“The boat is full”
Swiss borders, Bern, Biel, Budapest
Key figures: Heinrich Rothmund, Eduard von Steiger, Paul Grüninger, Gertrud Kurz, Carl Lutz
Historical Dictionary of Switzerland (German): Refugees, “J” stamp
A transit country (1933–1938). After Hitler came to power, Jews, Social Democrats, Communists, intellectuals and artists fled Germany. As early as spring 1933 the Swiss authorities drew a line between “political refugees”, meaning those personally persecuted, and everyone else: people fleeing because they were Jewish did not qualify. Between 1933 and 1945 political asylum was granted to just 644 people. Switzerland saw itself as a transit country: refugees were not allowed to work and had to move on as soon as possible. The central figure of this policy was Heinrich Rothmund, head of the Police Division of the Federal Department of Justice and Police, who feared the “over-foreignisation” of the country and regarded Jewish immigrants as “unassimilable”.
The “J” stamp (1938). After the annexation of Austria in March 1938, the number of Jewish refugees grew. On 1 April Switzerland introduced visas for Austrian passports, and in August it decided to turn back anyone arriving without one. When Austrian passports were replaced by German ones, Bern threatened to require visas from all German citizens. Germany, which wanted no obstacles to travel, then proposed marking only the passports of Jews. Rothmund, who led the Swiss delegation, voiced legal and ethical reservations, but on 4 October 1938 the Federal Council accepted the agreement: from that day on, the passports of German Jews bore a large “J”.
Those who disobeyed (1938–1939). In the St Gallen Rhine Valley, the cantonal police commander Paul Grüninger kept admitting Jewish refugees even after the borders were closed on 19 August 1938, backdating their entry papers. He saved several hundred people, according to some sources more than 3,000. In 1939 he was dismissed without notice, in 1940 convicted of breach of official duty and forgery, and he then lived in modest circumstances. Yad Vashem honoured him in 1971; only in 1995, long after his death, did the St Gallen district court rehabilitate him.
The borders close (August 1942). In summer 1942 mass deportations to the extermination camps began across Europe, and thousands of Jews sought refuge in Switzerland, above all from France and Belgium. On the basis of a Federal Council decision, on 13 August 1942 Rothmund instructed the cantons to turn back at the border anyone fleeing “solely on racial grounds”, since such people were not to be considered political refugees. The authorities knew what fate awaited those sent back.
“A small, heavily overcrowded lifeboat”. The decision caused protests throughout the country. On 30 August 1942, speaking to the Junge Kirche, the Protestant youth movement, in Zurich-Oerlikon, Federal Councillor Eduard von Steiger, head of the Department of Justice and Police, defended it with these words: “Whoever has to command a small, already heavily overcrowded lifeboat, with limited capacity and equally limited supplies, while thousands of victims of a shipwreck cry out to be rescued, must appear hard if he cannot take them all on board. And yet he is still humane if he warns in good time against false hopes and tries at least to save those already taken in.” This image gave rise to the slogan “The boat is full”, which still resurfaces in Swiss political debate today.
Voices of dissent. Gertrud Kurz, president of the Christian peace movement that had been helping refugees since 1938, went to see von Steiger and obtained a temporary easing of the expulsions. In the autumn, in Parliament, a minority of Social Democrats and some Liberals sharply criticised the Federal Council’s policy. Many citizens, officials and pastors defied the ban and thus saved numerous persecuted people.
The Sonabend family (August 1942). Simon and Laja Sonabend, who had fled Belgium with their children Charles and Sabine, found initial help in Biel. A few days after the instruction of 13 August they were arrested and taken to Porrentruy; a first attempt to expel them failed because of protests by local people, but on 17 August 1942 the police took them back across the border into occupied France at night. Captured and interned at Drancy, the parents were deported to Auschwitz on 24 August and murdered; the children survived by chance. In 2000 the Confederation paid the two siblings 200,000 francs in compensation, without acknowledging any legal obligation. Since May 2025, Stolpersteine (memorial paving stones) in Biel have commemorated the family.
Turned away and taken in (1939–1945). Only from late 1943, as Germany’s defeat drew closer, was the policy relaxed; on 12 July 1944 an instruction ordered that all civilians whose lives were in danger be admitted. During the war about 20,000 people were turned back at the border, and Swiss consulates refused visas to another 10,000; many of them died in the extermination camps. The Bergier report counted 24,398 documented rejections, but this figure includes people turned away more than once, and more recent studies consider it too high. In the same period Switzerland sheltered, for a few weeks or for years, about 60,000 persecuted civilians, including about 28,000 Jews, as well as 104,000 soldiers, about 60,000 children from neighbouring countries and 66,000 refugees from the border regions. At the end of the war about 115,000 refugees were in the country.
Those who rescued (1942–1945). In Budapest the Swiss vice-consul Carl Lutz headed the legation’s foreign interests section. After Germany occupied Hungary in March 1944, he issued far more letters of protection than the 8,000 he had been authorised to, and after the Arrow Cross coup he sheltered thousands of people in 72 protected houses. In all he saved about 62,000 Jews, going beyond his mandate with Bern’s tolerance.
Coming to terms with the past (1957–1999). In 1957 the report by the jurist Carl Ludwig, commissioned by the Federal Council, gave the first account of the refugee policy. In 1967 the journalist Alfred A. Häsler published the book Das Boot ist voll, and in 1981 Markus Imhoof’s film of the same name won a Silver Bear in Berlin and was nominated for an Oscar. On 7 May 1995 the President of the Confederation, Kaspar Villiger, apologised for the refugee policy and for the “J” stamp. In December 1999 the Independent Commission of Experts chaired by Jean-François Bergier concluded that Switzerland had refused help to people in mortal danger and had contributed, intentionally or not, to the aims of the Nazi regime.
Paul Grüninger, commander of the St Gallen cantonal police, around 1939
Wikimedia Commons, public domain
German passport of Siegfried Jacobsberg stamped with a “J” for “Jude” (Jew), issued on 3 April 1939; Jacobsberg used it to escape to Shanghai in June 1939
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, via Wikimedia Commons, public domain
Federal Councillor Eduard von Steiger, head of the Department of Justice and Police, in the 1943 yearbook of the federal authorities
Scan René Hourdry, via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
The Stolperstein for Simon Sonabend in Biel: took refuge in Biel, born 1899, expelled to occupied France on 17.8.1942, interned at Drancy, deported to Auschwitz on 24.8.1942 and murdered
Photo Martin Thurnherr, via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
Carl Lutz, Swiss vice-consul in Budapest, 1944
Fortepan, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0
The Paul Grüninger Bridge between Diepoldsau and Hohenems, on the border where the refugees crossed
Photo: Reutlingendorf, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
Gertrud Kurz, who in August 1942 persuaded von Steiger to ease the expulsions, at Schiphol airport on 22 January 1965, arriving to receive the Albert Schweitzer Prize
Photo Jack de Nijs, Anefo, Nationaal Archief, via Wikimedia Commons, CC0
The Stolperstein for Laja “Lili” Sonabend in Biel: born 1904, expelled to occupied France on 17.8.1942, interned at Drancy, deported to Auschwitz on 24.8.1942 and murdered
Photo Martin Thurnherr, via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
Rick Wienecke’s “Rail Menora” outside the Gedenkstätte für Flüchtlinge (Refugee Memorial) in Riehen, near the German border: its stem is made of two intertwined rails rising like flames
Work by Rick Wienecke; photo Fridolin freudenfett, via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0