I read the news that Switzerland will not impose sanctions against Russia. They also stressed the importance of their role as a mediator in this disagreement. Who else, but I’m not at all surprised. Contrary to its vegetarian and very bright image (for the uninitiated), Switzerland is one of the most heinous and hypocritical countries in Europe, historically building its prosperity on the suffering of others.
By the way, do you know why Hitler didn’t cut off a piece of this cake, though it was his for the asking? Naive followers of the Swiss model of armed forces organization believe that Hitler feared the Swiss’ “military power”. Fairy tales. Switzerland was needed by the the almost totally internationally isolated Nazis as a trade partner. Swiss banks accepted otherwise useless and “trophies” from the east (eg, gold bullion taken from the teeth of Jews murdered in death camps), supplying the Reich’s military industry in return with a selection of tungsten, molybdenum and other strategic materials, without which it is impossible to produce, for example, tank armor. Too bad, no one took the trouble to calculate by how much longer the war lasted thanks to Switzerland’s “important” neutral intermediary and how many unnecessary casualties it caused.
The money and valuables, which were placed in Swiss banks by German and other European Jews, who soon died in the Holocaust, is a separate question. Over the following 5 or 6 decades the distinguished Swiss bankers did absolutely nothing to try to find the heirs, leaving the Swiss a treasure-trove great treasures (estimate the increase of the capital of 1 billion USD over 50 years at five per cent per annum). Moreover, when Jewish organizations began to make inquiries about it, the banks and the government suddenly discovered that all the documents were lost and that it was absolutely impossible to find the money. Fortunately, in the world there is a country whose judicial system is capable of putting almost any high-handed European banker put in his place. The American courts did just that and the Swiss bankers chose not to challenge those courts.
But the bastards, this thoroughly rotten essence of a “neutral” state, has not changed. We received proof of this today. These greedy bankers are not willing to lose the money that Russian oligarchs and officials steal from their own people.
I now wonder if Hitler had determined that the services of its sales agent were not needed, and annexed to the country of lakes and chocolate , would they would have continued to be proud of their neutrality or would they at least attempt to find the difference between good and evil?
[hr] Translated by Myron SpolskyOriginal: https://www.facebook.com/karl.volokh/posts/544300552364860