Target Switzerland: Swiss Armed Neutrality In World War II

by Stephen P. Halbrook

Countless books have been written on the military history of World War II, however astonishingly little information has appeared about the one country that stared the Nazis down and refused to become an accomplice to the horrors of the Third Reich. This book provides an objective, year-by-year account of Switzerland's military role in World War II, including her defensive strategies, details of Nazi invasion plans, and Switzerland's moral, material and humanitarian links to the Allies. Swiss neutrality in World War II has been criticized in recent years, but the country was entirely surrounded by Axis powers and managed, as revealed here, to render considerable assistance to the Allies.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, War, World War II

352 pages, Kindle Edition

Published August 5, 2009

Reviews

[Mad Hab · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the second book by Halbrook I am reading and I am more than satisfied.
Very well written, interesting but a little one-sided. This is not about why and how Switzerland stayed neutral, but why and how the gun and military culture helped Switzerland stay neutral.
But in general what i got from the book, Switzerland was not invaded becuase of its military culture, its role as a intermediary and a lot of LUCK.

[Tony · Rating 3 out of 5]

The author had a bit of a right wing bias that coloured his telling of history; I found the book overall interesting, however I feel the author should have disclosed he is a gun rights activist as that shaded hi perspective.

[Mark Nenadov]

An informative and very detailed read, though the author’s perspective seems to make it rather one-sided and there may be some glossing over here and there, probably moreso omission than distortion persay. Any bias or glossing over notwithstanding, there is a lot of valuable and fascinating information here. I loved the maps and detailed use of sources from inside Switzerland and Germany.

[Maria · Rating 4 out of 5]

I visited Switzerland in the fall and got a thumbnail version of their experience in WWII. I guess I somewhat naively thought the Swiss declared their neutrality and that's all it took. Now that I have read this book, I see how wrong I was and how difficult a time they had. There were many surprises, not least of which was how few refugees the USA took. I admit to being somewhat appalled at that and our mistakes in bombing. Having flown myself, I cannot quite see how our bombers could have mistaken Zurich or Geneva for somewhere in Germany. The smaller border towns I can understand, but not those two. This book is presented year by year and that resulted in a certain amount of repetition, and although mentioned, not as much importance was laid on the mining of the tunnels which provided commercial access to Italy. When I was there, the person who was lecturing felt that those explosives and the possible loss of the tunnels was the greatest deterrent to German invasion, even more so than the Swiss population's access to and skill in firearms. This book puts it the other way, so I'm still not sure which it was. The Swiss people come across quite admirably as regards prisoners of war, refugees from German and Italy, and their willingness to share what little they had with them. I noticed there was no mention of how so many German Jews property ended up in Swiss banks. The trading with Germany was mentioned, but not that. Overall, I found the book quite informative and enlightening.

[Kjartan · Rating 3 out of 5]

I don't want to rate this, because it's such an academic book. It touches upon the subject in a very scholarly manner, repeating certain facts incessantly. It's an exciting read nevertheless and incredibly illuminating, on World War II and the Swiss national character.

[Jan Kuban · Rating 5 out of 5]

Switzerland (officially the Swiss Confederation) is composed of a confederation of states. These states are known as cantons and have a high degree of autonomy. The relationship between some of them lasted for over 700 years, which makes Switzerland one of the longest established republics in the world. It is also one of the most stable and predictable countries.

What kind of democracy? Similar to ours? What mechanisms guaranteed that this country has existed for so long, and yet we have not heard anything about the Swiss riots, revolutions, revolts and uprisings or have heard about somebody was invaded by the Swiss? Why, though we know that this is one of the best managed countries in the world, do we not know who is the president? These questions, amongst others, are answered in this book.

A must read for politicians, journalists and citizens.

Apparently, apart from the three official languages ​​of Switzerland (German, French and Italian), it has only been translated into Polish.

[Tom · Rating 2 out of 5]

There's a lot of interesting and revealing information in this book, which makes it doubly unfortunate that it is written like an encyclopedia article. Repetitive and wordy, slow-moving and not well-balanced. However, most of us know little about Switzerland's World War II experience and will learn quite a bit about it from reading this book. The bibliography cites several books in German and French, but since the author incorrectly translates the common German word "Nachrichten" as "evening news" on more than one occasion, we wonder about the accuracy of the information he gathered from those publications.

