During the second world war, Switzerland was a neutral haven stuck in the middle of Nazi-occupied Europe. Its soldiers, 450,000 reservists, were mobilised to deter any invasion, threatening to fight from their Alpine mountain redoubt if need be. The Swiss endured some economic hardship, but welcomed refugees and escaping prisoners-of-war, and eased the suffering of others through their good offices as neutrals and the humane work of the―then all-Swiss―International Committee of the Red Cross. So, broadly, the Swiss have believed. The whiter-than-white story has been shaken over the decades, but stayed fairly solid in the minds of most of them. But now, after more than five years and 25 volumes of research, a massive final report by an independent commission of experts has restored truer shades of grey, and even some of black, to the tale of Switzerland's relations with Nazi Germany.
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