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How did Switzerland escape invasion in WW2

3 replies

LadyEloise · 22/12/2020 08:52

How come the Germans didn't invade Switzerland in World War Two ?
It's such a small but wealthy country.
Why too did Switzerland not join the EU.
All its neighbours did ?

OP posts:
Grooticle · 22/12/2020 08:55

Historically they’re always neutral - they don’t get involved in wars. They also store the wealth of lots of other world leaders - they safely stored huge amounts of gold etc that the nazis stole, and they have a stable, safe and (historically at least) very private banking system. So any nazi considering invading them would stop and think that it’s better to leave them alone, that way if Germany lost the war the leaders would be able to collect their loot from Switzerland and run off somewhere new, largely South America for some reason.

PlanDeRaccordement · 22/12/2020 09:00

@Grooticle gave good summary. Switzerland is always neutral.
In addition, because of the mountainous terrain, it would be very difficult from a military perspective to invade and then hold the land.
There is a reason why mountains often form a border between nations and it because it’s a natural barrier that discourages invasion from logistical standpoint.

Dollywilde · 22/12/2020 09:02

There actually was a plan to invade Switzerland but they didn’t. Like @Grooticle says it may well be that the Nazis ultimately decided it wouldn’t be productive.

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Tannenbaum

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