Title: Interlude in Switzerland
Subtitle: The Story of the South African Refugee-soldiers in the Alps During the Second World War
Author: Paul Schamberger
Publisher: Maus Publishing Company
Parkhurst, South Africa 2001
ISBN 0620268476 / ISBN 0-620-26847-6
Original softcover, 21 x 30 cm, 142 ppages, numerous bw-photos, images and map scetches
Good. Book corner with little bumps. Inside clean and fresh.
Rare.
Switzerland for many South Africans was a small lifeboat in times of trouble and violence. During the Second World War the officially appointed Protecting Power, Switzerland, had been vested with a mandate to see to the welfare and interests of the Union's thousands of prisoners of war in German, Italian and Japanese prisoner of war camps, and represent and look after the Union's interests in enemy or enemy-occupied countries (principally, South Africa's closed-down diplomatic and consular offices). Of great importance was the Swiss-run and Swiss-financed International Committee of the Red Cross in Geneva, which had provided a range of humanitarian services on a worldwide basis. Former Springbok prisoners of war in Italy, especially, would always remember the Red Cross food parcels which had kept them from starving. During the years 1943 to 1945, Switzerland had sheltered and succoured 896 South African escaped prisoners of war who had fled fascist Italy to the safety of neutral territory. They were known as evades. And they, the South African (or Springbok) evades, form the subject of this book, Interlude in Switzerland: The Story of the South African Refugee-soldiers in the Alps During the Second World War.
Introduction
The 'Great Trek' of 1943
Inside the 'Golden Cage'
Cheek by jowl
Read all about it!
Life in the detachments: I
Life in the detachments: II
'The return of the soldier'
'A Swiss girl for a wife'
Tragedy on the mountain
Aftermath
Index
Sources and bibliography