21. Could the Swiss Have Held off the Germans?
The Swiss could have turned to widespread partisan and guerrilla warfare. However, other Western European countries were occupied by the Nazis, without their citizens exhibiting much willingness to risk the massive reprisals the Nazis were eager to visit upon restive conquered subjects. The Nazis did not treat Western Europe as atrociously as they did the Eastern European Slavs. Western Europeans thus never felt that their backs were to the wall, or that they had nothing to lose.
Certainly not to the same extent as did, e.g.; the Soviets or Yugoslavs, whose fierce and widespread partisan resistance had no equivalent in Western Europe. It is unlikely that the Germans would have treated the Swiss with anything approaching the monstrousness that triggered widespread resistance in the East. Considering that they viewed the Swiss as fellow Germans to be incorporated into their Reich, the Nazis would probably have treated Switzerland even better than they did other Western Europeans.
