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After Nazi catastrophe, a time of unease, censorship, and myth
🇨🇭 Switzerland /Culture & Society

After Nazi catastrophe, a time of unease, censorship, and myth

From Le Temps · () French

Translated from French, summarized and contextualized by DistantNews.

At a glance

In-depth Sources not specified Context piece
  • Switzerland's secret collaboration with the French army during World War II, known as Operation H, involved a secret liaison with a French agent on August 30, 1939, the day Henri Guisan was elected general.
  • A contemporary account from May 8, 1945, by Bernard Barbey, chief of General Guisan's personal staff, captures the atmosphere of the war's end, noting the population's jubilant but somewhat misplaced celebration.
  • Barbey's observations highlight a perceived disconnect between the joyous public reaction and the actual suffering experienced elsewhere, questioning the appropriateness of discussing domestic issues like old-age insurance and agrarian legislation on such a momentous day.

On August 30, 1939, the Swiss Federal Assembly appointed Henri Guisan as general. That same evening, he met with a French liaison officer, initiating "Operation H." This secret collaboration with the French army, planned in case of a German attack on Switzerland, was publicly confirmed thirty years later and involved numerous developments.

Bernard Barbey, then chief of General Guisan's personal staff, captured the atmosphere of May 8, 1945, the day the German capitulation was announced. He noted the population's jubilant rush for Allied flags. However, he found the "gigolo" demeanor of some, celebrating liberation with triumphant shouts, to be out of place given Switzerland's relative lack of suffering and bloodshed.

I was in Geneva yesterday when the news of the German capitulation spread. Almost immediately, the population, in jubilation, rushed for the small Allied flags. What was shocking was the demeanor of gigolos who had seen the liberation of Paris in the 'newsreels' and who, perched on trucks, paraded through the streets with triumphant shouts. How out of place it seems today, when we have not really suffered, when blood has not flowed!

— Bernard BarbeyBernard Barbey's account of the day the German capitulation was announced.

Barbey also observed that speeches that evening, while containing strong and beautiful sentiments, surprisingly included references to old-age insurance and agrarian legislation. He questioned the appropriateness of such domestic concerns on a day when Europe's most miraculously spared country was celebrating the end of a world war. He mused that abroad, observers might think, "These people certainly know how to keep their heads..."

In the speeches tonight, where there are undoubtedly strong and beautiful things, one is surprised to find allusions to old-age insurance and agrarian legislation. Is this possible, on a day when the most miraculously spared country in Europe celebrates the end of the world war? Abroad, people who love us – or who envy us – might think of us: 'Here are people who don't lose their heads...'

— Bernard BarbeyBernard Barbey's observations on the content of speeches made on May 8, 1945.
DistantNews Editorial

Originally published by Le Temps in French. Translated, summarized, and contextualized by our editorial team with added local perspective. Read our editorial standards.

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