Ossola guerrillas in Swiss internment camp

In 1944, many partisans fled from Ossola to Switzerland. There, they were detained in remote camps.

Raphael Roos/Swiss National Museum

In the fall of 1944, most of the resistance fighters from the Ossola region fled to nearby Switzerland. After the collapse of the Partisan Republic, which existed as a free zone between September 10 and October 23, and the retaking of the area by German and fascist forces, the guerrillas were left with this option.

They were desperate freedom fighters who took part in the final hard and hopeless battle to prevent fascist Germany from reconquering the Ossola region. The fighting began on October 10, 1944, and ended four days later at Domodossola, with the last partisans arriving in Switzerland on October 23.

After the fascists' rapid victory, they claimed that approximately 50,000 people fled to Switzerland. Given that the total population of the area at the time was 80,000 people, this was a gross exaggeration and was intended to make the fascist victory appear greater than it actually was. Current estimates put the number of refugees at up to 10,000, of whom about 3,000 are guerrillas.

The rescue of these fugitive guerrillas was mainly due to the will and actions of the cantonal politicians: Valais National Assemblyman Carl Delberg, Ticino National Assemblyman Guglielmo Canevassini and the Mayor of Locarno Giovan-Batista Ruska. They are all walking on thin ice because the guerrillas are not allowed to accept people who are fighting actually If so, it would call Switzerland's neutrality into question and could lead to serious problems with Germany.

That is why Karl Dellberg argued to the federal government in Bern that the refugees were politically persecuted and in a state of humanitarian emergency. This near-legal simplicity has helped save thousands of lives. Without such intervention, captured civilians would be deported and captured guerrillas executed.

The border residents of Valais and Ticino were deeply affected by these events and they were most likely to know what the German occupation and the fascist presence on the southern border really meant. This was undoubtedly a leverage effect that helped local and state politicians force the They make decisions that are essentially beyond their capabilities. On the other hand, the Church, the Red Cross and various other organizations also became active, for example in aid of the Partisan Republic. But it was not warm hospitality that awaited the exhausted Swiss partisans.

Refugees often live in poor sanitary conditions and are often plagued by lice. They and their clothes are disinfected immediately after crossing the border. A long interrogation followed. Military information was requested, possible contacts in Switzerland were identified, and assets (money) were examined. Everything is in the so-called interrogation protocol in order to pass military information to Major Max Waibel.

Weibel's office analyzed the value of military information in the best traditions of secret service. The reason for this Spartan treatment: Since 1939, the Swiss refugee system has been run directly by the military. The focus there was not on refugees but on geopolitical and strategic considerations, characterized in part by widespread fears of the spread of communism.

Max Waibel（中）评估了 访谈协议 难民的。图片来源：Keystone/Novalis Verlag

在瑞士拘留

Since the beginning of the war, Switzerland has established a differentiated system of internment camps to deal with the large number of refugees. There are four main types of concentration camps: selection camps for registration, isolation for medical examinations camps, reception camps for unknown cases and so-called final camps, also known as work camps, where detainees were eventually held under military supervision.

After interrogation, a guerrilla is taken to one of Switzerland's many last camps. If the persons concerned enter Ticino or Valais, they are usually taken to the other side of the Alps to keep as far away as possible from the entry point and the border.

Almost all Ossola partisans ended up in internment camps in German-speaking Switzerland, many of them in canton Bern: near Thun, Mürren, Finsterhennen, Guniger, Buren an der Aare or Langenthal. Some were transferred to canton Zurich (Hinwil, Adliswil, Wezikon near Nanicon, Gylombard and Wald) or to canton Aargau (Bremgarten). The camps are mostly set up in remote areas to avoid contact with civilians as much as possible.

Conditions in Swiss internment camps were often harsh. Accommodation consisted of crude and poorly insulated barracks, particularly unsuitable during the extremely cold winter of 1944/45. Most campsites are unheated, which makes life even more difficult. Food was scarce and many guerrillas were forced into forced labor despite being exhausted and malnourished. In particular, communist resistance fighter Garry Baldini was transferred to particularly remote and inhospitable places, such as the camp at Schwarzsee (FR), where they were additionally isolated.

Return to Italy

[1945年春伊始，情况略有变化。营地里的人口逐渐减少。主要是数百名游击队想要返回意大利再次战斗。从技术上讲，这些都是从拘留营越狱，但瑞士当局往往对他们视而不见。最主要的是，这名游击队员迅速而永远地离开了瑞士。

Job opportunities are still very limited for those who stay. Contributing to this situation is the military being very slow in processing job opportunities with Swiss companies. There would have been enough Work, especially in agriculture and forestry, as most Swiss men were serving in the military at the time.

However, applications and job applications were not processed quickly, and when hundreds of detainee files were analyzed, one got the impression of a particularly slow bureaucracy, especially towards the end of the war. From today's perspective, however, this is a blessing for historical research, as it allows for precise tracking of the refugees' movements.

“Hospitality” to the interned partisans in Ossola ended with the German defeat. In Italy, too, thanks to secret negotiations in Ascona in March 1945, formal negotiations took place on May 2, and in Germany on May 8. The Guerrillas' subsequent return was an adventure. Switzerland was glad to be rid of these people and quickly organized an endless fleet of trains. In the first week of May, almost all Italian internees were brought to Como. From there, people had to return home independently. It won't be easy as much of the road network has been destroyed. Sometimes it takes days or even weeks to get home.