a. Press Censorship
Switzerland remained neutral throughout the second world war, but it was surrounded by the Axis powers and to a great extent economically dependent on them. The Swiss Government tried to avoid offending the Germans, and thus the press was forbidden to make foreign propaganda or to publish stories about atrocities committed by the warring parties, "of which the objective correctness could not be verified".
Even in June, 1943, the press censorship issued the following order: "There recently appeared several articles about Jews and Polish clergy, without mentioning their source of information. It is understandable that our conscience should be moved by all such inhuman treatment, but yet we must strictly obey the instructions of the Press emergency law, which stipulates that it is our duty to suppress rumours and foreign propaganda." [458]
Thus censorship imposed silence on the press concerning reports of "bloody murders of hostages and persecution of Jews". The first time, however, that, to the best of my knowledge, Church leaders in Switzerland spoke out about the persecution of the Jews during the second world war, they did so in a protest against censorship of the Press.
On October 27, 1941, the following Petition was presented by the "Social Study Committee of the Swiss Reformed Pastors Union" to the Swiss Federation of Churches: <207>
1. We take the liberty of drawing the attention of the Swiss Federation of
Churches, which is the spokesman of the Swiss Churches to the Federal
Authorities, to the alarming position of the Evangelical Reformed Church.
2. The press-censor has repeatedly taken severe measures against men who,
as representatives of the Evangelical Church, have raised their voices
to inform public opinion.
These measures have aroused deep and widespread concern in many circles
to whose notice they have come, despite the ban on the publication of
such matters, and have led to the opinion that the Evangelical Church is
no longer allowed to pronounce the truth entrusted to its care…
3. We especially bear in mind the silence imposed on us by our censorship
concerning the injustice of the bloody murders of hostages and the
persecution of Jews. When mentioning this subject, we should certainly
not shout about it from the roof tops, but under no circumstances should
our sense of justice and injustice be blunted within our national
conscience. Otherwise we shall invoke God's heavy punishment on our country.
Therefore, we take exception to the reproach levied at us by some, that such
intrepid talk of injustice by a foreign nation, is a misjudgement.
4. The apprehension we bring to your notice particularly gains alarming weight
by the fact that we, as Evangelical and democratic citizens of Switzerland,
have to look on while un-Christian and undemocratic ideologies and deeds
cross our borders unhindered in the form of many foreign newspapers and
illustrated periodicals, which are thus able to exert their influence on
young and old. Does not this give rise to the impression that our
highest authorities do not sufficiently recognize the danger of a moral
and spiritual capitulation on our part, or consider it to be of only
secondary importance?
We therefore request the Federation of Churches:
a. That it remonstrate with the highest responsible authorities of our
country and draw their attention to the deep concern and alarm which
these measures by our censorship have aroused in large circles of our
Evangelical Church.
b. That it publicly voice its opinion on the matter and unequivocally make
known its stand, with the full weight of its authority.
c. That it emphatically take a stand on behalf of all persons in our Church,
whose freedom of speech is endangered or impaired, and that it encourage
our Church authorities and Synods to make use of their divinely authorized
right of freedom of speech. [459]
On November 17, 1941, a conference of the "Swiss Protestant Relief Society for the Confessing Church in Germany" was held at Wipkingen near Zurich. It was attended by 300 churchmen from all parts of Switzerland. A Resolution regarding the Censorship of ecclesiastical publications was presented and unanimously adopted. We quote from this resolution the following: <208> "The undersigned Reformed Swiss Pastors have taken note of the following facts: That the Department for Press and Radio of the army has imposed preliminary censorship on the periodical Neue Wege, and thus has prevented its further publication; … that the same office has demanded of the Swiss press that they refrain henceforth from taking any stand on the execution of hostages by a foreign power;… They herewith publicly protest against these measures, as they are concessions to the spirit and methods of a policy incompatible with the Reformed Confession and pernicious to the Swiss Federation. They herewith publicly declare that they are determined to continue to fulfil their duty, to declare the truth to our people, the suppression of which is attempted by these measures."
One hundred pastors signed this "Protest and Declaration", which was submitted to the Federal Government and to the Army Commanders. [460] The same Conference adopted the following Resolution on "The Jewish Problem":
"The Conference meeting to-day at Zurich-Wipkingen sends to the Committee of the Swiss Protestant Church Federation the urgent request that it should take action so that all the Reformed Churches in Switzerland may make a public statement on the Jewish problem. Not only the most recent deportations of the Jews, whose number and character are particularly frightful, but also certain announcements which have appeared even in the Swiss press, make it a duty for the Church, for the sake of its own members, to proclaim before the whole world: 1. That the Church, to which the Gospel of the mercy of God is entrusted, calls its members to pray for the suffering Jewish people and to do everything they can to alleviate this suffering. 2. That the Church, to which the message of the creation of man in the image of God is entrusted, condemns as a revolt against the will of God as Creator the violence which is done to the image of God in persecuting a race and humiliating it. 3. That the Church, to which the message of the Revelation of God in the people of Israel is entrusted, knows itself, as the Church of Jesus Christ, to be bound up in a special way with the fate of the Jewish nation. Because 'salvation comes of the Jews' (St. John 4, 22), anti-Semitism is incompatible with membership in the Christian Church." [461] <209> On August 30, 1942, a meeting was held of the "Young Church", attended by about 6,000 young people. Supreme Court Justice Dr. M. Wolff, who in his capacity as President of the Synod conveyed the greetings of the Church of Zurich, declared:
"Switzerland is in extremely danger. One speaks of a new order in Europe, but this order is characterised by attacks on other nations; by the murdering of hostages and the persecution of Jews. This new order means a denial of the Christian faith… The best contribution the Church of Switzerland can render to-day is, to be a true Church, faithfully proclaiming the word of God. Its freedom to preach must therefore be preserved unrestrictedly. We shall be grateful for a State Church, so long as the State recognizes the Church's right to exercise its function as Watchman. Zwingli has unequivocally insisted on this. Unfortunately, the Church's function as Watchman is now being threatened by press censorship. The State must not demand that the Church should refrain from clearly distinguishing between right and wrong. The Church must now fight for its right to raise its voice against the rejection of poor refugees; in a clear "Yes" to Jesus Christ, and in a clear "No" to the dark powers of this world." [462]