24. The Nazi Invasion of Switzerland
When France surrendered to the Nazis in June of 1940, Switzerland ended up completely surrounded by Axis-controlled territory. A major aim of the irredentist Nazis was to gather all ethnic Germans into a single country, and that included the German-speaking Swiss. They were not as eager for such a union, however. Hitler was appalled that the German-speaking Swiss felt stronger attachment to their French and Italian-speaking countrymen, than they did to Germans.
The Fuhrer opined that: “Switzerland possessed the most disgusting and miserable people“, and that the Swiss were “a misbegotten branch of our Volk‘. He considered democratic Switzerland an anachronism, and ordered plans drawn for its conquest and absorption into the Third Reich.