In WWII some aircrews, unable to make it home, were able to get to neutral Switzerland where they were interned. What, exactly, did internment entail? I assume they were kept in some sort of internment (prison) camp? How much freedom did they have? Could they get furloughs? Were they treated strictly as stated by the Geneva Convention, or was the GC seen as only a baseline? Were Allied and Axis internees treated differently from each other? What did they do to keep busy?
I read something about this ages ago. IIRC, the “internment” consisted of them living in a hotel. They had freedom of movement, but were barred from holding jobs, so finances were difficult. Not the worst way to spend a war.
They must have been fed and clothes by the Swiss. Did they receive their military pay, and were they able to access it?
The Allies had full diplomatic relations with Switzerland. I imagine that the relevant embassies would have given aid.
I actually have a book on this subject, somewhere in my library. The gist of it all was: live in hotel or barracks, restricted movements, limited access to pay/letters/etc., and utter and complete boredom. The person who was the focus of the book I have spent a considerable amount of his time planning and executing an escape* from* Switzerland, so he could return to England and get back in the war.
A couple of French warships (and their crews) were interred in Alexandria during the War. In exchange for their parole, and the breech blocks of their guns, the French officers and crews got their pay from the Brits and the run of the city.
Many whose lives were on the line had some mild resentment toward those who allowed others to do their fighting.
The essential point of neutral internment is that to remain neutral a country cannot allow it’s ports or airfields to be used as a convenience (even a life-saving one) by belligerents. Neither side could stand by and allow the soldiers of an enemy to use neutral territory as a handy way of escaping capture or destruction, only to rejoin the fight later. To maintain it’s neutrality, a neutral nation must therefore ensure that any forces of either side that enter it’s territory be “out of the game” for the duration. Typically neutral nations regard the intrusion of belligerents as an offense insufficient to provoke a state of war but sufficient to warrent the internment of said belligerents. In WW2, despite the fact that the USSR was an ally of the US and Great Britain against Germany, it interned any forces from the Pacific war that intruded into it’s territory because the USSR was not at war with Japan until the very end. The situation was often complicated by the fact that seeking refuge in a neutral country was usually much more helpful to one side than the other.
Didn’t Ireland discreetly allow Allied internees to escape?
No doubt some Irish people did so.
But I doubt that Ireland had any such official policy.