"Dedicated to All Children in Need"

On Switzerland's humanitarian aid for children during the Second World War

by Urs Knoblauch, cultural columnist, Switzerland

When taking a look at Switzerland's humanitarian tradition during the Second World War one finds countless examples in which individuals, institutions and aid organizations unselfishly provided aid to people in need. All of them were guided by the principle of mutual help, which is the foundation for our entire cultural development, for the role-models provided by world religions and for Humanism. The Sermon on the Mount, the parable of the Good Shepherd and the Good Samaritan exhibit this spirit of sharing and compassion. Examples provided by world literature such as in novels by Tolstoy, and especially Albert Schweizer, Henri Dunant and his Red Cross, international law and Human Rights all embody the tradition of humanitarian aid. The following takes a look at the kind of help carried out by the Swiss population for children during the Second World War in the Lake Constance area, the triangle formed by Switzerland, Germany and Austria. The aid provided during this time is a shining example of how people were given relief in times of war and need by others in their neighbouring country. Current publications, historical documents and interviews with eye-witnesses offer inspiring proof of this: "The Second World War is over, the German Reich lies in ruins. Everywhere there is suffering, but it is the children who suffer most. This situation has moved the Swiss people. With their kind gifts and invitations to come to Switzerland they provide hope again to girls and boys in Germany and Vorarlberg (Austria)."

"The Swiss have not closed their eyes to the suffering of their neighbours"

Many letters, photographs and eye-witness accounts compiled in a book edited by Hildegard Nagler entitled "Das Wunder einer Reise – Die Schweizer Kinder und ihre Fahrt ins Märchenland" [The Miracle of a Trip – The Switzerland Children and Their Journey to the Land of Fairy Tales] provide insight into the humanitarian aid provided by the Swiss to children in need during and after the Second World War. The book is an example of how such human cultural treasures can be found in other parts of Switzerland, Europe and the world. The "Working Group Switzerland Children", formed by a team of authors in Friedrichshafen, wrote in 2003: "Our world is anything but peaceful – today 30 armed conflicts raging around the world. We have therefore deliberately dedicated this book to 'all children in need', as the suffering brought about by wars is immense. According to the United Nation's children's aid organization, Unicef, four to five million children alone have become victims of war in the past ten years. According to Unicef, ten million girls and boys carry the psychological scars of war. The Second World War also left its indelible mark. Children lost their parents, were sick and malnourished – they were in great need. The Swiss did not close their eyes to the sufferings of their neighbours. And suddenly, what was previously unthinkable became possible: young girls and boys were invited to come to Switzerland and spend a wonderful day there. These 'Swiss Sundays' had an enormous impact on these boys and girls. Not millions of Swiss francs or German Reichsmarks were necessary, just human compassion and warmth. It is this idea that we would like to pass on." These thoughts lead us directly to the heart of this wonderful book. Hildegard Nagler works as a newspaper editor for the "Schwäbische Zeitung". Since 1999 she had worked on the so-called "Switzerland Children". In her introduction she describes how she discovered this jewel of human compassion: "One day in the autumn of 1999 a man named Günter Müller came to the editor's office of the 'Schwäbische Zeitung'. Originally from Lindau and now living in Austria, Mr. Müller had a copy with him of an article published in 1946 in the paper 'Stadtanzeiger Lindau'. 'Second Children's Trip to Switzerland' was the title. Mr. Müller explained that he was one of those lucky children given the opportunity to leave their depressing surroundings in Germany for a day and take a trip to the fairytale land of Switzerland. Many, many girls and boys from southwestern Germany and Austria's Vorarlberg spent a wonderful day there and returned to the ruined cities of Germany with armfuls of gifts. Most of the 'Switzerland Children' from back then still remember this wonderful experience. However, many never officially expressed their thanks, including Mr. Müller, which he regretted very much. He asked if I could help."

Touched by this story and motivated to help, Ms. Nagler began to carry out extensive research. It soon made the rounds that she was looking for former "Switzerland Children". So many letters and postcards were sent that she used them to write a Christmas story, "Christkindli's Journey to Fairytale Land", which was published on 24 December 1999 in the "Schwäbische Zeitung" and received a huge response. "So much response should not remain unheard" was her reaction. As a result, she organized the event "Switzerland Children" together with the "Schwäbische Zeitung" and "St. Galler Tagblatt" on 30 September 2000 at which all those child­ren who participated at that time came together in Switzerland. "Just like after the war, the German children came across the lake by boat" and were then looked after by the editorial teams of the two newspapers in the town of Rorschach. After a church service of thanksgiving, people came together to talk and meet one another again. 15 former "Switzerland Children" founded a working group under the leadership of the editor and began interviewing eye-witnesses and to collect documents. Looking back, Hildegard Nagler wrote, this meeting of people brought forth the very moving book, which "is a wonderful example to us all, and one which can inspire others and serve to encourage understanding among different peoples."

Such are wars and their effects

As late as April 1944, the city of Friedrichs­hafen was heavily bombed although the frontlines had come to a standstill and the war was basically over. It was the civilian population, and particularly the children, who bore the brunt of it. "In June 1943, the allied forces bombed Friedrichshafen the first time. Compared to the massive bombing on April 28, 1944, it was a harmless attack. According to a British radio station, 13,000 high-explosive bombs and 500,000 incendiary bombs were dropped on Friedrichshafen in 52 minutes. To find refuge from the blaze, many inhabitants fled the burning port, wrapping themselves in wet material. A reporter from Tett­nang reported that 80% of the houses were destroyed. 618 people died." In his book "Der Brand" [The Blaze] and the picture documentation "Brandstätten" [Places of Fire] Jörg Friedrich also documents that countless people were also severely injured and that almost every family and child were affected. All contemporary wars and terror, whether in former Yugoslavia or Chechnya, Afghanistan, Africa or the Iraq war, show that this is the way wars have always been and still are.

However, it is unfortunately also a fact that weapons systems and tactics of warfare have become even more brutal and that even children are used as soldiers. Children in need of protection suffer especially: "In October 1946, children still walk to the Friedrichs­hafen Pestalozzi school barefooted." It has been reported that parents had to keep their children at home because they had no shoes. "The effects of the horrifying war are indescribable [...] I have to care for 413 school children here and 80% of them are suffering from malnutrition. [...] Perhaps 10% of the 413 have complete shoes. 'Complete' also includes those that have been patched repeatedly. [...] You wouldn't believe it: for a pair of old but still useful shoes, people embrace you and cry tears of joy ..."

These conditions were unbearable to the Swiss population on the other side of Lake Constance; they were also suffering deprivation, food was rationed, fathers were doing active service on the borders, but compassion and sympathy were producing exemplary relief efforts by communities, churches and individual citizens. In this way the well-known "Schweizerspende" [Swiss donation] and "Schweizer Schülerspeisung" [Swiss school meals] organisations were founded in Fried­richshafen. In cooperation with their German neighbours, they prepared 600 tasty lunches for the children daily: A girl recounted: "We were hungry and were very grateful for the organised school lunches in those days." Simi­lar relief efforts were set up in Ravensburg and other communities. All this was financed and made possible with the donations from Switzerland, the "Schweizerspende".

There was a lack of everything: no firewood, no clothing, no cleaning agents, no housing, no schools, and no teachers. The Swiss newspaper "Wiler Bote" wrote in its March 1, 1947 issue that "in some communities, 100% of the babies born in the years 1944, 1945 and 1946 perished." Some communities in eastern Switzerland also became active spontaneously: Under the slogan "Liebesgaben" [offerings of love], they sent supplies into a Germany flattened by bombs for the Swiss border area [Schweizer Grenzlandhilfe]. The church congregation of Wil, for example, organized a large-scale collection of clothing for the inhabitants of Weingarten. In Wil "rooms for sewing, knitting and the patching of clothes were started. Women's associations prepared and got ready the clothes. Necessary items that were not donated had to be bought. So school children went from door to door collecting money. With their 'Sammelsäckli-Aktion' [collecting bags campaign], the people of Wil wanted to help the first communicants in Weingarten." Another of these relief activities was the "Sunday Children's campaign". Children from Friedrichshafen were fetched by ship and could spend a Sunday relaxing in a Swiss family on the other side of Lake Constance. They were also given clothing, food and presents to take home to their destroyed town.

"For the caring Swiss"

The first Swiss trip with 600 kids to Ror­schach took place on November 26, 1946. The second trip, again with 600 kids, was to Heiden, shortly before Christmas. The book publishes a large number of moving Thank you letters relating to these trips; for instance one child wrote to a pastor on the Swiss side of Lake Constance: "Dear pastor, I would also like to thank you for the beautiful winter coat. I am 12 years old. Who knows if I would ever have got a winter coat. My father died 4 years ago, and my mother earns just enough to make ends meet. I'd also like to thank the kind girls so much who gave me the beautiful coat. I hope that our loving Saviour blesses them with a long life. Best wishes and God's blessings to all those good people. Helga Hinder, Weingarten Württ., Wolf­eggerstr. 2."

