Before the outbreak of the Second World War, Adolf Hitler made repeated assurances that Germany would respect Swiss neutrality in the event of a conflict in Europe.

[2] In February 1937, he assured the Swiss Federal Councillor Edmund Schulthess that "at all times, whatever happens, we will respect the inviolability and neutrality of Switzerland", reiterating this promise shortly before the German invasion of Poland.

"[2]In August 1942, Hitler further described Switzerland as "a pimple on the face of Europe" and as a state that no longer had a right to exist, denouncing the Swiss people as "a misbegotten branch of our Volk.

"[3] From a Nazi viewpoint, Switzerland, as a small, multilingual, decentralized democracy where German-speakers felt more of an affinity with their French-speaking fellow Swiss citizens than towards the German speaking people living across the border, was the antithesis of the racially homogeneous and collectivised "Führer State".

[5] Furthermore, the openly pan-German political aims of the Nazi party called for the unification of all Germans into a Greater Germany, which included the Swiss people.

"[6] In their maps of Greater Germany, German textbooks included the Netherlands, Belgium, Austria, Bohemia-Moravia, the German-speaking parts of Switzerland, and western Poland from Danzig (Gdańsk in Polish) to Krakau (Kraków).

[2] The author of one of these textbooks, Ewald Banse, explained "Quite naturally we count you Swiss as offshoots of the German nation, along with the Dutch, the Flemings, the Lorrainers, the Alsatians, the Austrians and the Bohemians ... One day we will group ourselves around a single banner, and whosoever shall wish to separate us, we will exterminate!

[14] However, this plan failed as the marchers were stopped by opposing parties before they could reach Vaduz and Hitler blocked any invasion into Liechtenstein following intervention by Alois Vogt.

When, two days after his election, the Wehrmacht invaded Poland and World War II began, Guisan called for a general mobilisation and issued Operationsbefehl Nr.

This first plan assigned the existing three army corps to the east, north, and west of Switzerland, with reserves in the centre and south of the country.

[21] Guisan reported to the Federal Council on September 7 that by the time Britain declared war on Germany, "our entire army had been in its operational positions for ten minutes."

[clarification needed] The Swiss 2nd, 3rd, and 4th Army Corps were to stage delaying actions at the border, while all who were able were to retreat to the Alpine refuge known as the Réduit national.

Franz Halder, the head of the Oberkommando des Heeres (OKH), recalled: "I was constantly hearing of outbursts of Hitler's fury against Switzerland, which, given his mentality, might have led at any minute to military activities for the army.

[5] With this purpose in mind, Heinrich Himmler in September 1941 discussed with his subordinate, Gottlob Berger, the suitability of various people for the position of Reichskommissar for the 'reunion' of Switzerland with Germany.

A document named Aktion S, found in the Himmler files, detailed at length the planned process for the establishment of Nazi rule in Switzerland from its initial conquest by the Wehrmacht up to its complete consolidation as a German province.

[33] Germany's wartime ally Italy, under the rule of Benito Mussolini, desired the Italian-speaking areas of Switzerland as part of its irredentist claims in Europe, particularly the Swiss cantons of Ticino and Grisons.

Ciano proposed that in the event of Switzerland's dissolution, it should be divided along the central chain of the Western Alps, since Italy desired the areas to the south of this demarcation line as part of its own war aims.