On This Day in History: July 25

Switzerland resists the Nazis

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In 1912 the German Kaiser reportedly asked what the Swiss militia, numbering only 250,000, would do if invaded by half a million Germans soldiers. The alleged Swiss reply was, “Shoot twice and go home.” Three decades later that attitude kept the country safe from Hitler’s invasion.

--On This Day in History, Shit Went Down: July 25, 1940--

“If you want peace, prepare for war” is an adaptation of the words of a writer named Vegetius in the Later Roman Empire. It can sound like bullshit, except when you realize nations have a long history of invading each other. During World War II the only thing that kept Hitler from conquering Switzerland was their promise that they’d make him regret it.

The beginnings of Swiss neutrality date back to the early 16th century, but it became official with the Treaty of Paris in 1815. Switzerland hasn’t participated in a foreign war since, making it the country with the oldest military neutrality policy in the world. They’re so neutral, they’d even let fucking Nazis use their banks to hide all that shit they stole from the Jews they murdered. But they had to keep up a fighting edge in order to enforce it so other countries would look at them and say, “Eh, not worth it. Keep your chocolate watches.”

As WWII broke out, the Swiss decided they should do the unusual-for-them thing of putting someone in charge of the military by electing a general. Despite the guy being connected to an organization that didn’t seem to mind the fucking Nazis too much, they chose lifelong military officer Henri Guisan. They didn’t have the military equipment the fucking Nazis did, but they had a fighting spirit, and mountains.

On July 25, 1940, General Guisan delivered a historic address to his entire officer corps. He said no fucking way we’re giving in to these fucking Nazis. You run out of bullets? You stab those fucking Nazi fucks with the pointy thing attached to the end of your rifle.

Switzerland had a decentralized political structure so there was no one person who could say, “We surrender!” Guisan told his officers that any proclamations of surrender, therefore, were to be considered fucking Nazi lies and to keep fighting. Go guerrilla. Hide in the mountains. Build a resistance. Kill those fucking Nazi fucks until there are no more left to kill.

At the peak of the war, Guisan mobilized 850,000 fighters out of a population of four million ready to defend their nation. The fucking Nazis took the hint, deciding to leave Switzerland alone.

Not everything was heroic, however. The Swiss accepted 27,000 Jewish refugees during the war but, even though they knew such people faced certain death, turned away almost as many more with a “Sorry. We’re full.”

In Dungeons and Dragons alignment terms, more like “Neutral Evil.”

Get the book ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY SH!T WENT DOWN.