2-WWII+Switzerland+HF+(Neutral)

SWITZERLAND IN WORLD WAR TWO-NEUTRAL COUNTRY

**How may the Home Front’s awareness of the war’s objectives and nature be characterized?** Switzerland’s awareness of the war’s objective and nature can be characterized as differentiated neutrality. They adopted this neutrality in 1920 and this decision showed that they were willing to employ economic sanctions to communication disapproval of another nation. In 1938 they adopted the integral, unconditional neutrality. In this war, Switzerland has to choose between joining the Nazis who seem to be at advantage or just resist to it. They seem to try to accomplish both of these things at the same time.

**How did propaganda affect the mindset at home?** In Switzerland, although they were neutral in the war efforts, many people living in Switzerland had racist and hatred/fear of people from the other countries. This was connected to the fact that they refused to take in refugees of the Nazi party. As they were against going to war, they were also against the Jews that were to come and take refuge in Switzerland.

**What were the direct contributions of the Home Front to the war effort? This needs to go beyond a cursory statement of, “They supplied soldiers, grew food, made armaments, etc.” You should consider support not only in patriotic or industrial terms, but also political, social, economic, cultural/intellectual, moral/religious, emotional, etc., terms.**

For Switzerland, although they weren’t in the war, they were still connected to Germany through the means of the fact that Switzerland was basically taking care of the banking for Europe. Nazi Germany had to respect the neutrality of the country. But, at the same time, they were supplying the Allies with weapons. Also in order to get into the German market, they had to pay many bribes and through doing so they started to undermine the people of their own country. They exposed the country’s defensive system and defied the neutrality rules.

**What were the costs & benefits of the war to the Home Front, to include but not limited to goods/services/resources? Use a case study to illustrate.**

One of the costs for Switzerland to the Homefront was in relation to the specific creation of the trains. They were allowing these trains to carry food and supplies from Germany to Italy because they were stuck in the middle of the Axis powers. They were surrounded by land of the other countries and they had no natural resources of their own. They were required to compromise with the surrounding countries. On the other hand, a benefit that the Swiss had was in relation to the German troops that came into Paris on June 1940 to try to attack them. The Swiss army was able to withdraw from the borders and regrouped in the Alps, which was able to cut completely across the entire country, giving them an advantage of the space, creating a defense line. This was a great benefit for the Swiss during this war.


 * How can life for women & youth on the Home Front be characterized? Use case studies to illustrate. **

For women, specifically, even though that they didn’t receive voting rights in 1971, in 1945 a maternity system, which was added to the constitution. Even so, at this time most of the employers didn’t pay the mothers part of their salary for weeks after the birth of the child. A child, Sibylle Muirden talks about his experience with the war living in Switzerland. He was told by his father that he would be done with school before the war, and even though Switzerland was not really involved in the fighting done in the war, it still was receiving the consequences of it. He was aware that there might be bombs but he lives in Berne so he doesn’t have to worry about that. But in other places, like in the border of Germany, people were dying fast. People were very scared and there were many restrictions on what you could do and they had to stay inside and seek shelter many times at home and on the way to school.

WORK CITED "Co-Opting Nazi Germany: Neutrality in Europe During World War II." //Co-Opting Nazi Germany: Neutrality in Europe During World War II//. N.p., n.d. Web. 22 Nov. 2013. . "Korte, Eisenhower, Berlin, and the National Redoubt." //Korte, Eisenhower, Berlin, and the National Redoubt//. N.p., n.d. Web. 22 Nov. 2013. . "Switzerland Wartime Blood Money." //Jstor.org//. N.p., n.d. Web. 20 Nov. 2013. . "Switzerland during WWII." //Switzerland during WWII//. N.p., n.d. Web. 22 Nov. 2013. . "WW2 People's War ." //BBC News//. BBC, n.d. Web. 22 Nov. 2013. .