothing reading it is not, but this does not mean there is no ground for solace.
This article appeared in the Leaders section of the print edition under the headline “Swiss shame, and solace”
From the December 18th 1999 edition
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