I remember watching the newsreels of the war years on a Swiss channel, they showed a daily news show once a day. What seemed apparent was the concerted effort to present the country as unified and united, which it was not at all at the time, a Genevan was an alien being to a Glaris resident and vice-versa.

WW2 made Switzerland in many ways. Before that it was a rather different place than nowadays, poorer, fragmented with a legacy of violence and war. Nowt much to do with that description in the "3rd Man".