I'm Swiss and there's actually a law that states that every person in Switzerland needs to have access to a bunker in case of an atomic attack. As a result of this almost all apartment buildings have their own bunkers in the basement.
The law has been changed since 2010 and not every building has to have one. They now suggest more common/public area bunkers and in places where currently they would not be able to find a place for 100% of the people living there. So youa re right nearly all apartment complex have a bunker, same for workplaces etc
is that ironic? or is that Karma coming onto Germany? Remember the bridges Nazi Germans were determined to keep the A̶l̶l̶i̶e̶d̶ P̶o̶w̶e̶r̶s̶ U.S. from crossing to put Nazis at a disadvantage?
I have a friend who worked as UN intern, and she said if even the Swiss people have problem with your draft that means you have messed up real bad. And I can never forget.
Oh Germany’s invading you bro that’s sooo crazy *blows up every connection to the outside world* Aw man I’d come help but dang all my bridges n stuff are gone sorry man
I'm swiss, it'as actually a thing that in switzerland, when you build a house either you build a nuke proof bunker in the basement or you have to pay a tax to sponsor community bunker and have a place in one. In case of danger everyone has a bed in a bunker. If you own a private one you most likely have a ton of wine and food in it as it is often used as a storage room :) Also about the big mountain bunkers I went to one recently transformed into a pretty cool escape game !
I was born in Switzerland. My parent are originally from Italy. I thank my parent to give me the chance to grow up here. It's a beautiful place and everything works. We are free, we live a good life and we lack of nothing. Thank you #switzerland
Aggressive? More like - if the price is right - anything goes. Friend or foe, no problem. We are neutral. We sell to you but also to your enemies. Because we do not discriminate, we are NEUTRAL - we - the Swiss.
Its not agressive neutrality. If there was a country with passive neutrality, they were already Belgiumed before they can declare it. Such is how the cruel world works.
There’s a story about a Swiss general in ww1 being asked by a German general what he would do if he invaded with 50000 men. The Swiss army at the time had 20000-25000 soldiers (I don’t remember), but were incredible marksman. The Swiss general said, “than we will shoot twice and go home”
You've missed a critical fact, the head of the Rhine river is in Switzerland and Switzerland threatened to poison all of Germany's water if they invaded.
I actually was shocked when I found out not every household outside of Switzerland has a bunker, growing up there it was just normal to use your bunker as storage lol
@Abе Pat yes, it think there is (or was) a law that there has to be enough bunkers for every person in switzerland. And if there isnˋt and you want to build a house you have to build a bunker in it. Personally I think it is odd not to have enough bunkers, like if war breaks out unlucky for you but you will die.
Its a direct democracy here in Switzerland. The people vote on literally everything. its a cash rich country and a really safe country but definitely not for extroverts.
Yes like the law asking enterprises to regulate what they do outside switzerland, they vote for a yes however it's a no....hahaha....democracy...or hipocresy ????
I'm Swiss and I can tell you that in Switzerland, there are many "clubs" to find bunkers. These clubs work like normal hiking clubs, but instead of hiking they just search for old bunkers and if they find one, they try to maintain it and go inside
@@DownedHarambe Yes the train was late. And we had a connecting train with only 10 minutes between them. We and everyone else stood at the doors in fight mode and as soon as the doors open it was a mad run panic screaming to get people to move out of the way.
@@GhostOfThisWorld you are welcome to visit Sweden. Your life will never be the same again. "SJ" can be late, but "Snälltåget" is in a different league.
Very wealthy, living in mountains, good at digging and drilling, not concerned with the outside world? Is it just me, or are the Swiss basically the Dwarves from Lord of the Rings?
lol. hahah but I think we are. (for real man). we actually have a lot of these (children)stories about dwarfs living in our forests and in the mountains haha
The funny thing is that J. R. R. Tolkien's "The Hobbit". The story with Wood-Elves, Dwarves inside mountain mines and a dragon is based on a hiking trip threw Switzerland that Tolkien participated in. In medieval Switzerland people actually believed that there live dwarves inside the mountains, elves in the deep forests and dragons inside mountain caves. But there are just hidden so this is why no one ever sees them. The orcs as far as I know it are based on an irish legend though.
Switzerland is a great country and democratic to the roots, people vote for any decisions made. One of the best places to live in the world for the past 150 years. A safe place, a place with friendly and polite people all around, top landscapes for leisure activities, and with a very high life quality at all. Hope this will continue and Switzerland and the people can maintain this favorable status.
@@CUbanageNT_24 Your point is a valid one but I doubt the Germans or Italians were very happy about it at the time either. Unfortunately the idiots you speak of are very real; they don’t represent all Americans but they are the least informed and the loudest.
@@PhoebusApollo360 Are you telling me that their citizens drive over tons of TNT everyday and they don't even know about it? And they say Americans are explosive happy.
they are already prepared for WW3. no one is gonna invade a nuclear bomb site. TNT not needed only enough bunkers and tunnels to keep the country going underground
@@arnowisp6244 Oh we knew about it. It was a requirement for the engineer to do the maths on where to put how much explosives to blow it up effictively and savely. I know it sounds strange to foreingers. But we just grow up knowing that's normal. I guess we trust our engineers.
@@user-uy1rg8td1v it’s actually regulated by law that there always has to be enough of essential food products like flour, salt, sugar,… stored in big storages in order to feed the whole country for up to a year in case of emergencies like wars or crop failure
But if your enemy bombed all away your Villages and industrial factorys in the lowlands (where the most of the population lives) in the north you cant hide in the mountains but not for years.
I visited Switzerland in college. It was the coolest and most beautiful place I've ever seen and I have a life-long dream to move there one day. The culture fits me perfectly too. Hopefully it will work out... some day.
You forgot one measurement. There is a saying: "Switzerland does not have an Army. Switzerland IS an Army". They have mandatory military service, and not a small one. Every male needs to go. And until you are 34, there are trainings every year. Yes you heard that right. So they got a shitton of reservists, that will need to fight, if they have to. But that is not the crazy part. Everyone that was in that mandatory service keeps all the Equipment. And until 2007(!), long after any higher Chace of war, EVERYONE kept their damn assault rifles including ammunition. So in the more serious years, were there could have been a war... Most were able to instantly jump into their military uniforms at home, put their rifle on the back and go. Wich would have been of course mandatory. Also, in todays times, being in the Swiss Army is propably a great Job, I guess. Usually Soldiers are payed well and in current times, most Jobs are riskier then the Swiss Army. They won't get into any conflicts world wide, they will not attack and most likely will not be attacked either.
@@delta.11 In the US, I believe the equivalent are the National Guard stations, where reservists will go to receive weapons and instruction. I also believe under certain circumstances plans are in place to move equipment and aircraft if needed.
@@TanteEmmaaa Well in our history we were mostly farmers and farms were most of the time passed on to either the oldest or the youngest son ( most of the time there were 3 or more sons in total). So the other men in the Family usualy became mercanaries to fight in the many wars of medival europe. When modern Firearms came up there was a kind of gun culture were we would organize in shooting clubs and have Shooting competitions with each other ( achieving the most points on 300m distance). This lead most Swiss people to be so skilled at firing rifles that in the first world war when the Kaiser thought about coming through switzerland through our reserve system we had about 500k to a million soldiers ready and the comanding general is said to have said " If you come and attack us, all we have to do is fire our rifle twice and we will have won". In modern times this gun cultre is slowly but surely dying out sadly ( in my opinion ) many soldiers don't even want to keep their service weapon after training. Wow this really got out of hand quickly sry for that long text
Please allow me put it a tiny bit more succinctly: Europe: Wanna join the socialistic party based upon taking Germany's, Holland's and (previously) England's money and throwing it over the fence to finance the overblown social systems of Italy, France, Greece, Spain and Portugal? Switzerland: We don't do that here. We take care of ourselves, excercise fiscal responsibility, we don't live beyond our means, and we expect everyone else to do the same. We are the only country in the world that has direct democracy for ALL levels of government and thus our citizens excercise true freedom. If you EU members would follows these two principles, you'd all be doing fine. But you're not, so we won't.
@@christheswiss390 Funny stuff, really. Did you know however that Switzerland, just like Lichtenstein, Norway and Iceland, is part of the Common market? What does that mean? I'm glad you asked. Well, to be part of the Common market, you have to become an addressee of all the EU regulation concerning this very Common market (free movement of goods, service, people and capital) and you have to pay for the privilege to be part of the Common market, yet you have no representatives in the EU institutions and you have no voting rights, you can't change the EU regulation in any means.... eh, what was that about the ''we don't do that here'' stuff, again?
@@philipcooper8297 LoL, you mean the shengen treatry, that predates the EU??? ofcourse, that treatry is a founding part for the EU as it is known today. And yes Swiss seems to be crumbling a bit latly under Preasure fron EU, as shown by some changes/adoptions of the EU tax System.... (mostly becouse of multiple external international preasure about banking, taxheaven, etc)
nato puts a lot of pressure on switzerland suddenly it just made a small sanction and it is the russian people who take the damage, switzerland will do nothing else
@@gwine9087 there are different perspectives to Switzerlands neutrality. In our schools we learn we are neutral I war but we will still try to make business with whomever we can. So we supply even now countries like the US with ammunition. So in a way we are but also not really. But you are completely right with what you also said.
@@thomasrothwell3300 Yeah, it‘s like we consider ourselves neutral as long as we sell the stuff to everyone and therefore treat them equally while making us less of a target.
@@gwine9087 True, you can only ever be truly neutral if you isolate yourself diplomatically, economically and also depending on the situation, geographically.
I remember running around in the forest as a kid in Switzerland. We always found bunkers and long lines of giant concrete blocks to block out tanks (like several kilometers long). Most of this stuff was abandoned and we didn't really understand what it was for, made a great playground tho
@@johnnyharris Yeah so if you go to the French speaking region (Suisse Romande), along the Swiss side of the lake between Geneva and Lausanne there are these lines of "Toblorone" Tank Traps that stretch all the way from the lakeside into the mountains. Some of the bunkers disguised as houses in the video actually hid cannons so that tanks that tried to go over the traps, exposing their underside (where there was little armor) would get shot. You can hike all the way along them. Also: During WWII the Swiss Air Force shot and forced down a lot of planes (both US and German) infringing on their airspace. The US accidentally bombed Schauffausen and a couple of other cities while Germany tried to sabotage Swiss airfields after some of their planes were shot down but failed. Minor details but it says a lot about the parties involved.
Totally! It was just a way of growing up. There was always a house around the edge of the village with windows painted on it, and a number of bunkers that were fun to explore. A lot of stuff is still very visible, (although I lived very close to the German border, so there's a lot more stuff there). Bunker hunting is a+ fun.
In Kent, England, along the marshes of the Medway (opening to the Thames River), as a Kid there were ruins from medieval castles, 19th Century forts with old barracks and WW2 military installations that had all been abandoned. They were a lot of fun to play in. There was one old WW2 American military base of some kind without a roof in the woods half below street level. Just concrete walls and trees growing up in the middle of it. We called it the maze because it ran all through the woods. We would run along the walls and jump from wall to wall and jump off. I was 11 before I was big enough to run up the wall and climb up. Lot's of scraped knees and a few broken bones between all the kids playing there. In the 80's there wasn't money and the government had left a lot of old equipment lying around. Anti-aircraft guns (obviously not working), craters from bombs in the woods, and 19th century (Napoleonic wars?) cannons off their wheels lying on the floor. It was a playground but definitely pushed toward war games.
