Planowany Anschluss Szwajcarii w czasie drugiej wojny światowej

Since 1933, when Adolf Hitler became the Chancellor of Germany, to the end of World War II, the independence of Switzerland was constantly threatened. From the beginning, Nazi propaganda sounded off about the unifi cation of the German peoples under the banners of the Third Reich. However, Swiss neutrality gave the Germans such great material benefi ts that they ultimately abandoned their plans to annex Switzerland. Prior to the outbreak of World War II and throughout the War, the Swiss authorities collaborated with the Germans and imposed restrictions on the admission of European Jews. Nevertheless, owing to its status of a ‘perpetually’ neutral state and informal actions of a number of state offi cials, many human lives were saved. For many years after the war, the Swiss found themselves in a kind of political isolation from the countries fi ghting against the Nazi Third Reich, owing to Switzerland’s trade cooperation and trade in goods with all participants of the war.