Swiss Pardon Woman Who Smuggled Jews During World War II

Mar 3, 2004
Switzerland Pardons Woman Who Smuggled Jews During World War II
The Associated Press

BERN, Switzerland (AP) - The Swiss government on Wednesday pardoned a 79-year-old woman who was convicted of smuggling Jewish refugees into Switzerland during World War II.

Aimee Stitelmann is the first person to benefit from a new law that pardons anyone imprisoned or fined for helping Jews get into Switzerland during the war. The law does not allow for compensation to be paid.

Between 1942 and 1945, Stitelmann helped 15 refugees cross the border secretly from France to Switzerland to escape the Nazis. She would slip into France and return the refugees to Switzerland across an unguarded stretch of the border or by train with false papers.

Stitelmann was sentenced to 15 days imprisonment in 1945 for violating Switzerland's border laws.

Another 27 requests are pending under the law, said lawmaker Francoise Saudan, who heads the parliamentary commission that considers pardons.

Some 300,000 people were sheltered in Switzerland between 1938 and 1945, but many thousands more were turned away at the border. Helping rejected refugees to enter the country was a criminal offense.

The Swiss government has already apologized to Jews for its World War II policies.
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