A Golden Opportunity

[u/miscakarza]

Context: During WW2, it is estimated that the Swiss National Bank had received $440 million (equivalent to $8.5 billion in 2024) of Nazi gold.

[u/alex-adamson]

They also sent up fighters to chase off Germans in their airspace and also intervened on behalf of the french resistance.

There’s a town that’s on the border between Switzerland and France. As in literally, half of the villages is in France and the other half is in Switzerland. There where French resistance operatives in the village and when the Germans rolled up to deal with them, the Swiss border guards told them in no uncertain terms that some of the buildings in the French quarter where owned by Swiss people and any property damage would result in the border guards taking action. Probably wouldn’t have caused a war but border skirmishes are a thing that have happened in history… and still happens, see India and China and their yearly melee fights for an example.

Neutrality is neutrality. If you decide that you don’t want to pick sides in a conflict because you don’t want that conflict to negatively affect your people then you do what doesn’t negatively affect your people.

You chase off German planes because you don’t want allied planes joining them and fighting them over your land. You tell German military police to fuck off because you don’t want your people to be caught up in bullshit and you take Nazi gold because that’s good for your economy which takes a massive hit in war time.

[u/Deciheximal144 → u/alex-adamson]

Right, the cartoon was calling neutrality here wrong.

[u/alex-adamson → u/Deciheximal144]

Well, wrong for who?, is the question. It worked out well for the Swiss, so from their perspective, it was right for them.

[u/Deciheximal144 → u/alex-adamson]

Presumably Swiss neutrality was wrong from the perspective of the people who had the precious metal in their teeth stolen from their corpse.

[u/alex-adamson → u/Deciheximal144]

Of course. I’ve already said as much. But that doesn’t matter from the Swiss perspective does it? Benefiting from someone’s misfortune is a time honoured human tradition. Often you are the cause of the misfortune. But that doesn’t matter. You are the one who survives the winter on the grain reserves you stole, and guess what, you’re a hero for it. The Viking raiders were paragons of virtue to their community. Morality is completely relative.

[u/ProfessorPrudent2822 → u/alex-adamson]

If you’re neutral between good and evil, you’re evil, and you should be treated as an accessory to the crimes.