On July 4, 1947 the newsletter of the Relief Organization of the Protestant Churches in Switzerland (HEKS) pays tribute to the cooperation with the Swiss Red Cross and also those associated with children's relief activities: "It is not the child alone, but also parents, relatives and friends share in the joy, and the knowledge that the help given in one place also strengthens others."

Humanitarian convictions without ifs and buts

The varieties of relief activities are richly documented. The director of Rorschach town museum, Dr Louis Specker, has done a great deal towards salvaging this valuable material and towards a truthful and proper historical appreciation of what was done to help. It is not easy for people today to fathom what the rabble-rousing attacks and warmongering were like at the time. He remembers the "Swiss Sundays" for the war-afflicted German and Austrian children and underlines the courage and initiative shown by so many individuals at that difficult time in history. "Right after the end of the war, those who stuck to their humanitarian convictions, with no ifs and buts, also towards the Germans, were not given an easy time. As more and more Nazi atrocities were revealed, a lot of convincing was needed to help others to overcome prejudices shaped by feelings of outrage and revenge. The historian Professor Georg Thürer, initiator and organizer of Eastern Switzerland's Border Area Aid, which organized a supply convoy of trucks to Munich in December 1945, was accused of supporting the "eternal arsonists of Europe", who had war in their blood. It was regrettable, according to his critics, that the very man who had warned against the national socialist danger from the very beginning and had supported the cause of democracy, had nevertheless succumbed to the German Pied Pipers. Georg Thürer was forced to defend his relief efforts energetically against such primitive reactions. He was convinced that it was the calling of the Swiss people to play their part in building a new and healthy neighbourhood in the Rhine and Lake Constance area. "Not because Hitler spared us, but because God did." Like many others, Thürer was convinced that it was Switzerland's duty to share the responsibility that "a centre of an epide­mic in the midst of Europe does not grow, and that hunger does not become the yellow herald of a second Hitler. We must find the inner freedom to not only help the foreign victims of the brown despot, but also help those who have been living inside the German cage for the past 12 years." Louis Specker writes that Georg Thürer's appeals were bang on target and that "gradually the hateful voices were ­silenced and reason and humanitarian convictions triumphed over people's reservations."

"A piece of humanity that triumphs over all wars and misery"

Friedrichhafen's city archivist Dr. Georg Wieland describes the unimaginable destruction and human misery wrought on Friedrichshafen and pays tribute to the humanitarian commitment of Germany's Swiss neighbours: "The invitation by Swiss families, the visit to an intact environment and the presents left a lasting impression on the children in Fried­richshafen and other communities in the area, one which no doubt most will remember for a lifetime. I am particularly glad that this aspect of local post-war history, which also has role model character from today's perspective, has been brought to light again with the help of survivors from those days."

The inspiring preface to the book, by former President Richard von Weizsäcker, encourages us to contemplate the present challenges we face to our social existence, on both a small and a large scale. Weizsäcker points out the effectiveness of good educators and parents; in May 2003, under the title "A piece of humanity that triumphs over all wars and misery," he wrote about the deprivation of refugees with great understanding and from first hand experience: "I am very familiar with the story of the Switzerland Children. My first encounter with the organization was through Pastor Hermann Häberle, who lived with us in Oslo, Norway, during his curacy, and who taught me for several months. I owe him many deep insights. My father Ernst Freiherr von Weizsäcker was a diplomatic representative of the German Reich in those days. Later Häberle served the German Lutheran community, and after­wards was a pastor for the German commu­nity in Sofia, Bulgaria. In autumn 1944, Häberle moved to the Lutheran community in Weingarten. He was an eyewitness to the misery of the German boys and girls. And no doubt he was very glad to be allowed to accompany the needy children to Switzerland, where they had so many happy experiences. I very much regret that Pastor Häberle is no longer alive and did not live to see the documentation on the Switzerland Children. I'd like to say heartfelt thanks to the initiators of this project for their volunteer work. The history of the Switzerland Children must be passed on and preserved for the next generation. It is a piece of humanity that triumphs over all wars and misery."