THE SWISS MILITIA KEPT THEM NEUTRAL DURING WWII

Hitler hated the Swiss. In 1943 Hitler said that “all the rubbish of small nations existing in Europe must be liquidated,” even though that would earn him the title of ‘the butcher of the Swiss.’

But threatening liquidation and butchering is a far cry from delivering – especially since the Swiss since 1291 have been known as masters of the battlefield. In latter days they became renowned as expert riflemen and snipers. That, combined with the formidable barrier of the Swiss Alps and the incomparable Swiss Militia system, caused even Hitler to pause.




Swiss boys are inducted into the Militia and issued arms and ammunition similar to that shown above when they reach their 18th birthday. Their arms and ammunition are kept in the home for near instant mobilization.  They serve until they are 50 years old but retain their arms for a lifetime.



In the days before World War II broke out, the Swiss government regarded a German invasion a realistic possibility. In view of the situation many Swiss were at a loss regarding what course to take. General Henri Guisan, Swiss commander-in-chief, rallied his country to support a policy of heavily “Armed Neutrality.”

Switzerland mobilized 850,000 men (out of a population of 4 million), prepared the Reduit (Alpine fortress), as a stronghold to defend even if the lowland cities fell. In the case of an invasion, streets, bridges and tunnels were to be destroyed and the occupation might have cost the Germans dearly.

German maps and documents seized after WWII showed that Hitler referred to a possible invasion as “Case Switzerland,” and on more than one occasion massed troops on the border to invade. But the invasion order never came.

Other European nations fell like dominoes under the onslaught of the German “blitzkreig.” Even the mighty French Army, which many believed was the strongest in Europe, and possibly the world, fell in a mere six weeks. Nazi troops marched proudly into Paris, yet Switzerland stood, like a tiny island in a sea of her enemies, unbowed.

Another reason Hitler didn’t invade Switzerland had little to do with Switzerland itself. Hitler’s primary military objective was the conquest of Russia. According to Andrew Nagorski (2007; The Greatest Battle) Adolf Hitler had declared his intention to hit the USSR on 11 August 1939 to Carl Jacob Burckhardt, League of Nations Commissioner by saying: “Everything I undertake is directed against the Russians. If the West is too stupid and blind to grasp this, then I shall be compelled to come to an agreement with the Russians, beat the West and then after their defeat turn against the Soviet Union with all my forces. I need the Ukraine so that they can’t starve us out, as happened in the last war.”
http://www.zum.de/whkmla/region/italy/ch19391945.html

Most of the Nazi’s 18 million man army was massed on the Eastern Front (as the German war against Russia was called). At least 1 million men would be required to invade Switzerland since the Germans themselves estimated they would suffer 200,000 casualties. Plus, the Germans suffered grievous losses on the Eastern Front and were having enormous problems with underground resistance movements in previously occupied territories that siphoned enormous resources from Hitler’s primary goal.

Since France’s surrender in June 1940, Switzerland was surrounded by German-held or Italian territory. The Swiss government, aware of it’s delicate position and it’s dependency on imports, considered repeated German surrender demands and rejected them.

The Swiss held true to their core beliefs and maintained their position of heavily armed neutrality. The tiny Swiss nation thus avoided the horrors of war that befell other European nations. In addition to retaining their freedom, the Swiss provided safe haven for approximately 3 million Jews who would otherwise have been murdered by the Nazis.

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The Warsaw (Poland) Ghetto Uprising – a truly heroic epic

WARNING – There are graphic photos in this article

“War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things. The decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feeling which thinks that nothing is worth war is much worse.”

“The person who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, nothing which is more important than his own personal safety, is a miserable creature and has no chance of being free unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself.”
–John Stuart Mill, (1806–1873) was a British philosopher and civil servant. He was an influential contributor to social theory, political theory and political economy. His concept of liberty justified the freedom of the individual in opposition to unlimited state control.

Hitler’s final solution, the extermination of all Jews, was progressing smoothly until the time came to eliminate the Jews in the Warsaw Ghetto. Even that went smoothly at first.

Between July and September 1942, Nazi authorities deported or murdered about 300,000 Jews in the Warsaw Ghetto. SS and German police agencies deported 265,000 to the Treblinka killing center and 11,580 more to forced-labor camps. Another 10,000 Jews were killed in the ghetto itself during deportation proceedings.

Germans granted 35,000 Jews permission to remain in the Ghetto and another 20,000 stayed behind in hiding. Only 55,000 to 60,000 Jews were left alive.

