Hacker Newsnew | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submitlogin

This is why we have direct democracy in Switzerland, and I wonder why it is not used anywhere else.


You also collaborated with nazis and currently with russia


We support all EU sanctions against Russia. As for the extent of holding Nazi money — we held Allies money just as well.

If you are taking about “Switzerland does not allow reexporting its weapons to Ukraine” — it also doesn’t allow reexporting weapons to Russia. And any other country too. And all other countries who are weapons exporters require explicit authorization for reexport (otherwise, the weapons might end in countries you don’t want them to be).


As for the extent of holding Nazi money — we held Allies money just as well.

Unfortunately the Confederacy did far more to help the Nazis than simply serving as a laundromat for its plundered assets:

  It is well known that the Swiss vigorously blocked the entry of Jews attempting to flee Germany and occupied Europe. In 1938 (at the suggestion of Swiss Chief of Police Heinrich Rothmund) Bern requested that Berlin mark the passports of Jews with a "J" - so that German Jews could be instantly distinguished from German gentiles - and be denied admission to Switzerland. Indeed, the great majority of those denied sanctuary in Switzerland perished in the German death camps.

  In 1995, speaking about Swiss complicity in the Holocaust, Federal President Kaspar Villiger declared that "we bear a considerable burden of guilt for the treatment of Jews by our country". This was the first official admission of any Swiss culpability for the fate of European Jewry. It took the Swiss fifty years to admit any responsibility for wrongdoing. It took the Swiss fifty-five years to exonerate (posthumously) Paul Grueninger, the police chief in the St. Gallen Canton who defied regulations and aided thousands of Austrian Jews in escaping to Switzerland. As a result of his actions, Grueninger was dismissed from the police and convicted of fraud.

  After the war, when the survivors attempted to reclaim their assets, they were ensnared in a web of bureaucracy that refused to recognize the fact that death camp survivors, or the heirs of those who perished, could not possibly furnish customary documentation such as death certificates. Swiss banks strictly adhered to the rigid restrictions of Swiss banking law in total disregard of the special situation which had arisen out of the mass murder of the Jews of Europe.
https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/nazis/reading...

   According to historian Martin Faust, the participation of Swiss citizens in Nazi war crimes is "a topic that has so far been dealt with almost completely by German historiography and only insufficiently by Swiss historiography."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Switzerland_during_the_world_w...


I agree with these sad facts, and they are important for me personally, but, well, so did many other countries unfortunately. Including the United States and Canada (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MS_St._Louis).


[flagged]


Plus, all neighbors of Switzerland are NATO members, so they can neither attack each other, nor Switzerland. Moreover, Switzerland is recognized as a NATO "partner".

This allows them to handle internal matters with more concentration.

Heh, they even had the luxury to "close" their air force on weekends until very recently.


Well, we had the same system while surrounded by enemies during WW2. It still served us well.

And what, the United States are surrounded by superpowers willing to wage war? That is news to me.


25% of Swiss population are foreigners. It is 60% in Geneva where I live. Yes, non-citizens cannot vote (except in some municipal and cantonal referendums). But neither can they in the US.


Yeah the US is about 33 Switzerland's in population and probably double that in size.


Does that size difference matter? I see the wisdom in having a Senate to give different geographical locations some independence and control. But maybe it is possible to have more direct democracy while also balancing that concern?


Imagine ordering food for 198 people instead of 6.


From the other end, Switzerland has roughly 30 times the pop of classical Athens which I guess was then the largest democracy. It's not super obvious their governance could not evolve to scale to U.S. size.


Switzerland is about 16,000 sq miles.

That makes it bigger than Maryland, but smaller than West Virginia. It's about half the size of South Carolina.

You could fit Switzerland in Texas 16 times and still have enough room to squeeze in a Belgium.


more like 38x population and 233x area!




Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: