hi there

A friend of mine is trying to track down some info about his grandfather's WWI war history. He was captured by the Germans in the Somme and was passed as a POW to Switzerland in Feb 1918 at Lake Constance. Apparently he spent two years in Switzerland before getting back to the UK. My friend is interested to find out what he did during those 2 years and what the Swiss program of repatriation was. We're keen to find out if anyone has any knowledge of what the Swiss did in helping these UK POWs.

Does anyone know of any resources for finding information like this?

Thanks!

start with Wiki.. complete with references..
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In all, 219,000 prisoners were exchanged.[84]

During the war, some prisoners were sent to neutral Switzerland on grounds of ill health. Internment conditions were very strict in Switzerland but softened with time. ............. Approval for departure in no way meant permanent freedom but instead transfer to Konstanz, where a medical commission verifying the prisoners’ state was located.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_W...Germany#Auriol

The International Red Cross in Geneva is your best bet. Bonne chance.

In both WWs, Switzerland tried to accommodate the POWs as best as possible. There in WWII in Schaffhausen was a sizeable contingent of Norwegians, many officers among them. And after the war, lots of SChaffhauser-"girls" went to Bergen. On a chance visit a few years ago to Bergen, a friend was astonished when in a Bergen restaurant, suddenly being met by an old "Schaffuserin" (mother of the manageress). There were many English POWs in many places. Who were granted quite an acceptable life. Strangely enough, many of those POWs filled the places left empty by locals called up into military service. And when the war was over, to quote CDG "la guerre est gagnée", things relatively swiftly returned to normal.

Thanks everybody!

My wife's grand-uncle (brother of her maternal grandmother) was taken prisoner by the Germans after Italy capitulated in '43. He spent two years at some Berlin-area camp (Magdeburg as I recall). He is now 95.

He said treatment by the US was best, but the Germans were better than the UK (who took over from the US after divying up the spoils). Basically, UK food and treatment sucked.

Any questions? We'll be heading over to Luino next weekend for a visit.

Tom

Sorry bubbles, a bit off topic, but I find the subject interesting.

There is a duck enclosure close to my home, a very pretty place with lots of different kinds of ducks. Apparently, it was built by Polish POW after WWII and made me curious because I never knew that Switzerland had POWs.

Live and learn.

Technically, any foreign military who entered the country by non-official means were subject to being POWs, i.e. downed aircraft, etc.

Generally speaking, though, they were guests.

Being neutral does NOT mean that you don't have POWs, why would you even think that?

Tom

I really thought that they never got involved . At all. I feel very stupid now, thanks Tom .

Planes crashed, ran out of fuel, etc. Even if you're neutral, you still get unwanted guests!

The alternative, of course, would be to hand them over to the Germans. Far better to be a Swiss POW.

Tom

Makes sense. Thanks.

Swiss joke: (yes, they exist)

Swiss to US aircraft: you're entering Swiss airspace, we will have to shoot!

US to Swiss: Yes, we know!

US to Swiss: You are shooting too low!

Swiss to US aircraft: Yes, we know!

Tom

Some links:

http://swissinternees.tripod.com/

http://1914-1918.invisionzone.com/fo...howtopic=94077

http://www.swiss-stamps.us/Tell/T303.pdf

http://www.btinternet.com/~prosearch/tomspage19.html

Wiki

http://untoldvalor.blogspot.com/2008...terned-in.html

Switzerland had lots of POWs in WWII, a few of them being airforce-people who landed in distress. RAF and USAF pilots when realising that their planes were not to make it accross the channel, diverted into Switzerland ... and were then escorted to Dübendorf. And the Germans tended to hand over POWs they did not want to have themselves to Switzerland. In addition to this, Switzerland offered the Germans a favour as they could offer the adversaries an "exchange" which meant that the Germans released POWs to Switzerland and Germans got released either to Portugal or to Switzerland.

Mum met numerous charming Norwegians on the Munot in Schaffhausen and even more amazing Americans in Lausanne/Montreux, some most charming American Blacks among them !