Two Jewish self-defense organizations formed in 1942 in an effort to halt the deportations and genocide – the Jewish Combat Organization, (Zydowska Organizacja Bojowa or ZOB and the Jewish Military Union, Zydowski Zwiazek Wojskowy or ZZW.) Their goal seemed unattainable with a mere 750 fighters opposing the entire German war machine. Nevertheless, during the summer of 1942, the ZOB established contact with the Polish military underground movement known as the Home Army. There they obtained a small number of weapons, mostly pistols and explosives, from Home Army contacts.

German SS and police units tried to resume mass deportations of Jews from Warsaw on January 18, 1943. A group of Jewish fighters, armed with pistols, infiltrated a column of Jews being forced to the Umschlagplatz (transfer point) and, at a prearranged signal, broke ranks and fought their German escorts.

Most of these Jewish fighters died in the battle, but the attack sufficiently disoriented the Germans to allow the Jews arranged in columns at the Umschlagplatz a chance to disperse. After seizing 5,000-6,500 ghetto residents to be deported, the Germans suspended further deportations on January 21. Encouraged by the apparent success of the resistance, which they believed may have halted deportations, members of the ghetto population began to construct subterranean bunkers and shelters in preparation for an uprising should the Germans attempt a final deportation of all remaining Jews in the ghetto.



A few victims of Hitler’s genocide.


The Germans wanted to begin liquidation of the ghetto on April 19, 1943, the eve of Passover. But when SS and police units entered the ghetto, the streets were deserted. Nearly all of the residents had gone into hiding places or bunkers. The renewal of deportations was the signal for the armed uprising within the ghetto.

Armed with pistols, grenades (many of them homemade), and a few automatic weapons and rifles, the ZOB fighters emerged from their bunkers and stunned the Germans and their auxiliaries on the first day of fighting, forcing the German forces to retreat outside the ghetto wall. German commander SS General Jürgen Stroop reported losing 12 men, killed and wounded, during the first assault on the ghetto. On the third day of the uprising, Stroop’s SS and police forces began razing the ghetto to the ground, building by building, to force the remaining Jews out of hiding. Jewish resistance fighters made sporadic raids from their bunkers, but the Germans systematically reduced the ghetto to rubble.

Though German forces broke the organized military resistance within days of the beginning of the uprising, individuals and small groups hid or fought the Germans for almost a month.

Eventually, the Germans won the battle over the Warsaw Ghetto and 42,000 Jews were deported to such notorious killing centers as Tteblinka, where 7,000 Jews were gassed to death almost immediately on their arrival. Most of the remaining 35,000 Jewish survivors of the Warsaw Ghetto uprising were sent to Lublin/Majdanek, Poniatowa, Trawniki, Budzyn and Krasnik forced labor camps. All were eventually murdered.

Instead of the three days the Germans estimated it would take to ship all the ghetto residents to killing centers, the stiff resistance held out for more than 30 days and even after that individual Jews hiding in the ruins of the ghetto continued to attack German patrols.
Most of the statistics in the above came from the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.
 http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10005188

The United States has fielded one of the most formidable armies in world history. An army many feel it would be useless to resist should they ever be turned against our own citizens. What good would a pistol or hunting rifle be against heavy armor, artillery, tanks and jet fighters, they ask rhetorically? Perhaps the answer can be found in the sheer courage and heroism of the Warsaw Ghetto resistance movement and in the website,
What good is a handgun against an Army?

Remember, the German Army in WWII was also formidable with tanks (panzers), a state-of-the-art air force, artillery and an extremely well trained force of foot soldiers. Yet a force of only 750 Jews, armed mainly with handguns, held that army at bay for more than 30 days. Imagine if there had been 100 such groups…

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NEVER GIVE UP YOUR GUNS – Exploding the myths about guns and crime

Guns are NOT just for self-defense, hunting, target shooting or collecting. When all is said and done guns are the last and best resort against government tyranny.

Don’t take it from me, heed well the words of the lead draftsman of the Declaration of Independence and the third president of the United States, Thomas Jefferson:

“When governments fear the people, there is liberty. When the people fear the government, there is tyranny. The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government.”

Why all the hysteria and lies about guns from those who want to control guns? The answer is simple – those “gun-grabbers” want to control much more than just your guns, they want to control YOU!!

Sadly, experience has shown that the best way to subjugate and control a population is by eliminating the means of resistance through gun controls and eventually gun seizures.

They disguise their desire for dominance by using catchwords and catch-phrases, such as “guns kill” and write articles and produce video specials urging people to turn in their guns. They urge you to rely on the police. What they don’t tell you is the actual results of draconian gun control and gun seizure legislation. Nor do they tell the truth about police protection. Why? Because the police are usually, almost always actually, not on the scene when a crime is committed, but only show up after the fact to clean up the mess, track down the criminal and bring him to justice.

