II.3. La fuite des Juifs de France en Suisse à l’époque de la « Solution finale »

Abstract

For Jews fleeing persecution, Switzerland represented a place of hope. Up until recently, however, researchers have not explored the reasons, circumstances, and complications surrounding their flight to the Swiss border, which lasted from 1942 until the Liberation.Jews began traveling en masse to the French-Swiss border in the summer of 1942 in reaction to the “Final Solution”, which was being implemented in the Netherlands, Belgium, and France. This migration in turn shaped a large portion of Switzerland’s asylum and closed-border policies. The country adopted a more restrictive approach to immigration, but also implemented more pragmatic emergency measures that proved to be more tolerant towards certain fugitives. This two-tiered strategy had a shocking consequence : attempting to reach Switzerland illegally become a safer bet than requesting a visa.The study of the experiences of refugees as they waited for asylum reveals the central role of the unofficial organisations that facilitated the process by exploiting loopholes in the system, whether for financial gain or in support of the resistance.In Switzerland, the responsibilities of the various stakeholders involved in the country’s asylum policy are indisputable. The Swiss response to the crisis was not monolithic. Rather, it was wracked by tension and internal conflict, especially between the army, which opposed refugees, and the country’s civilian authorities, who supported a more humanitarian mission. By its very existence, Switzerland, which remained free and neutral, passively rescued Jewish refugees.An in-depth statistical analysis of data on the number of refugees welcomed and turned away at the border finally became possible thanks to the vast number of archival documents that were preserved.