Swiss radio broadcast weekly programmes by Jean-Rodolphe von Salis in German and René Payot in French, which were widely listened to in occupied Europe, where they had a significant psychological impact.

Most newspapers, including German-language ones, were clearly sympathetic to the Allies.

Many church and other groups were active in supporting refugees, as were a number of individuals.

One of the best known today is Paul Grüninger, police chief of canton St Gallen, who disobeyed orders to enable about 3,000 Jewish refugees to enter Switzerland. He was sacked and not fully rehabilitated until 1995, long after his death.

Switzerland's vice-consul in Budapest, Carl Lutz, supported by his wife Gertrud and colleague Peter Zürcher, saved the lives of over 60,000 Hungarian Jews, mainly by giving them documents putting them under Swiss protection.

Gerhart Riegner, a German Jew who fled to Switzerland in 1933, was one of the first to alert the world to Nazi plans for the mass extermination of Jews.

A number of Swiss were active in France during the war; some hid Jews in their flats, or helped people in danger of persecution to escape to Switzerland. The Swiss Red Cross Aid to Children managed a number of children’s homes in France. These homes officially provided food and medical services, but in many cases the people running them also prevented the arrest of their inmates and smuggled children to safety in Switzerland.

Among the population support for Nazism was minimal. By 1939 the biggest party of the radical right, the National Front, had only 2,300 members. It was banned the following year.

On the other hand some ordinary Swiss resented the influx of foreign refugees, particularly at a time of economic hardship.

In addition, some members of the government and other highly-placed Swiss officials have been accused of being defeatist at best, and Nazi sympathisers at worst.

In particular, the chief of the aliens police, Ernst Rothmund, has been accused of anti-semitism. In 1938 he insisted that the Germans put the notorious "J" stamp in the passports of German Jews, who were then given different treatment from other Germans. Rothmund maintained that he did not want Switzerland to be "swamped" by people unable to assimilate to the Swiss way of life. At the same time, he categorically rejected the Nazis' treatment of Jews.

Switzerland's wartime conduct has been the source of much controversy. In particular it has been accused of turning away thousands of Jewish refugees, buying Jewish gold stolen by the Nazis and refusing to hand back assets deposited in Swiss banks for safekeeping by investors who died during the war. It has also been accused of helping prolong the war by supplying war material to Germany.

These charges were examined by the Bergier commission of expert historians, which produced its final report in 2002. While it showed clearly that many thousands of Jews were refused admission, and even handed over to the Germans, and that millions of francs worth of gold and other assets were declared not to have valid claimants, it also put Switzerland's wartime conduct into context.

The Bergier report has been a key element in leading the public to re-evaluate a period of history which had previously been largely ignored. Its thorough investigation threw light on both positive and negative aspects of Swiss behaviour.