Gun grabbers lie about statistics and in their hatred of guns often become hysterical. But every once in a while, the truth leaks out from their own lips. They inadvertently expose their leftist, anti-American, anti-freedom, anti-people agenda. They expose their ultimate desire – to rule with an iron fist.

“The most foolish mistake we could possibly make would be to allow the subject races to possess arms. History shows that all conquerors who have allowed their subject races to carry arms have prepared their own downfall by so doing. Indeed, I would go so far as to say that the supply of arms to the underdogs is a sine qua non for the overthrow of any sovereignty. So let’s not have any native militia or native police. German troops alone will bear the sole responsibility for the maintenance of law and order throughout the occupied Russian territories, and a system of military strong-points must be evolved to cover the entire occupied country.”
Adolf Hitler (1)

Hitler’s plan to disarm his would-be opponents led to the destruction of every sovereign nation in Europe save two: England and Switzerland. With his “enemies” neutered by gun seizures, Hitler was free to unleash a holocaust on Europe that led to the deaths of 20 million people.

If you still don’t think most gun-grabbers have an agenda, read the following words carefully. Written by an American, in these three short sentences the speaker admits the ultimate goal of the species is the ultimate banning of all guns leading to total disarmament. I would guess that would include knives, archery equipment and pitchforks.  The gun-grabbers will “distort the facts” and lie. They seek zero resistance while they kick our Constitution to the curb, run over it with a bus and implement a socialist form of government.

“Our main agenda is to have all guns banned. We must use whatever means possible. It doesn’t matter if you have to distort the facts or even lie. Our task of creating a socialist America can only succeed when those who would resist us have been totally disarmed.”
Sarah Brady

The gun-grabbers don’t want you to think about such things as government-created holocaust or genocide. Oh no. They distort facts and lie so you will think guns are inherently evil and cause murders and are to blame for most accidents and homicides. The result of this propaganda blitz has caused even some gun owners to believe that maybe society would be safer with gun controls of some type. The socialists, meanwhile, calmly go about working their plan, always keeping their ultimate goal in sight. That end goal is gun seizure.

Pete Shields, Executive Director of NCCH, which changed its name to Handgun Control, Inc. in 1978,
warned the gun-grabbers that progress would be slow but in his mind inevitable.

“I’m convinced that we have to have federal legislation to build on. We’re going to have to take one step at a time, and the first step is necessarily – given political realities – going to be a very modest (one). Of course, it’s true that politicians will then go home and say, ‘This is a great law. The problem is solved. . . .‘” Shields said. “So then we’ll have to start working again to strengthen that law, and then again to strengthen the next law, and maybe again and again. . . . Our ultimate goal – total control of handguns in the United States – is going to take time. My estimate is seven to ten years. The first problem is to slow down the increasing number of handguns being produced and sold in this country. The second problem is to get handguns registered. And the final problem is to make the possession of ALL handguns and ALL handgun ammunition – except for the military, policemen, licensed security guards, licensed sporting clubs, and licensed gun collectors-totally illegal.” (2)

Looking at the gun-control issue from the perspective of guns used in murders, accidents and crime reduction, here are a few FACTS.

As of 2009, the United States has a population of 307 million people. Based on production data from
firearm manufacturers, there are roughly 300 million firearms owned by civilians in the United States as of 2010. Of these, about 100 million are handguns.

In 1976, the Washington, D.C. City Council passed a law generally prohibiting residents from possessing handguns and requiring that all firearms in private homes be kept unloaded and rendered temporally inoperable via disassembly or installation of a trigger lock. The law became operative on Sept. 24, 1976.

During the 12-year span the handgun ban was in effect, the homicide rate in D.C. went from 26 deaths per 100,000 people to an astounding 80 deaths per 100,000 people. The Washington, D.C. murder rate averaged 73% higher than it was at the outset of the law, while the U.S. murder rate averaged 11% lower.

SEE DC GRAPH HERE

Nationally the homicide rate was about 10 per 100,000. In short, the chances of being killed with a gun in D.C. was EIGHT TIMES GREATER after the unconstitutional handgun ban went into effect.

On June 26, 2008, the U.S. Supreme Court, in a 5-4 ruling, struck down this law as unconstitutional in D.C. v Heller. Not all the Justices agreed with the decision and based their dissent on faulty statistics and hysteria. The four dissenters were, naturally, Justices John Paul Stevens, David Souter, Stephen Breyer and Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

In their collective opinion they cite as fact, based on a report by the local council committee, that the goal of the handgun restriction was “to reduce the potentiality for gun-related crimes and gun-related deaths from occurring within the District of Columbia” According to the committee, “for every intruder stopped by a homeowner with a firearm, there are 4 .gun-related accidents within the home.”

The committee report cited no source or evidence for this statistic. The reason is there is NO EVIDENCE TO BACK UP THE STATEMENT – only hysteria and lies.