Hey there SkizzlePiano! So cool to hear that you played around those huge concrete blocks! We lived in Zug throughout the 90’s up until 2005. My Swiss husband told me that the concrete blocks were being removed, but apparently there are still quite a few still in existence. Btw, I’m a pianist and vocalist as well.
I was in Switzerland last year, beautiful country, very colourful, surprisingly warm. To talk about the bunkers, my cousins live in this apartment building and there is a nuclear bunker in the building.
The World is at War with an evil Fascist dictator but Swissy decides not to fight to Fascism...Swissy stays neutral while the world burns. SHAME SHAME SHAME
Pacifist: War is so evil. I hate all these walls, and bombs and cannons. We should just be neutral like the Swiss. Switzerland: Sounds great. Pacifist: So how do we do it. Switzerland: Natural walls, and bombs, and cannons.
Well that's the thing about pacifism. All you need is one psychopath in a world full of pacifists and he can take over the world. Being a pacifist and a realist at the same time is hard.
This sounds a lot like when in the movie Ant-Man, Hank Pym talks Scott Lang into breaking into the Avengers compound to get a component. Don't know if you knew about that from before...
Very good point you make. The reality is actually very sad. During WWII, Switzerland being exposed to Germany, the Swiss military ordered 800 K men to retreat into the mountains and dig in. Their wives and their children, their families, their mothers, and fathers - they were left in their villages and cities. Totally unprotected!! Glory for the Vaterland.
@@bertsole7278 les soldats allemands n'étaient pas réputés pour violer les femmes et assassiner les enfants, au contraires des alliés américains anglais et russes qui se distinguaient dans toute leurs saloperies...
@@raphaelglauser3508 Vous en avez encore beaucoup des conneries comme ça? Demandez aux russes ce qu'ils pensent du comportement des soldats allemands sur le front de l'est!
François Badoux says this (again G-translate): Do you still have a lot of bullshit like that? Ask the Russians what they think of the behavior of German soldiers on the Eastern Front!
@Johnny Harris - What are your thoughts about Switzerland breaking their neutrality for the first time in over a century to actually sanction Russian assets and side with the EU and the allies?
It‘s a shame!! I just don‘t understand why the world sanctions russia because of a war, but when USA bombs middle eastern countries and still is bombing Somalia there is no problem… double standards!
Swiss here. Times have changed. Also, Switzerland badly needs a new trade agreement with the EU. Also, the Swiss government acknowledged that an attack on Ukraine undercuts the security of whole Europe, and thus, Switzerland itself. I like this much more than the neutral Swiss stance during South Africa's Apartheid.
Just to clarify action have been take in line with the norm stated by the united Nation and EU by which we were bounded. In other words we follow the law and acted once the breaking of international law by Russia has been confirmed. Our neutrality you have to imagine that it works by the fact that we will not guarantee the indipendente of any nation, we will not accept the guarantee of our nation by other country and our government will not use his executive power against other nation in any circumstances if not directly attacked. This doesn’t mean we will not help Ukraine but just we will do it diplomatically and with humanitarian mean not militarily and we will send to f*** off Russia our way.
@@waqasahmed939 sure the superpowers have failed afghanistan, i am with you in that. but my commentar was about gaddafi who was pissed off bc swiss took in some of his familys servants who run away on a diplomatic visit. and maybe some other reasons.
Another well made and informative video. Now I want go hiking in Switzerland. I have gone climbing Austria and it was awesome. Switzerland looks like fun. Thanks Johnny!
I am Swiss and it's pretty funny that you just uploaded this video, because just earlier today we had the topic of Switzerland during WW2 in college. It's actually a pretty complex topic and Swiss people to this day don't completely agree on why they haven't been attacked by Hitler. Some strongly believe that it was the "strong" Swiss military and the "Réduit"-strategy in the alps, that saved them. Others say it was the cooperation with Nazi Germany. Historians say that both of it was needed and that another important reason was, that Germany had a hard time in Russia. Germany could have easily invaded Switzerland, but it would have cost them too many resources, which Germany just couldn't afford to lose, because of their Russia expedition had bad luck. There are actually documents of Nazi officials stating that it would be possible to invade Switzerland, but also really tricky. The cooperation of Switzerland also proofed useful to the Germans. As a part of the contract with Germany, Switzerland had to deliver resources (weapons and other) on credit, which Germany didn't need to pay upfront. Additionally Germany could sell their gold to the Swiss National Bank in exchange for foreign currencies without proofing its origin. This way they then sold gold they had stolen from countries they invaded (also some stolen gold from jews, but not that much). In return Switzerland could continue to trade food and coal, which they really needed. Germany also allowed a corridor to trade with the allies. Summing up, the continuing Swiss independence and neutrality was a result of many different factors. The importance of the different factors is even today between historians still under debate.
It's a fallacy to believe that the national socialists wanted warfare against anyone. That's absurd. The national socialists Germans didn't want war. Hitler wrote his political testament, one day before committing suicide, he stated that it is untrue that I or anybody else in germany wanted war. You can look it up
so i live in switzerland all my live and until this video i haven't realised how many bunkers we had. i even just realised during this video that my laundrey room is a bunker :)
Mine is used as a electronic room or storing things that needs darkness but not in fridge like cheese, mostly from Nepal(a mountainous country like switzerland with great cheeses).
The World is at War with an evil Fascist dictator but Swissy decides not to fight to Fascism...Swissy stays neutral while the world burns. SHAME SHAME SHAME
@@The_Reality_Filter they were completely surrounded by Germany and Italy, wtf do you expect them to do? it was either stay neutral or die. aligning with the Allies in any way would have gotten them killed
About the bunkers in homes: I am a civil engineer in Switzerland and already have designed several of these bunkers. They aren't mandatory for private construction but are heavily subsidized. Since people want to build basements for storage anyway it is common practice to have bunkers built in private homes. During peace-time they are used for storage but in case of a civil war they are to be emptied in order to be equipped with everything necessary to be used for their intended purpose. The time estimate between the notification to empty your compartment and the completion of the repurposing of the bunkers in the whole country is about 2-3 weeks. Which is kind of a joke considering the advance warning in case of a nuclear attack are only a couple of hours at best.
@@trekadouble757 Yes, more or less. Buildings with more than 38 rooms require the provision of enough space in a bunker for all the inhabitants of the building. If you don't want to build it yourself, you have an obligation to pay a compensation (a single payment of about 500 $ per person I think) to the state who will provide room in their shelters. So: for small and medium houses there is not even an obligation to compensate missing bunkers. For large residential buildings there is. In any case: Building the bunker itself is not mandatory.
@@jonathanerhard8353 Isolation is blinding some of us. But if you go to international towns, people are quite tolerant. And the racist political groups in the country, while still being the most popular overall, are losing ground each votation. Probably due to internet and the end of uninformed people.
@@Wankdorf183 Those are just sophism you're using. Language abuses. You say you extract truth from language, when you're really just pushing its limit to your advantage. I bet you know inside that what you're doing is bullshit.
Reminds me of why some ruling party MPs in my country previously called some opposition MPs hypocrites for not expressing their views over various social issues being debated; because the former regards that as a way for the latter to remain friendly with people on both sides of the debate & gain what seems to be 'unfair' advanage (like having one's cake & eating it too). When it comes to diplomatic/inter-country relations however I figure that governments might find it easier to justify such neutral behaviour though, on the grounds that each government is looking out for the best for their own people?
I naively thought Switzerland wanted to stay neutral and everybody was like OK we'll allow it. I had no idea they worked so hard to ensure that neutrality
I thought too for some weird reason, probably because Swiss neutrality is not really the center of focus when talking about ww2. But this explanation makes way more sense
We didn't decide on our own. First it was enforced back in the early 16th century. That more or less worked, but there were multiple treaties like the Treaty of Westphalia 1648, the Treaty of Paris 1815 that recognized and obligated us simultaneously to Neutrality. We haven't been part in a war since 1815. Especially 1815 is very relevant, since the UK, France and Prussia ratified that treaty of Neutrality. The very same Nations that would wage 2 World Wars a century later and are to this day cursing and mocking us for our Neutrality.
@@Reflox1 Philosophically speaking, it does raises the question though how someone can ethically choose to be neutral while 'next door' such atrocities take place? Setting aside that the actual Swiss government, banking system and corporate branches favoured the Nazis (so long for the 'neutrality' myth I'm afraid). Survival instinct kicks in in those situations, fair enough. Does it make it ethical on a personal level? Sitting back and watch? Not sure about it. Other countries chose to stand up (for whatever circumstantial reasons or not) and resist. They paid it in blood, but they have history's respect for it. Not sure that Switzerland has that either.
@@LingerVV The industry favored the Axis because they were the only viable trading partners and because it was imposed on us to some extent by Nazi Germany. Look at a map after the fall of France and tell me how we should have been able to export goods to the Allies or import from them. We're a landlocked nation of the size of a single state of Germany. Do you actually believe we should have martyred our people for the perceived morally right thing? Throw lives away with no hope of achieving anything just for the sake of it? If you actually believe this, then I hope you never hold any kind of office or power.
Swiss had a power move: I guess it wasn’t the explosives, weaponry but their banking. The Nazis preferred to bank with them so they stayed neutral while the allies didn’t want to mess with em and add more to their problems. They made sure that both parties in a war would have no profit attacking them. That’s a real power move I guess
Nazis didn't really preferred to trade with Switzerland, but it was their only chance to sold gold for money. The swiss banks bought a lot of gold from the Nazis, and they kept it until they could. That gold was obviously taken from the gold reserves of the conquered States and from all the minority (mostly from the jewish people) that they kidnapped and killed. Until the 90's nobody in Switzerland ever talked about it, the main reason for being left neutral was thought to be the defense plan, but in reality was all the deals and agreements that the Nazis made with the Swiss government. In the 90's these dirty clothes where found beacause the relatives of the Jews that were killed during the Holocaust tried to retake the gold and the goods that were taken from them, the problem was the swiss banking secret policy. In fact to obtain all their money and gold the relatives musted prove the death of their dead relative with a death certificate, that obviously nobody could have beacuse the Nazis treated and killed them as they were worse than animals. This brought the Swiss parliament to vote for a commission of independet experts in 1996 (if I'm not wrong) to better understand the role of Switzerland during ww2. The CIE (commission of independt experts) was given access to the Federal Archive and to all the classified documents. In 2002 the CIE released the final report (600 pages), known as the Bergier's Report (I don't know if it's a correct translation, in italian is called Rapporto Bergier, after the name of the commission's chief ). The final report is a shorter version of all the reports that the CIE wrote, 25 studies and 12'000 pages over 5 years of research, and contains graphics and classified documents from the Federal Archive. In the report is investigated the role of Switzerland during ww2, all the National policies, the military orders, the border policies and the situation of the refugees, the Jews, the gypsies, the minority that tried to enter Switzerland for protection, all the federal expulsion programs from the country and many other things were investigated in this moumental historic work. A lot of swiss people didn't like what they found out, everybody was used to belive that the reason for their luck was their mentality, their small but well organized and brave army, they maybe knew that they traded with the Nazis but they didn't know how much in reality those trades and agreements made with them were the real reason behind their success to avoid the war. To this day most of the swiss people ignore these things, because nobody wants to think that the swiss government made such horrible agreements to keep their population safe, nobody really teaches these arguments during school, just from few years those things are part of the teaching program of high school. History is always a delicate thing, everybody thinks to know everything but in reality know so little about all the arguments and the parties involved. Memory and history is often time confused with each other, but to know the truth without involving feelings is truly complicated. WW2 was and still remain a dark and heavy part of history, in that time nobody really won anything, all the parties involved committed crimes against humanity, from the Nazis to the Allies, everybody included (of course the victims were victims). Since history is written by the victors and the humans need a distincted division between bad and good, the Nazis (by that I mean the germans) became the absolute evil, and the Allies the absolute good. But Switzerland was in the middle, not really in the good side nor in the bad side, but since they didn't commited personally the crimes, Switzerland's history was written between the lines of the good side and the bad side was simply ignored. (for anybody information, I'm swiss so if it doesn't seems all correct or european centered it's beacause I live in Switzerland, Europe)
@@alerossi8444 A very informative comment. Thank you for writing, I would sugest you to edit the paragraph and make it look it more spaced out because when someone see the comment it becomes difficult to read and follow.
Swiss bridgebuilder: "dont trip on that wire!!!" German bridge builder:"calm down i can look after myself" Swiss bridge builder:" no but this is the fuse wire for the shitload of explosives we packed here in case you want to invade us"
@Aboorijal they where the bankers for all sides. define neutral. Also Hitler had his money in germany, but yes many wealthy germans put their money in a swiss bank to save their wealth from russians. it was not a suprise for many germans to lose the war.
@Aboorijal hahaha...you think the wealthy from european allies didnt stack their cash in switzerland? what if i told you they still do? yes they also sold material to the germans. the oerlikon anti air gun and ammo per example was sold to both sides. also diplomacy could not be cancelled with the germans as they where surounded by them and switzerland needed german coal for energy. funny still how you think you can lecture me in the history of my home. also it is very easy to judge from the outside when not being affected by the consequences. still the swiss granted asylum for the french army, jews and political enemies from the left. but go on...
You can tell just how important it is to the swiss by looking at what happens, when the railway had a blackout: ua-cam.com/video/HwUSNSpwZlg/v-deo.html
Johny Harris, you my friend are amazing! I’m learning things that I always wanted to know and things that I never even knew! Much love and support from India 🇮🇳
I’d add that Swiss are the second most armed nation in the world (US is holding the top place). Therefore, even if you get through all the bombed bridges and passages, even if you get into a Swiss bunker, you ‘d find there an angry Swiss with a gun who knows how to use it.
It might be one of the most armed nations but a very small amount of swiss citizens knows how to use a gun yet a lone own one. I’m pretty sure most of these guns are within the military not the general population
@@DieFliegendeGurke Actually due to the mandatory military service for guys more than 18 years old, a big part of the men population knows how to use an automatic weapon that you keep at home. You need to shot at least twice a year(in reglemented areas) for at least 10 years(the time you can be called in case of war) or you pay. At the end you can buy your weapon to keep it at home. And for the training and regulation with weapon its really strict in general and specially at the army if you do any kind of security mistake they take your weapon and you are not allowed to have one even in civil life. English is not my mother language it might have some mistake in the text 🙈.
As a Swiss Citizen that doesn’t live in Switzerland it is cool to see history of my other home. One time when I was there I actually slept in a nuclear bunker. Very cool.
Thanks for this well done video.Can't believe how little I knew about Switzerland. Knew of their landscape, like they were into "doing neutral", famed for banks & watches,fantastic place to visit, recreate and so expensive. Had absolutely no idea about how they secured themselves from being invaded & keeping 'doing neutral'. A real revelations the way that they had created such structures, really practical defences, ending up with all these tunnels and bunkers. The amazing notion of using gunpowder and explosives around their perimeter, including bridges or whatever. Obviously it's smart and essential to establish any needed constructive terms to relate to other regional countries and powers. Including where required permitting required transit routes and even secure storage of valuables.In Switzerland's circumstances their terms of engagement with Germany, including Hitler were pragmatic and reasonable.
yes, more exactly the Bank for international settlements which is based in Basel Switzerland. They are the Bank of all national Banks around the world...That's Tuff
Cowards always plan to hide. The World is at War with an evil Fascist dictator but Swissy decides not to fight to Fascism...Swissy stays neutral while the world burns. SHAME SHAME SHAME
@@The_Reality_Filter You really think we would have won anything if we went fighting? We are too small to fight with big forces. What would you do? Give up your entire Country to the nazis or try to save as many people as possible, even if this means trading with such sick men?
@@The_Reality_Filter Alright, first of all, Finland isn't smaller, it has less People. Second, Finland wanted to stay neutral al well, but they got attacked from Sowjetunion, so they bacame allly with germany. Thats not better than us. I don't say its good what we did and i am not proud of this side of us. (I am sorry for my english, its just school English)
I’m Swiss, the hospital my mom works at has an underground bunker hospital right below it filled with 40s equipment it could remain active in case of an invasion. Now it’s more of a novelty since the equipment is pretty outdated.
I totally love Switzerland too. But there are some little downers to the myth of Swiss peacefulness and neutrality that my Swiss friends taught me. One, the reason CH traditionally had so many well trained and experienced soldiers (even the Vatican is still protected by the Swiss Guard) is that the Swiss cantons (states) have a centuries long history of vicious infighting that continued into the 1800´s. Two, neutrality in the 1940´s also meant that CH would not admit Jewish refugees fleeing the Holocaust. And three, the country´s neutrality and independence was partly paid for by the Swiss banking system serving as a safe haven for the booties of dictators, drug lords, and all sorts of shady figures from around the world.
"...Two, neutrality in the 1940´s also meant that CH would not admit Jewish refugees fleeing the Holocaust... ", According to this article that's actually false: www.swissinfo.ch/eng/switzerland-and-2ww_new-study-claims-swiss-rejected-fewer-jews-during-nazi-era/43217360 Most refugees were actually admitted and only a small part were sent back.
@@greenmachine5600 Yeah you're right. But there's almost no country in the world who hasn't done that. It's also very important to think about the historical context. It's not like Switzerland's people had it easy themselves during that time. I'm not trying to say Switzerland did nothing wrong, they certainly did but so did pretty much every other country.
@@greenmachine5600 so pretty much what happend was: Some people disguised as jew entered in the country. I read books about a jew trying to enter in Switzerland and send back because they didn't believe him.
Cowards always have somewhere to hide. The World is at War with an evil Fascist dictator but Swissy decides not to fight to Fascism...Swissy stays neutral while the world burns. SHAME SHAME SHAME
@@The_Reality_Filter Well they're much smaller than their enemies you expect Switzerland with a population of 8 million to go against Germany with a population ten times that.
@@The_Reality_Filter They are literally surrounded, in Finland the Soviets only came from one direction. They only had a population of 7 million, while Germany and Italy had together an population of around 130 million. Germany and Italy also had way more soldiers, tanks, aircraft and had a better economy than Switzerland (Italy had a bad economy, but still) . Also Germany and Italy could cut off Switzerland from its supplies, which would starve the Swiss population. In the beginning of WWII Switzerland would have been completely destroyed by Germany. Near the end of WWII Switzerland could have fought against Germany but the Allies were already destroying Germany, even if Switzerland would have joined the war, nothing would have changed.
@@NetralFN Well its a complicated thing but Switzerland did join the EU with the sanctions against Russian Oligarchs etc. Which goes against neutrality. However it was in our best interest since the EU wanted to sanction us when at first we didn't join them sooo...
@@Mario-jr9vl Same. And we should be. There are only a few places like this, where you have to *TRY. HARD* to be poor, unemployed, unhealthy etc. I don't see myself as a patriot, but daaaayum boi, sure is awesome here.
@@johnnyharris There was also the map at 9:49 created for an alternate history scenario, The Thousand Week Reich. But yeah you created some very nice maps.
I lived in Switzerland for three years for work. I took a train every day and it was NEVER late. In the UK you almost deliberately don’t rush because you know the train is going to be late 😂
I watched your video on 'Why Britain's the Center of the World' yesterday and I think I heard you say May 28th's your birthday, so HAPPY BIRTHDAY from London!!! Thank you for all the amazing and insightful content!!
Absolutely fascinating. A part of WW2 history that I had no idea about. Looks like there's massive airbnb potential in Switzerland with all those spare bunkers!
Luis Muñoz I remember there was some outcry about refugees actually being housed in bunkers! It‘s real dark down there, no one should have to live like that (unless ofc we get into actual war)
@SomeSwissGuy we gave money to the Swiss for the same reason we gave planes to the Soviets and bullets to the Brits. Hitler gave the Swiss money to squirrel it away in the mountains like a dwarven king.
One interesting fact about destroying the access points like bridges, dams or tunnels. They tracked down the engineers who built those structures in the first place and charged them with coming up with the fastest most thorough way to destroy their own work.
Many of the old mountain fortresses were turned into museums after their decommissioning in the 90s. So if you do what every tourist does in Switzerland - coming to the Bernese Oberland - I would highly recommend visiting one of the old artillery stations. They had far reaching artillery cannons to fire at the Aare valley around Thun and stop enemy forces from entering the mountainous region. For size perspective: Festung Waldbrand (one of them) was made for around 600 men operating around 10 cannons and it includes storage for 500'000 liters of drinking water. - Regarding the personal bunkers mentioned in the video: If you build a house you have to either provide shelter for the people living in it or you have to "buy" a shelter place from the municipality. Currently we would have shelter places for 120% of the population. - Don't hesitate to ask for visiting & bunker hunting tips as well as general info & facts! (there are obviously many more artillery fortresses than the ones mentioned, but these happen to be right in the most touristy region)
Somebody trying to invade your personal space? Bomb all the doors in your house, and the stairs to the 2nd floor, and while they try climbing to your room, you have enough time to fortify your room and soundproof it
Normal schools: Proton is positive electron is negative neutron is neutral. swiss schools: proton is neutral electron is neutral and neutron is *NEUTRAL!*
There is something similar in Israel, a room called Mamad, that must be built in any house or apartment. Not really a bunker though. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Merkhav_Mugan
Exactly, and it still is. The fact that this applies to both private and public buildings is also the reason why the bunker capacity is higher than the total population. (For example: Every kid has a place in their home bunker, but their school is also equipped to house all students)
Oh gosh yes. Of just anything related to the military. Go on a little walk on the country side and truly look around. You might spot some infra structure....
Lmao yeah, I live near a huge abandoned military airport, and on nowadays you can only find police training courses, horseriding tracks and cows on the surface. If you look at it from above, it would look like a flat piece of land dotted with various hills and elevations. Every single one of those hills is hollow. All of them are either bunkers in themselves, entrances to a larger complex or spaces where turrets could have been concealed I tried finding an official count of how many there are, but I couldn't find anything. All I can say is there's probably a good 30 hills there, maybe more. Some of them are accessible to the public and are used as exhibition halls nowadays. Every community/district has several expansive air raid shelters, often underneath schools or other community, buildings that together could house almost the district's entire polulation. My family's house of course has its own bunker, like any house that is of a certain size, or older than say 30-40 years. We store our food down there. It took me until my late teens to realize that no, this is not normal for every other country. It's just such a normal part of life, you don't even think about it. Also, while hiking, I've come across multiple concealed anti-aircraft turrets already. Absolutely fascinating.
@@pen5666 it's a little misleading... the airstrip and most of the "airbase" is outdoors in the valley... inside the mountain is like a control room and "normal" rooms for troops (including bedrooms, kitchen, ... like there are many in Switzerland). the special thing about it is, that there are some hangars build in the mountain big enough to work/make repairs on the airplanes. but by no means big halls or anything.
Many Swiss highways have removable center lanes which can then be converted into runways for nearby military jets stored in the mountains. The Swiss Air Force will be taking delivery of the F-35. This decision, like all major spending decisions in Switzerland was made by referendum, meaning the people voted to decide whether to go through with this purchase or not. Democracy at its finest. 730 years and counting!
More than this all the secret big Artillerie and the General Guisan realy Important man in ww2 but hey is one of the best video about switzerland ww2 ! 🫡💯💯💯💯🇨🇭🇨🇭
immer die ammis i schwörs euch aber nit ohni grund bini stolze schwizzer richtig so gsi findi geil wiemers gmacht händ und wenn krieg chunnt wärde paar brückli ind luft gjagt und mir chilles ind bärge
10:50 The Harris Neutrality
hahah that's basically what Iz said when she watched this yesterday: "YOU ARE BEING SWITZERLAND RIGHT NOW"
@@johnnyharris Cool. Great video as always.
Just wanna comment here incase this explodes
@@cottontheeastercottontailr265 Just wanna reply for no reason because that's how I wanna be Neutral!
Naman Arya its the way
Can we pause for a moment and appreciate how much effort Johnny has put in for this video?
hahah thank you. yes this one was a LOT of time in the animations.
Not only in this one, in all of them! Great work!
So true..
Nope
@@johnnyharris hey johnny have u quit VOX? bcoz we rnt seeing u there
I'm Swiss and there's actually a law that states that every person in Switzerland needs to have access to a bunker in case of an atomic attack. As a result of this almost all apartment buildings have their own bunkers in the basement.
well i know where to go when nuclear war break out in eu.. yet again i had home in where r no reason to nuke each other..i still had swiss visa...
The law has been changed since 2010 and not every building has to have one. They now suggest more common/public area bunkers and in places where currently they would not be able to find a place for 100% of the people living there. So youa re right nearly all apartment complex have a bunker, same for workplaces etc
True
My gran's appartment building had one, and also my aunt's. My house doesn't
But i'm sure Tschernobyl pushed this law too
Germany and Switzerland: Lets build a bridge together.
Germany: Great! Job done.
Switzerland: We put explosives in our side.
Germany:wtf
@@AnkunShin
Germany would of been like: "of course you did."
is that ironic? or is that Karma coming onto Germany?
Remember the bridges Nazi Germans were determined to keep the A̶l̶l̶i̶e̶d̶ P̶o̶w̶e̶r̶s̶ U.S. from crossing to put Nazis at a disadvantage?
Germany: Ya we heard…we built spy surveillance into our side & slipped some into trucks/shoes of your workers for good measure.
Germany: Bro wtf I thought we were cool?
Switzerland: Sorry, force of habit
I have a friend who worked as UN intern, and she said if even the Swiss people have problem with your draft that means you have messed up real bad. And I can never forget.
Wdym draft? (Sorry)
@@roggiepogi211 I don't know some paperwork work or documents or something like that. I dont understand things like that 😂😓(No problem)
Draft? What does that mean?
Like when russia invaded ukraine and switzerland even banned russian banks?
@@dulguunjargal1199 pretty much. I worked on outphasing their servers :D No more IT infrastructure for russian banks in switzerland
Switzerland the type to responded to every story with “wow that’s crazy”
LMFAO YES
The best response if you weren’t really listening to the story someone was telling you
"that sounds hard, really hard"
Oh Germany’s invading you bro that’s sooo crazy *blows up every connection to the outside world* Aw man I’d come help but dang all my bridges n stuff are gone sorry man
wow that crazy! excactly what i wanted to say about the video. Learnd something about my own country here ;)
WWII : *is happening*
Switzerland : *bombs their own country*
Everyone else : he’s a little confused but he’s got the spirit
Well not actually bombing and it was removed recently
Swiss: I have a belt and I'm not afraid to hang myself
USA bombed the city schaffhausen because they thought it's a part of germany. Actually it's a part from switzerland
@@philg956 AHHAHA I LIVE RIGHT NEXT YO THEIR
@@whyhello9649 ...er
I'm swiss, it'as actually a thing that in switzerland, when you build a house either you build a nuke proof bunker in the basement or you have to pay a tax to sponsor community bunker and have a place in one. In case of danger everyone has a bed in a bunker. If you own a private one you most likely have a ton of wine and food in it as it is often used as a storage room :) Also about the big mountain bunkers I went to one recently transformed into a pretty cool escape game !
Do most people build the bunkers or pay tax ?
Did you do the "Quarantine" one in Vernayaz? I found it really interesting but also scary.
@@dominikparuzel4040 I think it's mandatory to either have a bunker or pay the tax. We have a bunker in our house
that is very cool
@@cyrillkuhn1309 I think he meant which option most people choose.
I was born in Switzerland. My parent are originally from Italy. I thank my parent to give me the chance to grow up here. It's a beautiful place and everything works. We are free, we live a good life and we lack of nothing. Thank you #switzerland
Abiti in Ticino?
Enjoy your mandatory military service
But you pay $35 for a Value Meal at McDonalds! 😂😨🤦♂️🇨🇭
@@swansbear at least they dont pay thousands to just visit the doctor lol
@@swansbear actually ~14$
aggressive neutrality
Yeeeeeee seal drop i love you 😂
Yeeeeeee seal drop i love you 😂
So sind wir halt
Aggressive? More like - if the price is right - anything goes. Friend or foe, no problem. We are neutral. We sell to you but also to your enemies. Because we do not discriminate, we are NEUTRAL - we - the Swiss.
Its not agressive neutrality. If there was a country with passive neutrality, they were already Belgiumed before they can declare it. Such is how the cruel world works.
There’s a story about a Swiss general in ww1 being asked by a German general what he would do if he invaded with 50000 men. The Swiss army at the time had 20000-25000 soldiers (I don’t remember), but were incredible marksman. The Swiss general said, “than we will shoot twice and go home”
That general's name was ulrich wille.
@@virajaher1282 he has a big willie
fucking legend.
a wise and simple man, i like him ^^
What a legend!
You've missed a critical fact, the head of the Rhine river is in Switzerland and Switzerland threatened to poison all of Germany's water if they invaded.
what a power move
sauce?
Can't find anything about that on the internet tho...
@@user-gu8me4fn6v Try a library lol. Not all information is on the internet
@@arbadas , Ragù Napoletano Sauce with Bricchetto tartufo cheese.
Really the most outrageous thing about Switzerland is that they chose a square flag when everyone else use rectangles.
Vatican city and Nepal want to know your location.
Underrated comment. I’ll wait for it to be famous
lol thats hilarious
thats a big plus
@@ValtintimeGaming I see what you did there!
I actually was shocked when I found out not every household outside of Switzerland has a bunker, growing up there it was just normal to use your bunker as storage lol
We have them in Singapore.
@Abе Pat yes, it think there is (or was) a law that there has to be enough bunkers for every person in switzerland. And if there isnˋt and you want to build a house you have to build a bunker in it.
Personally I think it is odd not to have enough bunkers, like if war breaks out unlucky for you but you will die.
@@supportgap7748 yep they are still there. The Highschool I went to has a large one including a military hospital.
Here in Israel we have them to
@@sleepworthy8349 Israel is like a country wide fortress lol
Its a direct democracy here in Switzerland. The people vote on literally everything. its a cash rich country and a really safe country but definitely not for extroverts.
I'm an introvert, where can I sign up?!
I would love the snow as well!
Yes like the law asking enterprises to regulate what they do outside switzerland, they vote for a yes however it's a no....hahaha....democracy...or hipocresy ????
@@juneauxmader9893 Well, there goes my luck XD
If only I had the guts tbh, idk XD
@@juneauxmader9893 HEY! Don't forget the swiss "romand" , the swiss that speak French ...no need to learn German ;)
Oooh you had me at the last sentence , sign me up
I'm Swiss and I can tell you that in Switzerland, there are many "clubs" to find bunkers. These clubs work like normal hiking clubs, but instead of hiking they just search for old bunkers and if they find one, they try to maintain it and go inside
Sounds cool. And being Swiss built they’re probably still structurally secure. Mostly. That sounds like fun.
Damn my lottery did not turn out good. I ended up being born in south asia
@@94D33MEast Pakistan??
@@cybersmite5002 Yeah Bangladesh
@@cybersmite5002 Who says East Pakistan?
World: *has a war*
Switzerland: I just hope both teams have fun
😂😂😂
Underrated comment lmao.
Switzerland: who needs weapons?
more like
*im playing on both sides so i always win*
@@Naturtyp they do. Switzerland has a big gun culture and don't fuck around when it comes to military.
In July 2012 the train to Bern was late, I remember it as 5-6 minutes.
Very traumatic. People was crying
For real?
@@DownedHarambe
Yes the train was late.
And we had a connecting train with only 10 minutes between them.
We and everyone else stood at the doors in fight mode and as soon as the doors open it was a mad run panic screaming to get people to move out of the way.
You can guess how it is for us to be in a foreign country where delays of more than 10 minutes are just part of the journey ;'D
@@GhostOfThisWorld you are welcome to visit Sweden.
Your life will never be the same again.
"SJ" can be late, but "Snälltåget" is in a different league.
100th like
Very wealthy, living in mountains, good at digging and drilling, not concerned with the outside world? Is it just me, or are the Swiss basically the Dwarves from Lord of the Rings?
lol. hahah but I think we are. (for real man). we actually have a lot of these (children)stories about dwarfs living in our forests and in the mountains haha
With the difference that the dwarves never departed their people with different beliefes to nazi germany
The funny thing is that J. R. R. Tolkien's "The Hobbit". The story with Wood-Elves, Dwarves inside mountain mines and a dragon is based on a hiking trip threw Switzerland that Tolkien participated in.
In medieval Switzerland people actually believed that there live dwarves inside the mountains, elves in the deep forests and dragons inside mountain caves. But there are just hidden so this is why no one ever sees them.
The orcs as far as I know it are based on an irish legend though.
Teufer2 yup Orcs represent invaders from England. Orc is derived from an old world for “foreigner”
Mir sind nur bürger..... people are not the GOVERMENT
Switzerland is a great country and democratic to the roots, people vote for any decisions made. One of the best places to live in the world for the past 150 years. A safe place, a place with friendly and polite people all around, top landscapes for leisure activities, and with a very high life quality at all. Hope this will continue and Switzerland and the people can maintain this favorable status.
Except for the choice of staying 'neutral' because the US War mongers said so.
@@CUbanageNT_24 Your point is a valid one but I doubt the Germans or Italians were very happy about it at the time either. Unfortunately the idiots you speak of are very real; they don’t represent all Americans but they are the least informed and the loudest.
@@CUbanageNT_24
triggered ruzzbot?
@@miliba am anti war
@@CUbanageNT_24 sure you are
"I may be homeless, but I am not bunkerless"
- Random Swiss guy
only thing is, the swiss social system is so well built, it's almost impossible to become homeless unless you want to
@@arkt1s551 True story 😂
Come to think of it we actually do open bunkers to house homeless people...
True! I have a pretty massive bunker in my own house! Use it as storage room.
@@nate7790 homeless in Switzerland is a paradox!
*World War III Starts*
Switzerland: *Quietly puts all the TNT back in the bridges, roads, and borders*
They never took it out.
@@PhoebusApollo360 Are you telling me that their citizens drive over tons of TNT everyday and they don't even know about it?
And they say Americans are explosive happy.
@@PhoebusApollo360 Shhhh...
they are already prepared for WW3. no one is gonna invade a nuclear bomb site. TNT not needed only enough bunkers and tunnels to keep the country going underground
@@arnowisp6244 Oh we knew about it. It was a requirement for the engineer to do the maths on where to put how much explosives to blow it up effictively and savely.
I know it sounds strange to foreingers. But we just grow up knowing that's normal. I guess we trust our engineers.
Switzerland is basically: "I have mountains and I'm not afraid to use them"
Do they grow enough food tho or do they have to import food?
@@user-uy1rg8td1v as far as I know, the Swiss' crop 70% of their food by themselves and 30% is imported
@@user-uy1rg8td1v it’s actually regulated by law that there always has to be enough of essential food products like flour, salt, sugar,… stored in big storages in order to feed the whole country for up to a year in case of emergencies like wars or crop failure
But if your enemy bombed all away your Villages and industrial factorys in the lowlands (where the most of the population lives) in the north you cant hide in the mountains but not for years.
@@stanvandersluis8486 that wasn't the plan, the plan was (as explained in the video) to make it just not worth it to invade.
And it worked.
I visited Switzerland in college. It was the coolest and most beautiful place I've ever seen and I have a life-long dream to move there one day. The culture fits me perfectly too. Hopefully it will work out... some day.
I hope, it's very nice in Here : )
You forgot one measurement. There is a saying: "Switzerland does not have an Army. Switzerland IS an Army". They have mandatory military service, and not a small one. Every male needs to go. And until you are 34, there are trainings every year. Yes you heard that right. So they got a shitton of reservists, that will need to fight, if they have to. But that is not the crazy part. Everyone that was in that mandatory service keeps all the Equipment. And until 2007(!), long after any higher Chace of war, EVERYONE kept their damn assault rifles including ammunition.
So in the more serious years, were there could have been a war... Most were able to instantly jump into their military uniforms at home, put their rifle on the back and go. Wich would have been of course mandatory.
Also, in todays times, being in the Swiss Army is propably a great Job, I guess. Usually Soldiers are payed well and in current times, most Jobs are riskier then the Swiss Army. They won't get into any conflicts world wide, they will not attack and most likely will not be attacked either.
Don't put too much hype into the reliability of a reserve component of a nation's military. They're shaky at best.
Good on them for no shootings, also Switzerland is pretty much Sparta.
@@alr6111 Normally this is true, but if you consider the swiss history and culture, you may find the exception here. I hope well never find out.
@@delta.11 In the US, I believe the equivalent are the National Guard stations, where reservists will go to receive weapons and instruction. I also believe under certain circumstances plans are in place to move equipment and aircraft if needed.
@@TanteEmmaaa Well in our history we were mostly farmers and farms were most of the time passed on to either the oldest or the youngest son ( most of the time there were 3 or more sons in total). So the other men in the Family usualy became mercanaries to fight in the many wars of medival europe.
When modern Firearms came up there was a kind of gun culture were we would organize in shooting clubs and have Shooting competitions with each other ( achieving the most points on 300m distance). This lead most Swiss people to be so skilled at firing rifles that in the first world war when the Kaiser thought about coming through switzerland through our reserve system we had about 500k to a million soldiers ready and the comanding general is said to have said " If you come and attack us, all we have to do is fire our rifle twice and we will have won".
In modern times this gun cultre is slowly but surely dying out sadly ( in my opinion ) many soldiers don't even want to keep their service weapon after training.
Wow this really got out of hand quickly sry for that long text
Europe: wanna join the party?
Switzerland: We don't do that here.
Hahaha
I'm swiss
Please allow me put it a tiny bit more succinctly:
Europe: Wanna join the socialistic party based upon taking Germany's, Holland's and (previously) England's money and throwing it over the fence to finance the overblown social systems of Italy, France, Greece, Spain and Portugal?
Switzerland: We don't do that here. We take care of ourselves, excercise fiscal responsibility, we don't live beyond our means, and we expect everyone else to do the same.
We are the only country in the world that has direct democracy for ALL levels of government and thus our citizens excercise true freedom. If you EU members would follows these two principles, you'd all be doing fine. But you're not, so we won't.
@@christheswiss390 Funny stuff, really. Did you know however that Switzerland, just like Lichtenstein, Norway and Iceland, is part of the Common market? What does that mean? I'm glad you asked. Well, to be part of the Common market, you have to become an addressee of all the EU regulation concerning this very Common market (free movement of goods, service, people and capital) and you have to pay for the privilege to be part of the Common market, yet you have no representatives in the EU institutions and you have no voting rights, you can't change the EU regulation in any means.... eh, what was that about the ''we don't do that here'' stuff, again?
@@philipcooper8297 LoL, you mean the shengen treatry, that predates the EU???
ofcourse, that treatry is a founding part for the EU as it is known today. And yes Swiss seems to be crumbling a bit latly under Preasure fron EU, as shown by some changes/adoptions of the EU tax System.... (mostly becouse of multiple external international preasure about banking, taxheaven, etc)
“Get off my lawn” - Switzerland
for some reason, that is the exact thing screaming inside my mind when the video goes to 3:29 lol
😂🤣🤣🤣Yes!👍🇨🇭💗
I wonder if this was a reference to Scott Morrison getting called out for stepping on some guy’s lawn during an interview
It is cold and uninviting so no problem. I'll not support the seed of le serpent.
Get off my lawn or I will blow my lawn up
So when Switzerland gets involved against Russia, you know its serious
the US forced us :(
@@uh_ke lies. switzerland has been wanting to do this lmao
nato puts a lot of pressure on switzerland suddenly it just made a small sanction and it is the russian people who take the damage, switzerland will do nothing else
More serious than Nazi Germany?
@@uh_ke Are you saying that the Swiss resisted Nazi Germany but could not resist the US? I guess that's saying smth about the US...
Switzerland: "I will be neutral"
World: "Doesn't work for us"
Switzerland [ominous]: "I wasn't asking"
I have never considered them to be, truly, neutral.
@@gwine9087 there are different perspectives to Switzerlands neutrality. In our schools we learn we are neutral I war but we will still try to make business with whomever we can. So we supply even now countries like the US with ammunition. So in a way we are but also not really. But you are completely right with what you also said.
@@thomasrothwell3300 Yeah, it‘s like we consider ourselves neutral as long as we sell the stuff to everyone and therefore treat them equally while making us less of a target.
@@gwine9087 True, you can only ever be truly neutral if you isolate yourself diplomatically, economically and also depending on the situation, geographically.
A fake neutral state created by the elite.
I remember running around in the forest as a kid in Switzerland. We always found bunkers and long lines of giant concrete blocks to block out tanks (like several kilometers long). Most of this stuff was abandoned and we didn't really understand what it was for, made a great playground tho
wow! that's so cool to hear. thanks for sharing
@@johnnyharris Yeah so if you go to the French speaking region (Suisse Romande), along the Swiss side of the lake between Geneva and Lausanne there are these lines of "Toblorone" Tank Traps that stretch all the way from the lakeside into the mountains. Some of the bunkers disguised as houses in the video actually hid cannons so that tanks that tried to go over the traps, exposing their underside (where there was little armor) would get shot. You can hike all the way along them.
Also: During WWII the Swiss Air Force shot and forced down a lot of planes (both US and German) infringing on their airspace. The US accidentally bombed Schauffausen and a couple of other cities while Germany tried to sabotage Swiss airfields after some of their planes were shot down but failed. Minor details but it says a lot about the parties involved.
Totally! It was just a way of growing up. There was always a house around the edge of the village with windows painted on it, and a number of bunkers that were fun to explore. A lot of stuff is still very visible, (although I lived very close to the German border, so there's a lot more stuff there). Bunker hunting is a+ fun.
In Kent, England, along the marshes of the Medway (opening to the Thames River), as a Kid there were ruins from medieval castles, 19th Century forts with old barracks and WW2 military installations that had all been abandoned. They were a lot of fun to play in. There was one old WW2 American military base of some kind without a roof in the woods half below street level. Just concrete walls and trees growing up in the middle of it. We called it the maze because it ran all through the woods. We would run along the walls and jump from wall to wall and jump off. I was 11 before I was big enough to run up the wall and climb up. Lot's of scraped knees and a few broken bones between all the kids playing there.
In the 80's there wasn't money and the government had left a lot of old equipment lying around. Anti-aircraft guns (obviously not working), craters from bombs in the woods, and 19th century (Napoleonic wars?) cannons off their wheels lying on the floor. It was a playground but definitely pushed toward war games.
Hey there SkizzlePiano! So cool to hear that you played around those huge concrete blocks! We lived in Zug throughout the 90’s up until 2005. My Swiss husband told me that the concrete blocks were being removed, but apparently there are still quite a few still in existence. Btw, I’m a pianist and vocalist as well.
Nazi Germany: "We could invade you at any moment we like."
The Swiss: "Can i offer you guys any CANNONS during this trying time?"
He won his bet
well it hard not to attack when their hold all your gold and money... and shit...
I've been poisoned by my constituents!
Can I offer you a egg for this trying time
"..and a bank account?"
I was in Switzerland last year, beautiful country, very colourful, surprisingly warm.
To talk about the bunkers, my cousins live in this apartment building and there is a nuclear bunker in the building.
*Germany:* starts invading the rest of Europe
*Switzerland:* So anyways I started bombing
Hahahahahah 😂😂
Switzerland: *So anyways i started shooting AAA*
You didn't even mention what Swizterland is most famous for CORRUPT BANKS.oh and being bankers for the Vatican paedophiles.
@@artimmy1 lol
u
*WW3 Occurs*
Swiss: Look honey, the neighbors are fighting again
The World is at War with an evil Fascist dictator but Swissy decides not to fight to Fascism...Swissy stays neutral while the world burns. SHAME SHAME SHAME
@@The_Reality_Filter You are literally everywhere...
Who’s “honey”
@@The_Reality_Filter that your problem not our, deal with it yourself
@UpperClass Yes I am .
Pacifist: War is so evil. I hate all these walls, and bombs and cannons. We should just be neutral like the Swiss.
Switzerland: Sounds great.
Pacifist: So how do we do it.
Switzerland: Natural walls, and bombs, and cannons.
I am so sorry you do not live in a perfect world sweerhart
Well that's the thing about pacifism. All you need is one psychopath in a world full of pacifists and he can take over the world. Being a pacifist and a realist at the same time is hard.
*natural cannons*
Being neutral is not about friendship and peace. It's about understanding and abusing powerstructures to keep the fight away from you.
This sounds a lot like when in the movie Ant-Man, Hank Pym talks Scott Lang into breaking into the Avengers compound to get a component. Don't know if you knew about that from before...
Swiss neutrality is less “please don’t invade me” and more like “invade me, if you dare”
It johnny at any Point of time, decides to be a world history teacher, I am so gonna try to attend all his classes. 😊
He is and you did.
@@PhilipDosa hahah I was thinking the same thing!
Meanwhile checkout crashcourse by John Green. He's pretty good!
If I am a history teacher, I’d make all my students watch his vids and do essays on their thoughts about these topics. Kudos!
So true 😂
Imagine if this was in history class then history wouldn’t suck so much
The problem is always the stupid assignments after you learn cool things like this but then here you go do a 2 page sa on bla bla bla
@@b3n_ketchup586 absolutely
Nah the problem it that it would take so much time to learn something so small
Yes history was very interesting
I would enjoy it
Invading Army: Wait a minute. Where are your defenses at the border?
Switzerland: You fool! Our defense is the border.
Very good point you make. The reality is actually very sad. During WWII, Switzerland being exposed to Germany, the Swiss military ordered 800 K men to retreat into the mountains and dig in.
