Swiss Heroism
The Swiss have honored a heroic student who was executed for trying to kill Hitler. They say they’re sorry they didn’t try to save him. Swissinfo reports, Would-be Hitler Assassin Rehabilitated:
The government has officially rehabilitated the reputation of the young Swiss man executed in Nazi Germany after his failed attempt to kill Adolf Hitler in 1938.
President Pascal Couchepin admitted on Friday that the Swiss government at the time could have done more to defend Maurice Bavaud.
The young theology student was guillotined in a Berlin prison in 1941.
“With hindsight, the then Swiss authorities did too little to intervene on behalf of the condemned person… he deserves our recognition,” Couchepin said.
I’m sorry, back that panzer up a sec, Siegfried … did they just say they “rehabilitated” Maurice?
It will be 70 years on Sunday since the 22-year-old failed in his attempt to shoot Hitler at a rally in Munich. He was arrested and spent 30 months in solitary confinement before being executed.
During his imprisonment, Bavaud was never visited by the Swiss diplomatic representative in Berlin, who called the assassination attempt a “detestable act”.
I may need to some Swiss number crunchers, maybe a fine watchmaking craftsman or some finger-wagging humanitarian to explain to me how this works. The one Swiss citizen to stand up and sacrifice himself against the Nazis … the only one I’ve ever heard of anyway … and he’s the one who needs rehabilitating?
Imagine if Bavaud had got his shot off in 1938. Apparently this courageous, farsighted young man considered Hitler a danger to humanity in general. Six million Jews, 40-odd million Germans, Russians, English, French, Australians, Americans, etc. Sounds like he attempted, and gave, more in furtherance of world peace than the entire Swiss nation in modern history. The man who tried to stop World War II. I’m sorry I never heard of him before.
In other Nazi news, Dutch shipping magnate wants to name his big ubership after Pops. Nederlanders are up in arms, though. Daddy was a Nazi.
Ouch. A big grin and SS insignia never looks good, though the picture apparently is somewhat complicated. UK Telegraph:
The $1.7 billion ship, hailed in the Netherlands as a proud milestone in the country’s seafaring history, is being built by the Swiss-based company Allseas Group SA. Its founder, Edwin Heerema, wants to name it the Pieter Schelte after his late father, Pieter Schelte Heerema, who was renowned as a maritime engineer.
However Pieter Schelte also served in the SS and the choice of his name for the ship has provoked outcry from politicians and Jewish groups, reviving painful questions about Dutch collaboration with the country’s Second World War occupiers.
“For people who know his pitch-black history, this ship should not be named for him. Not now, not ever,” said Ronny Naftaniel, director of CIDI, which monitors anti-Semitism in the Netherlands.
He said that Edwin Heerema’s desire to honour his father was understandable, but the choice of name was “tasteless”.
The issue has also proved awkward for the Dutch government, which gave Allseas’ Netherlands subsidiary a $1 million tax break for its part in designing the ship. The authorities now acknowledge that they did not notice the name of the ship until a Dutch journalist raised the issue.
…
Jeroen Hagelstein, a spokesman for Mr Heerema’s company, rejected the criticism.
“Pieter Schelte Heerema was widely appreciated in the industry during his life and the companies that came from his heritage have an excellent name in the offshore industry,” said Mr Hagelstein.
He said that Mr Heerema’s father joined the Nazis out of opposition to communism rather than enthusiasm for national socialism.
He said he then switched sides and joined the resistance in 1943 “as he could no longer associate himself with the ideas of the Nazis”.
He noted that Heerema was tried and released shortly after the war, which shows he “cannot have been seriously delinquent”.
The Netherlands Institute for War Documentation said that while Mr Heerema’s father had been recognised by the courts as providing “very important” services to the resistance, he was earlier a “prominent” figure among Dutch collaborators with the Nazis.
Posted by Jules Crittenden at 7:22 pm on Friday, November 7, 2008
2 Responses to “Swiss Heroism”
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November 8th, 2008 at 12:50 pm
They should be naming that ship the Maurice Bavaud.
November 10th, 2008 at 6:50 am
Lets see:
Swiss diplomats in France served Germany as spotters for Big Bertha shelling of Paris during WW1. Used their secure wireless communications to feed corrective data directly to the fire control centers for the big guns.
Swiss allowed full and unfettered access of their rail way systems to Nazi Germany during WW2. Many, if not most, of the Italian Jews rounded up by the Nazis were shipped to death camps on rail lines that passed through Switzerland.
The Swiss, neutral in name only.
Parasites.