The facts are that nationwide in 2007, there were 613 fatal firearm accidents in the entire U.S. which constituted 0.5% of the 123,706 total fatal accidents from all causes. Compare the firearm fatalities with fatal car accidents, for example, which claimed 34% of the total U.S. accidental deaths.

Non-fatal accidents tell a similar story. Of the nearly 16,000 emergency room visits for non-fatal firearm accidents in 2007, only about 5,000 resulted in hospitalization. Of 27.7 million ER visits for all non-fatal accidents, falls led with 46% of reported incidents with firearm accidents next to last with 0.05 percent.

SEE ACCIDENT GRAPHS HERE

Granted, of the 16,272 murders in 2008, 10,886 (67%) were committed with firearms. But three states that instituted “right to carry” laws have seen notable declines in murder.

The Texas murder rate has averaged 30% lower than before right to carry laws, Michigan has averaged 4% lower and the Florida murder rate is down 34%.

SEE TEXAS, MICHIGAN, CHICAGO AND FLORIDA GRAPHS HERE 

By contrast, countries that have banned all firearms have seen marked increases in their murder rates.

ENGLAND CHART

In 1920, Britain passed a law requiring civilians to obtain a certificate from their district police chief in order to purchase or possess any firearm except a shotgun. The certificate had to specify the types and quantities of firearms and ammunition that the applicant could purchase and keep.

In 1968, Britain made the 1920 law stricter by requiring civilians to obtain a certificate from their district police chief in order to purchase or possess a shotgun. This law also required that firearm certificates specify the identification numbers (“if known”) of all firearms and shotguns owned by the applicant.

In 1997, Britain passed a law requiring civilians to surrender almost all privately owned handguns to the police. More than 162,000 handguns and 1.5 million pounds of ammunition were “compulsorily surrendered” by February 1998. Using “records of firearms held on firearms certificates,” police accounted for all but fewer than eight of all legally owned handguns in England, Scotland, and Wales.

So, the murder rate went way down, right? WRONG. The British homicide rate has averaged 52% HIGHER since the outset of the 1968 gun control law and 15% HIGHER since the outset of the 1997 handgun ban.

AUSTRALIA

Ed Chenel, a police officer in Australia, wrote an article for Polidics.com, and gave an update on the nation’s 12-month-old gun control law. Under the provisions of that law, honest, law-abiding citizens surrendered 640,381 personal firearms to be destroyed by the government.

But instead of the great reductions in crime the government sought to achieve, exactly the opposite occurred. Australia-wide, homicides are up 6.2 percent, assaults are up 9.6 percent and armed robberies are up 44 percent.“In the state of Victoria alone, homicides with firearms are now up 300 percent,” Chenel said. “While the law-abiding citizens turned them in, the criminals did not and criminals still possess their guns!”

Chenel also noted that armed robberies with firearms had been in decline for the past 25 years, but that trend abruptly changed for the worse when the gun seizures took place. Chenel attributed that rise in armed crime to the fact the criminals are now guaranteed that their prey is unarmed.

“There has also been a dramatic increase in break-ins and assaults of the elderly, while the resident is at home,” Chenel said. “Australian politicians are at a loss to explain how public safety has decreased, after such monumental effort and expense was expended in ‘successfully ridding Australian society of guns.’ You won’t see this on the American evening news or hear your governor or members of the State Assembly disseminating this information.”

“The Australian experience speaks for itself. 

“Guns in the hands of honest citizens save lives and property and, yes, gun-control laws affect only the law-abiding citizens,” Chenel said. ““Take note Americans, before it’s too late!”

Gun control freaks insist they must “close the gun show loophole.” But are gun shows really where criminals are getting their guns, or is this just another bit of socialist feel-good thinking?

Well, it isn’t at gun shows like puddin’ head liberal/socialists want you and the gullible public to believe.
A 1997 Justice Department series of interviews with nearly 15,000 state prison inmates who carried a firearm during the offense that landed them in jail. Of that group nearly 40% admitted they got the firearm from a friend or family member; 39% from an illegal street source; 8% from a retail store, 4% from a pawn shop, 1% at a flea market and only 0.7 percent from a gun show.

Kinda nice having a few FACTS on your side, isn’t it?

Footnotes:
(1) Dinner talk on April 11, 1942, quoted in Hitler’s Table Talk 1941-44: His Private Conversations, Second Edition (1973), Pg. 425-426. Translated by Norman Cameron and R. H. Stevens.
(2) A Reporter At Large: Handguns, July 26, 1976, 57-58, in the New Yorker magazine. At the time, Mr. Shields was the Executive Director of NCCH, which changed its name to Handgun Control, Inc. in 1978

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