Their wives and their children, their families, their mothers, and fathers - they were left in their villages and cities. Totally unprotected!! Glory for the Vaterland.
@@bertsole7278 les soldats allemands n'étaient pas réputés pour violer les femmes et assassiner les enfants, au contraires des alliés américains anglais et russes qui se distinguaient dans toute leurs saloperies...
@@raphaelglauser3508 Vous en avez encore beaucoup des conneries comme ça? Demandez aux russes ce qu'ils pensent du comportement des soldats allemands sur le front de l'est!
@@adriant9840 Both are French, but I think different dialects.
François Badoux says this (again G-translate): Do you still have a lot of bullshit like that? Ask the Russians what they think of the behavior of German soldiers on the Eastern Front!
@Johnny Harris - What are your thoughts about Switzerland breaking their neutrality for the first time in over a century to actually sanction Russian assets and side with the EU and the allies?
Why is this so far down
It‘s a shame!! I just don‘t understand why the world sanctions russia because of a war, but when USA bombs middle eastern countries and still is bombing Somalia there is no problem… double standards!
Swiss here. Times have changed. Also, Switzerland badly needs a new trade agreement with the EU. Also, the Swiss government acknowledged that an attack on Ukraine undercuts the security of whole Europe, and thus, Switzerland itself.
I like this much more than the neutral Swiss stance during South Africa's Apartheid.
@@samsandul397 it’s very difficult to sanction America. They’re pretty self sufficient in some respects.
I hope they do sanction america.
Just to clarify action have been take in line with the norm stated by the united Nation and EU by which we were bounded. In other words we follow the law and acted once the breaking of international law by Russia has been confirmed. Our neutrality you have to imagine that it works by the fact that we will not guarantee the indipendente of any nation, we will not accept the guarantee of our nation by other country and our government will not use his executive power against other nation in any circumstances if not directly attacked. This doesn’t mean we will not help Ukraine but just we will do it diplomatically and with humanitarian mean not militarily and we will send to f*** off Russia our way.
Random dictator: “I declare war on Switzerland!”
Switzerland: “No.”
But I do confess we were a bit worried about Gaddafi.
Had some newsarticles but not for long. 🙃
Can’t fight anybody if there’s nobody to fight!
The dictator won't invade their bankers.....
@@Baerli92 Also, Afghanistan could be a neutral country if it so wanted. The world's largest superpowers have failed there.
@@waqasahmed939 sure the superpowers have failed afghanistan, i am with you in that.
but my commentar was about gaddafi who was pissed off bc swiss took in some of his familys servants who run away on a diplomatic visit. and maybe some other reasons.
"The Swiss like being neutral"
those are big words coming from a country where the flag looks like a proton
Or in some places it is the look for emergency support
PatrickAndFriendsPRO the flag is neutral (same length into all directions)
is this considered the 'bad mouthing the swiss' comment?
@@BFiorini-b9o That's because the red cross was built in switzerland and the symbol was made in inspiration of swiss neutrality
It’s square and can be hung any way round. Pretty damn smart.
fun fact: every school here has a basement which is also a bunker
I can confirm
It was pretty normal to me
I can also confirm✅
My school ISB international school of Bern does not
@@Nokyyyyy Our school too.
@@brebrakin6849 that's not a school, just some institution for the rich.
Another well made and informative video. Now I want go hiking in Switzerland. I have gone climbing Austria and it was awesome. Switzerland looks like fun. Thanks Johnny!
I am Swiss and it's pretty funny that you just uploaded this video, because just earlier today we had the topic of Switzerland during WW2 in college.
It's actually a pretty complex topic and Swiss people to this day don't completely agree on why they haven't been attacked by Hitler. Some strongly believe that it was the "strong" Swiss military and the "Réduit"-strategy in the alps, that saved them. Others say it was the cooperation with Nazi Germany. Historians say that both of it was needed and that another important reason was, that Germany had a hard time in Russia. Germany could have easily invaded Switzerland, but it would have cost them too many resources, which Germany just couldn't afford to lose, because of their Russia expedition had bad luck. There are actually documents of Nazi officials stating that it would be possible to invade Switzerland, but also really tricky.
The cooperation of Switzerland also proofed useful to the Germans. As a part of the contract with Germany, Switzerland had to deliver resources (weapons and other) on credit, which Germany didn't need to pay upfront. Additionally Germany could sell their gold to the Swiss National Bank in exchange for foreign currencies without proofing its origin. This way they then sold gold they had stolen from countries they invaded (also some stolen gold from jews, but not that much). In return Switzerland could continue to trade food and coal, which they really needed. Germany also allowed a corridor to trade with the allies.
Summing up, the continuing Swiss independence and neutrality was a result of many different factors. The importance of the different factors is even today between historians still under debate.
As always, the reality isn't black and white but wears all the shades of grey (no references to the porn).
I mean the reason why is easy. Why would have Hitler wanting to invade a well organize small country? Too much of effort if you want to go far..
I can give a much more simple explanation for "why they haven't been attacked by Hitler".....
he's dead
This was really interesting, thanks for the insight :)
It's a fallacy to believe that the national socialists wanted warfare against anyone. That's absurd.
The national socialists Germans didn't want war.
Hitler wrote his political testament, one day before committing suicide, he stated that it is untrue that I or anybody else in germany wanted war.
You can look it up
so i live in switzerland all my live and until this video i haven't realised how many bunkers we had. i even just realised during this video that my laundrey room is a bunker :)
Ours is currently used as a wine storage chamber. 😅
Mine is used as a electronic room or storing things that needs darkness but not in fridge like cheese, mostly from Nepal(a mountainous country like switzerland with great cheeses).
I keep my slaves in the bunker
@@ragunathsubramaniam8268 Dude!😆 Like servant maid or legit slaves?
@@Batman-jc8to yeah I wish we could use our mountains like Switzerland , nepal needs to learn to drill the mountains
Switzerland is like the quiet kid. He won't show up to any parties but that doesn't mean you should mess around with him.
The World is at War with an evil Fascist dictator but Swissy decides not to fight to Fascism...Swissy stays neutral while the world burns. SHAME SHAME SHAME
@@The_Reality_Filter they were completely surrounded by Germany and Italy, wtf do you expect them to do? it was either stay neutral or die. aligning with the Allies in any way would have gotten them killed
@@DistantFungus20 that's some great excuses you're making for the Fascist Friendly Swiss.
@@The_Reality_Filter triggered
@@DistantFungus20 Yo Bro do you love Bro Rogan too bro? He's like soo funny bro. Bro!
This totally aged well
like milk Lo
@@Fa397bio ?
They even drilled holes in their cheese!
Lol
Good one
This actually made me laugh
Hahahahahah
Underrated comment..hahahahahhaa
I remember when they dissmantled the bomb in the bridge in my town. I was a kid and didn't know why tf there was a bomb in the bridge
Probably need zink or an electric charge to set it off so it was safe.
199
About the bunkers in homes: I am a civil engineer in Switzerland and already have designed several of these bunkers. They aren't mandatory for private construction but are heavily subsidized. Since people want to build basements for storage anyway it is common practice to have bunkers built in private homes. During peace-time they are used for storage but in case of a civil war they are to be emptied in order to be equipped with everything necessary to be used for their intended purpose. The time estimate between the notification to empty your compartment and the completion of the
repurposing of the bunkers in the whole country is about 2-3 weeks. Which is kind of a joke considering the advance warning in case of a nuclear attack are only a couple of hours at best.
I read that we have to pay a tax though if we don't have a shelter in our house. Is that correct?
@@trekadouble757 Yes, more or less. Buildings with more than 38 rooms require the provision of enough space in a bunker for all the inhabitants of the building. If you don't want to build it yourself, you have an obligation to pay a compensation (a single payment of about 500 $ per person I think) to the state who will provide room in their shelters. So: for small and medium houses there is not even an obligation to compensate missing bunkers. For large residential buildings there is. In any case: Building the bunker itself is not mandatory.
I want a post apocalyptic story where the main characters get to Switzerland and find everything carrying on like normal there
Switzerland is the Europe version of Home Alone
Forever alone is the winner
Yea other people are
trouble most of the time..much happier to be alone
@@aryan-oh5qm you think I’m Muslim?
AHAHAHHAHAHAHH
@@peppersgone5044 everyone is human.
I’m surprised you didn’t mention Switzerland’s mandatory military service and how they can raise an army of 800,000 almost instantly
Doesn't fit the agenda
@@IgnasV What on earth are you talking about? It fits the narrative perfectly
@@IgnasV What... agenda??
Doesn't fit the leftist communist agenda lol
They could probably mobilize the entire population to take pot shots and taliban style tactics.
Switzerland is the introverted, quiet kid and they’re surrounded with all these extroverted popular kids.
The Introverted kid that hates muslims.... unfortunatly
@@jonathanerhard8353 Isolation is blinding some of us. But if you go to international towns, people are quite tolerant. And the racist political groups in the country, while still being the most popular overall, are losing ground each votation. Probably due to internet and the end of uninformed people.
@@mitoo4880 that's great to hear :) lets hope the trend continues
@@mitoo4880 Framing is the tool from racists.
Ur a racist?
@@Wankdorf183 Those are just sophism you're using. Language abuses. You say you extract truth from language, when you're really just pushing its limit to your advantage. I bet you know inside that what you're doing is bullshit.
Thank You Johnny!! I consider myself a ww2 geek but did not know of the Swiss bunkers within the alps!
Cheers!
It's not really strange that they would trade mostly with the Axis powers when they are land locked and surrounded by Axis powers.
Sell them weapons
Reminds me of why some ruling party MPs in my country previously called some opposition MPs hypocrites for not expressing their views over various social issues being debated; because the former regards that as a way for the latter to remain friendly with people on both sides of the debate & gain what seems to be 'unfair' advanage (like having one's cake & eating it too). When it comes to diplomatic/inter-country relations however I figure that governments might find it easier to justify such neutral behaviour though, on the grounds that each government is looking out for the best for their own people?
How could they manage to trade if they have bombed their roads and bridges??
@@ahmeddabboussi7370
If the only trading partner invades, does that even matter?
That’s called distance decay.
I naively thought Switzerland wanted to stay neutral and everybody was like OK we'll allow it. I had no idea they worked so hard to ensure that neutrality
I thought too for some weird reason, probably because Swiss neutrality is not really the center of focus when talking about ww2. But this explanation makes way more sense
We didn't decide on our own. First it was enforced back in the early 16th century. That more or less worked, but there were multiple treaties like the Treaty of Westphalia 1648, the Treaty of Paris 1815 that recognized and obligated us simultaneously to Neutrality. We haven't been part in a war since 1815.
Especially 1815 is very relevant, since the UK, France and Prussia ratified that treaty of Neutrality. The very same Nations that would wage 2 World Wars a century later and are to this day cursing and mocking us for our Neutrality.
We simply recognized that neutrality is best for the Swiss population and proceeded to defend it with force if we have to.
@@Reflox1 Philosophically speaking, it does raises the question though how someone can ethically choose to be neutral while 'next door' such atrocities take place? Setting aside that the actual Swiss government, banking system and corporate branches favoured the Nazis (so long for the 'neutrality' myth I'm afraid). Survival instinct kicks in in those situations, fair enough. Does it make it ethical on a personal level? Sitting back and watch? Not sure about it. Other countries chose to stand up (for whatever circumstantial reasons or not) and resist. They paid it in blood, but they have history's respect for it. Not sure that Switzerland has that either.