[Alex · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well researched account of the military preparations taken by the Swiss during WWII. While a pro-Swiss account, the author discusses the delicate balance undertaken to maintain neutrality, which meant trading with both blocks and simultaneously preparing for subversion and outright invasion. A deeper dive in the local pro-Nazi parties with the country and more discussion of Switzerland as a banking hub could have expanded this book beyond the military/political scope.

[Linda · Rating 5 out of 5]

An book about how the amazing Swiss maintainted an armed neutrality in WW II with the Nazis surrounding them. Gave me greater appreciation and admiration for the Swiss. Who knew that shooting was a national sport learned by all Swiss!

[Drew Chrisman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great WWII history. Any individual wanting to learn more about gun ownership or America's own Second Ammendment would do well to take a look at this overview of Swiss arms ownership playing out against threats of Nazi rule.

[Julian · Rating 4 out of 5]

Quite repetitive at times but overall a great representation for the history of Switzerland during WW2.

[David Corleto-Bales · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is mostly in direct contradiction of the last book I read on American internees in Switzerland, and takes the position that the plucky Swiss were almost invaded by the Germans in World War II but their overwhelming bravery, natural defenses in its terrain, and large, well-trained army deterred Hitler in the end. The book on American internees suggested Switzerland's decisive tilt toward Germany had something to do with it as well, (the Swiss had a large Nazi party in its German-speaking areas, definitely favored Germans who ended up on the wrong side of the border over the allied ones, etc., and allowed the Germans to holiday in their country, including large numbers of soldiers on leave.) And so on and so on. The truth is somewhere in the middle, where a neutral country had to be during the war. All of the neutral countries in Europe, (Sweden, Spain, Portugal, Turkey and the Vatican) played both sides against each other in varying degrees; none were truly "neutral" in the pure sense of the word. Halbrook makes the case that the Swiss did perhaps as best that they could under the circumstances.

[Jonathan Martin · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book it's an exciting tale of Swiss survival which is particularly stirring for a Swiss national. It's a fascinating tale that not only tells of Switzerland experience but also of its neighbours, it critically puts right the common miss conception that the Swiss where pro-Natzi. They very much weren't.
However despite my enjoyment it has a few failings; it's highly repetitive at times although that's not wholly its fault after all the reason Switzerland survived the first half of the war is bound to be similar to the second half.
I also found its American perspective a bit irritating particularly the authors use of Switzerland to justify US gun policy at the end.
Otherwise a good read, id recommend just take it with a pinch of salt

[Larry · Rating 5 out of 5]

Target Switzerland: Swiss Armed Neutrality In World War II by Stephen P. Halbrook, is a very informing book. This book taught me that Switzerland was a neutral country, ever since the early 1600’s, which seems very impressive to me considering the fact that there have been so many wars and battles in Europe from the 1600’s to the 1940’s. This book in my opinion was a very good and informational book that told the reader a lot of facts that you really would nt learn any where else but books like this. I would recommend this book to every history buff and also just common readers.

[John · Rating 2 out of 5]

A somewhat interesting story of Switzerland's relationship to WWII, a considerable amount of little known information is included as Switzerland is generally ignored. But while it pays little attention to several areas or glosses over events that could be interesting it is very redundant in others as the author is tediously repetitive and it reads as a panegyric to the Swiss.

[Paul Wright · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great overview of how Switzerland has stayed out of major conflicts through vigilance and willingness of her citizens to serve!

[Frederick · Rating 3 out of 5]

Its a pretty good book about the Swiss during WWII.

[Erick Lehman · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very interesting topic but I felt it could have been about half the length and still carried the same information.

[John · Rating 3 out of 5]

A somewhat one sided look at Switzerland's role in WWII

[Todd · Rating 4 out of 5]

Don't mess with the Swiss. I didn't realize they really thought they were about to be invaded by the Nazis, and were ready to apply mountain "scorched earth" tactics to hold out.