@@LingerVV The industry favored the Axis because they were the only viable trading partners and because it was imposed on us to some extent by Nazi Germany. Look at a map after the fall of France and tell me how we should have been able to export goods to the Allies or import from them. We're a landlocked nation of the size of a single state of Germany. Do you actually believe we should have martyred our people for the perceived morally right thing? Throw lives away with no hope of achieving anything just for the sake of it?
If you actually believe this, then I hope you never hold any kind of office or power.
Switzerland really took the "if I insult myself no one will insult me" To "if I bomb myself no one will invade me"
13:07 Yeah, this aged fast
@Shaurya Explores They picked a side in the current European war
Swiss had a power move: I guess it wasn’t the explosives, weaponry but their banking. The Nazis preferred to bank with them so they stayed neutral while the allies didn’t want to mess with em and add more to their problems. They made sure that both parties in a war would have no profit attacking them. That’s a real power move I guess
Swiss banking became big after WW2
Nazis didn't really preferred to trade with Switzerland, but it was their only chance to sold gold for money. The swiss banks bought a lot of gold from the Nazis, and they kept it until they could. That gold was obviously taken from the gold reserves of the conquered States and from all the minority (mostly from the jewish people) that they kidnapped and killed.
Until the 90's nobody in Switzerland ever talked about it, the main reason for being left neutral was thought to be the defense plan, but in reality was all the deals and agreements that the Nazis made with the Swiss government. In the 90's these dirty clothes where found beacause the relatives of the Jews that were killed during the Holocaust tried to retake the gold and the goods that were taken from them, the problem was the swiss banking secret policy. In fact to obtain all their money and gold the relatives musted prove the death of their dead relative with a death certificate, that obviously nobody could have beacuse the Nazis treated and killed them as they were worse than animals. This brought the Swiss parliament to vote for a commission of independet experts in 1996 (if I'm not wrong) to better understand the role of Switzerland during ww2. The CIE (commission of independt experts) was given access to the Federal Archive and to all the classified documents. In 2002 the CIE released the final report (600 pages), known as the Bergier's Report (I don't know if it's a correct translation, in italian is called Rapporto Bergier, after the name of the commission's chief ). The final report is a shorter version of all the reports that the CIE wrote, 25 studies and 12'000 pages over 5 years of research, and contains graphics and classified documents from the Federal Archive. In the report is investigated the role of Switzerland during ww2, all the National policies, the military orders, the border policies and the situation of the refugees, the Jews, the gypsies, the minority that tried to enter Switzerland for protection, all the federal expulsion programs from the country and many other things were investigated in this moumental historic work. A lot of swiss people didn't like what they found out, everybody was used to belive that the reason for their luck was their mentality, their small but well organized and brave army, they maybe knew that they traded with the Nazis but they didn't know how much in reality those trades and agreements made with them were the real reason behind their success to avoid the war. To this day most of the swiss people ignore these things, because nobody wants to think that the swiss government made such horrible agreements to keep their population safe, nobody really teaches these arguments during school, just from few years those things are part of the teaching program of high school.
History is always a delicate thing, everybody thinks to know everything but in reality know so little about all the arguments and the parties involved. Memory and history is often time confused with each other, but to know the truth without involving feelings is truly complicated.
WW2 was and still remain a dark and heavy part of history, in that time nobody really won anything, all the parties involved committed crimes against humanity, from the Nazis to the Allies, everybody included (of course the victims were victims). Since history is written by the victors and the humans need a distincted division between bad and good, the Nazis (by that I mean the germans) became the absolute evil, and the Allies the absolute good. But Switzerland was in the middle, not really in the good side nor in the bad side, but since they didn't commited personally the crimes, Switzerland's history was written between the lines of the good side and the bad side was simply ignored.
(for anybody information, I'm swiss so if it doesn't seems all correct or european centered it's beacause I live in Switzerland, Europe)
@@alerossi8444 🤯 mind-blowing piece of information.
@@alerossi8444 i just want to thank you the time you took to write this.
@@alerossi8444 A very informative comment.
Thank you for writing, I would sugest you to edit the paragraph and make it look it more spaced out because when someone see the comment it becomes difficult to read and follow.
Swiss bridgebuilder: "dont trip on that wire!!!"
German bridge builder:"calm down i can look after myself"
Swiss bridge builder:" no but this is the fuse wire for the shitload of explosives we packed here in case you want to invade us"
@Aboorijal they where the bankers for all sides. define neutral. Also Hitler had his money in germany, but yes many wealthy germans put their money in a swiss bank to save their wealth from russians. it was not a suprise for many germans to lose the war.
@Aboorijal hahaha...you think the wealthy from european allies didnt stack their cash in switzerland? what if i told you they still do? yes they also sold material to the germans. the oerlikon anti air gun and ammo per example was sold to both sides. also diplomacy could not be cancelled with the germans as they where surounded by them and switzerland needed german coal for energy. funny still how you think you can lecture me in the history of my home. also it is very easy to judge from the outside when not being affected by the consequences. still the swiss granted asylum for the french army, jews and political enemies from the left. but go on...
German Builder: No bro thats the electrical wire for our surveillance system install…u weren’t spose to know bout it
I have been to Switzerland and I can attest that the trains there are amazing and supper efficient!
its seriously amazing how they've connected the country so well
You can tell just how important it is to the swiss by looking at what happens, when the railway had a blackout: ua-cam.com/video/HwUSNSpwZlg/v-deo.html
@@johnnyharris There is even trains in the mountains! I took a train to St. Moritz (1,856 m.).
Also super expensive! When i was in switzerland i prefered to hitchhike
Can confirm. I live there.
Johny Harris, you my friend are amazing! I’m learning things that I always wanted to know and things that I never even knew!
Much love and support from India 🇮🇳
Wo sind mini schwizer?🇨🇭🇨🇭
Ueeeee 4 tààg her...grùess us zùri
hallo!!!
Bärn Baby
Zürcher oberland
hoi us schaffhuuse... det wo d brugge und d strasse gsprengt worde wäred xD
I’d add that Swiss are the second most armed nation in the world (US is holding the top place). Therefore, even if you get through all the bombed bridges and passages, even if you get into a Swiss bunker, you ‘d find there an angry Swiss with a gun who knows how to use it.
They also have mandatory military training for citizens at 18.
Isn't Israel 2nd?
It might be one of the most armed nations but a very small amount of swiss citizens knows how to use a gun yet a lone own one. I’m pretty sure most of these guns are within the military not the general population
@@DieFliegendeGurke Actually due to the mandatory military service for guys more than 18 years old, a big part of the men population knows how to use an automatic weapon that you keep at home. You need to shot at least twice a year(in reglemented areas) for at least 10 years(the time you can be called in case of war) or you pay. At the end you can buy your weapon to keep it at home. And for the training and regulation with weapon its really strict in general and specially at the army if you do any kind of security mistake they take your weapon and you are not allowed to have one even in civil life.
English is not my mother language it might have some mistake in the text 🙈.
@@aryboss1514 dosent like every male in the world over the age of 40 who are healthy hade basic military training?
As a Swiss Citizen that doesn’t live in Switzerland it is cool to see history of my other home. One time when I was there I actually slept in a nuclear bunker. Very cool.
LEt me guess, you live in USA?
@@MrJakson112 probably
We all had a school trip sleeping in bunkers lmao
Haha same, been looking into the history . Such a cool video
@@lawganime9311 true that
Thanks for this well done video.Can't believe how little I knew about Switzerland. Knew of their landscape, like they were into "doing neutral", famed for banks & watches,fantastic place to visit, recreate and so expensive.
Had absolutely no idea about how they secured themselves from being invaded & keeping 'doing neutral'. A real revelations the way that they had created such structures, really practical defences, ending up with all these tunnels and bunkers. The amazing notion of using gunpowder and explosives around their perimeter, including bridges or whatever.
Obviously it's smart and essential to establish any needed constructive terms to relate to other regional countries and powers. Including where required permitting required transit routes and even secure storage of valuables.In Switzerland's circumstances their terms of engagement with Germany, including Hitler were pragmatic and reasonable.
rest of the world: Where is the nazi gold?
Swiss banks: ... No idea
Likely sold off to make up for the costs of WW2 neutrality
@Yaruu Salamander sooo you don't know where the nazi gold is then?
yes, more exactly the Bank for international settlements which is based in Basel Switzerland. They are the Bank of all national Banks around the world...That's Tuff
The gold was split between US, France, England .
10:45 aaaand here we are :-)
i never realized that i had a bunker in the basement in my previous apartment, i just thought it was normal for every basement to have that one room
Cowards always plan to hide. The World is at War with an evil Fascist dictator but Swissy decides not to fight to Fascism...Swissy stays neutral while the world burns. SHAME SHAME SHAME
@@The_Reality_Filter Cry about it, nuts!
@@The_Reality_Filter You really think we would have won anything if we went fighting? We are too small to fight with big forces. What would you do? Give up your entire Country to the nazis or try to save as many people as possible, even if this means trading with such sick men?
@@ann4ge2 Finland is much smaller than Swiss and they were fighting not running and hiding with the money and gold.
@@The_Reality_Filter Alright, first of all, Finland isn't smaller, it has less People. Second, Finland wanted to stay neutral al well, but they got attacked from Sowjetunion, so they bacame allly with germany. Thats not better than us. I don't say its good what we did and i am not proud of this side of us. (I am sorry for my english, its just school English)
I’m Swiss, the hospital my mom works at has an underground bunker hospital right below it filled with 40s equipment it could remain active in case of an invasion. Now it’s more of a novelty since the equipment is pretty outdated.
I totally love Switzerland too. But there are some little downers to the myth of Swiss peacefulness and neutrality that my Swiss friends taught me. One, the reason CH traditionally had so many well trained and experienced soldiers (even the Vatican is still protected by the Swiss Guard) is that the Swiss cantons (states) have a centuries long history of vicious infighting that continued into the 1800´s. Two, neutrality in the 1940´s also meant that CH would not admit Jewish refugees fleeing the Holocaust. And three, the country´s neutrality and independence was partly paid for by the Swiss banking system serving as a safe haven for the booties of dictators, drug lords, and all sorts of shady figures from around the world.
Thank you for your far more honest look
"...Two, neutrality in the 1940´s also meant that CH would not admit Jewish refugees fleeing the Holocaust... ", According to this article that's actually false: www.swissinfo.ch/eng/switzerland-and-2ww_new-study-claims-swiss-rejected-fewer-jews-during-nazi-era/43217360
Most refugees were actually admitted and only a small part were sent back.
@@benigempi why would you send poor people back. That's cruel
@@greenmachine5600 Yeah you're right. But there's almost no country in the world who hasn't done that. It's also very important to think about the historical context. It's not like Switzerland's people had it easy themselves during that time. I'm not trying to say Switzerland did nothing wrong, they certainly did but so did pretty much every other country.
@@greenmachine5600 so pretty much what happend was:
Some people disguised as jew entered in the country.
I read books about a jew trying to enter in Switzerland and send back because they didn't believe him.
If you’ve ever had a hard time understanding chaotic neutral, look no further than Switzerland.
"valuing personal freedom above all else"
yep, sounds about right
Until you learn that the fuckers trade weapons and tanks like shit
@@hendrikherbst4936 lol u clearly dont understand. thats called neutrality.
@GoodSirChristof "chaotic" does not per se mean "disorganized" / "does not have a plan", it is more an Outlook on life
@@hendrikherbst4936 you don’t understand chaotic neutral.
When I was a child in Switzerland each household got told where their allocated bunker is. Was just normal do me.
Cowards always have somewhere to hide. The World is at War with an evil Fascist dictator but Swissy decides not to fight to Fascism...Swissy stays neutral while the world burns. SHAME SHAME SHAME
@@The_Reality_Filter Well they're much smaller than their enemies you expect Switzerland with a population of 8 million to go against Germany with a population ten times that.
@@fullmetaltheorist Finland had a population of 3 million and it didn't stop them...Next EXCUSE please...
@@The_Reality_Filter They are literally surrounded, in Finland the Soviets only came from one direction. They only had a population of 7 million, while Germany and Italy had together an population of around 130 million. Germany and Italy also had way more soldiers, tanks, aircraft and had a better economy than Switzerland (Italy had a bad economy, but still) . Also Germany and Italy could cut off Switzerland from its supplies, which would starve the Swiss population.
In the beginning of WWII Switzerland would have been completely destroyed by Germany.
Near the end of WWII Switzerland could have fought against Germany but the Allies were already destroying Germany, even if Switzerland would have joined the war, nothing would have changed.
@@The_Reality_Filter can you survive a nuker blast well no if you do not hide
"The Swiss will probably continue to stay neutral". this didn't age well lmao
well they became one sided for first time in couple hundreds of years, putin really united whole europe
The ukraine war? They're still technically neutral
@@NetralFN Well its a complicated thing but Switzerland did join the EU with the sanctions against Russian Oligarchs etc. Which goes against neutrality. However it was in our best interest since the EU wanted to sanction us when at first we didn't join them sooo...
@@Mati1268_ bro politics fuck switzerland there was no referendum
@@NetralFN bro man technical we are full in economic war
Getting a good spawn point like Switzerland is really difficult.
I actually am very grateful for being born in such a great country!
@@Mario-jr9vl Same. And we should be. There are only a few places like this, where you have to *TRY. HARD* to be poor, unemployed, unhealthy etc. I don't see myself as a patriot, but daaaayum boi, sure is awesome here.
Dude i spawn near the big clan and its kinda cool they give me loot
@@andrebeatz15 Love it when good Samaritans hand out free loot to the new frogs....
I'm so glad for having this spawn😄
I am just 2 sec into the video and already amazed with the map work that on the screen. Always look forward to the videos from the Harrises
thanks! I poured many many hours into the maps on this one.
@@johnnyharris does your pc burn?
who's the other Harris?
Shivam Kimothi Iz Harris
@@johnnyharris There was also the map at 9:49 created for an alternate history scenario, The Thousand Week Reich. But yeah you created some very nice maps.
I lived in Switzerland for three years for work. I took a train every day and it was NEVER late. In the UK you almost deliberately don’t rush because you know the train is going to be late 😂
Lol 😆 🤣
Ahaha
well in germany you arrive 15 minutes after the train should have already departed and you are still early
Well in India ...
for what reason you guys have a watch?
Man this video really contextualizes the recent news about Switzerland sanctioning Russia.
"Si vis pacem, para bellum"
"If you want peace, prepare for war"
- Latin proverb
"If you want peace, you need cannons." - Swiss version
To secure peace is to prepare for war - Metallica
"WHY ARE ALL THE REPLIES QUOTES"
-some screaming guys
roblox
Reminds me of John Wick 3: Parabellum
"A good king is the one who never wants the war but is always prepared for it"
Well said 🙌🙌
Odin, from marvel comics.
I watched your video on 'Why Britain's the Center of the World' yesterday and I think I heard you say May 28th's your birthday, so HAPPY BIRTHDAY from London!!! Thank you for all the amazing and insightful content!!
yes indeed. thanks so much Oliver!
Nice! Happy birthday!!!
@@johnnyharris now isn't that romantic? He remembered!
@@johnnyharris Happy Birthday !! Thanks for all the amazing content you put out for us!
Happy birthday Johnny!! 🎉🎉
Can we just appreciate Johnny for his extraordinary editing skills and picture detailing,factual detailing for this video.
😂
Absolutely fascinating. A part of WW2 history that I had no idea about. Looks like there's massive airbnb potential in Switzerland with all those spare bunkers!
haha for real!
@Luis Muñoz Switzerland is way too expensive even for its citizens and Europeans.
Refugees have no hope to be independent there.
How about horror movie potential 😨
Im gonna fuck up those Airbnb with the swiss Sturmgewehr
Luis Muñoz I remember there was some outcry about refugees actually being housed in bunkers! It‘s real dark down there, no one should have to live like that (unless ofc we get into actual war)
World: Massacres, Navy, Nukes
Switzerland: Popcorn, Netflix, explosives.
The world: Nooo, you can't just stay neutral in every war!
Switzerland: Haha, explosives go boom!
Thank‘s for that good laugh
Haha Hitler gives money
Yes, you can !
@SomeSwissGuy we gave money to the Swiss for the same reason we gave planes to the Soviets and bullets to the Brits. Hitler gave the Swiss money to squirrel it away in the mountains like a dwarven king.
I'm an American, but I'm sure as sh×t not simple... lol
One interesting fact about destroying the access points like bridges, dams or tunnels. They tracked down the engineers who built those structures in the first place and charged them with coming up with the fastest most thorough way to destroy their own work.
Many of the old mountain fortresses were turned into museums after their decommissioning in the 90s. So if you do what every tourist does in Switzerland - coming to the Bernese Oberland - I would highly recommend visiting one of the old artillery stations. They had far reaching artillery cannons to fire at the Aare valley around Thun and stop enemy forces from entering the mountainous region. For size perspective:
Festung Waldbrand (one of them) was made for around 600 men operating around 10 cannons and it includes storage for 500'000 liters of drinking water.
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Regarding the personal bunkers mentioned in the video: If you build a house you have to either provide shelter for the people living in it or you have to "buy" a shelter place from the municipality. Currently we would have shelter places for 120% of the population.
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Don't hesitate to ask for visiting & bunker hunting tips as well as general info & facts!
(there are obviously many more artillery fortresses than the ones mentioned, but these happen to be right in the most touristy region)
the antisocial dude whos chill with everyone but doesnt want to hang out
Ha! That's exactly me. Funny I'm swiss too.
Somebody trying to invade your personal space?
Bomb all the doors in your house, and the stairs to the 2nd floor, and while they try climbing to your room, you have enough time to fortify your room and soundproof it
I'm that guy as well
Jimmy Wijaya why are you holding an entire country responsible for the ignorance their dead ancestors did?
Jimmy Wijaya would you like to be held responsible for shit ur grandparents did?
I live in Switzerland and the giant map you showed at the start of the video was the same we had in primary school hahah I'm shoked
Literally searched for a comment like this bc same
À l'école y avais tout le temps cette map😂
Ich au Lmao
haha mir hend au genau die charte ka😁
I assumed the same. He probably spend a bit to get that thing shipped to the states.
I'm Swiss, for me it is still a miracle how we survived two world wars without fireing a single shot
Normal schools: Proton is positive electron is negative neutron is neutral.
swiss schools: proton is neutral electron is neutral and neutron is *NEUTRAL!*
I had a stroke reading this
George same bro same
Bruh... add some commas
You mean a proton is a positive subatomic particle and an electron is a negative subatomic particle ;)
after reading this comment i was shocked and got a heart attack to death
It was required by law that every house and public building needs to have enough bunker space for everyone.
There is something similar in Israel, a room called Mamad, that must be built in any house or apartment. Not really a bunker though.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Merkhav_Mugan
It still is law. Initiatives to have it changed got voted down after the Fukushima disaster.
Exactly, and it still is. The fact that this applies to both private and public buildings is also the reason why the bunker capacity is higher than the total population. (For example: Every kid has a place in their home bunker, but their school is also equipped to house all students)
@@ninoez technically it's still the law but only for habitations with more than 38 rooms. Its used to be mandatory for all houses
@@Schnabeltassentier technically it's still the law but only for habitations with more than 38 rooms. Its used to be mandatory for all houses
Bunkerhunting in Switzerland : searching for sand in the Sahara.
Oh gosh yes. Of just anything related to the military. Go on a little walk on the country side and truly look around. You might spot some infra structure....
True, everytime you go hiking in Switzerland you find bunkers😂
@Alain Dellepiane idk haha
where i live there are like 3 bunkers in 1 SMALL forest
Lmao yeah, I live near a huge abandoned military airport, and on nowadays you can only find police training courses, horseriding tracks and cows on the surface. If you look at it from above, it would look like a flat piece of land dotted with various hills and elevations. Every single one of those hills is hollow. All of them are either bunkers in themselves, entrances to a larger complex or spaces where turrets could have been concealed I tried finding an official count of how many there are, but I couldn't find anything. All I can say is there's probably a good 30 hills there, maybe more. Some of them are accessible to the public and are used as exhibition halls nowadays. Every community/district has several expansive air raid shelters, often underneath schools or other community, buildings that together could house almost the district's entire polulation. My family's house of course has its own bunker, like any house that is of a certain size, or older than say 30-40 years. We store our food down there. It took me until my late teens to realize that no, this is not normal for every other country. It's just such a normal part of life, you don't even think about it. Also, while hiking, I've come across multiple concealed anti-aircraft turrets already. Absolutely fascinating.
I was privileged to visit Switzerland in 2004. Stayed a week.... I also share your love of this amazing place
World: collapsing
Swiss: eats popcorn.
Just moved to Zurich last month from California. Very much feels like this.
The chocolate...
This is pretty much accurate.
@Daniel Bally Ok, let's compromise (another typical Swiss feature...): Chocolate coated popcorn
eride810 hope you are enjoying but first of all welcome ! 😉😃
Only in Switzerland is this a threat
“Don’t invade me or I will destroy myself!”
Actually its not, its quite common to destroy the infrastructure and fall back
@@roger9820 its a joke
It kinda fits with the dutch as well with them trying to flood the country when germany invaded
@@roger9820 Heard S Korea has a similar doctrine too in case of a N Korean invasion?
@@lzh4950Switzerland has a mission for peace keeping at the Corean border... no, there is no coincidence...
A shame that you didn’t mention the airbase inside of a mountain , Meiringen still has an active airforce inside a mountain
you say airbase,.. but there are more then one, and some highways are landingstrips
thats pretty cool
@@pen5666 it's a little misleading... the airstrip and most of the "airbase" is outdoors in the valley... inside the mountain is like a control room and "normal" rooms for troops (including bedrooms, kitchen, ... like there are many in Switzerland). the special thing about it is, that there are some hangars build in the mountain big enough to work/make repairs on the airplanes. but by no means big halls or anything.
Many Swiss highways have removable center lanes which can then be converted into runways for nearby military jets stored in the mountains. The Swiss Air Force will be taking delivery of the F-35. This decision, like all major spending decisions in Switzerland was made by referendum, meaning the people voted to decide whether to go through with this purchase or not. Democracy at its finest. 730 years and counting!
More than this all the secret big Artillerie and the General Guisan realy Important man in ww2 but hey is one of the best video about switzerland ww2 ! 🫡💯💯💯💯🇨🇭🇨🇭
You should make a video "What made Switzerland break their everlasting neutrality?" 🤣🤣
He forgot the mention that we have invented the Swiss-German language, which is the equivalent of an atomic bomb for your ears.
Heil die Schweiz!
Haha, würdi jetzt nöd so säge
@nuthurdu Pain.
immer die ammis i schwörs euch aber nit ohni grund bini stolze schwizzer richtig so gsi findi geil wiemers gmacht händ und wenn krieg chunnt wärde paar brückli ind luft gjagt und mir chilles ind bärge
Never heard of it but this makes me laugh 😅