Two days after Germany invaded Poland in September 1939, Britain and France declared war on Germany and World War II broke out. Dozens of countries, still recovering from the horrors of World War I, tried to stay neutral to avoid invasion and more bloodshed.
But a declaration of neutrality did little to insulate countries from the conflict if they were geographically desirable. “The fact that Norway’s coast straddles the North Sea has made it an area of critical importance to both Britain and Germany,” says Dr David Woolner, professor at the Marist college and author of The Last 100 Days: FDR at War and Peace. “It was this fact which led to the German invasion of Denmark and Norway in April 1940, and the British decision to intervene in the neutral Danish territory of Iceland shortly thereafter.”
This was also true for other countries, including Belgium and the Netherlands, both of which had declared neutrality before the war. Their neutral status made little impression on Adolf Hitler, who ordered his forces to invade both states as part of his attack on France in May 1940. Meanwhile, the Soviet Union invaded Lithuania, Estonia and Latvia in June. This allowed Soviet leader Joseph Stalin to expand his power, Woolner explains, and create a buffer between the USSR and Germany.
“In short, staying neutral in an ever-expanding war has proven virtually impossible for these nations,” he says.
The United States, protected by two vast oceans, however, remained neutral for more than two years despite finding ways to help the Allies. It officially entered the war after the attack on Pearl Harbor by the Japanese on December 7, 1941.
Countries that claimed neutrality throughout the war
Only 14 countries remained officially neutral throughout the war. They included Sweden, Switzerland, Spain, Portugal, Ireland, Turkey, Yemen, Saudi Arabia and Afghanistan as well as the microstates of Andorra, Monaco, Liechtenstein, San Marino and Vatican City.
But even states that managed to stay out of the war, like Sweden and Switzerland, found their ability to maintain strict neutrality hampered by the intensity of the conflict, Woolner says. The result, he adds, is “that they played a somewhat ambiguous – and still controversial – role in the war”.
A seminal 1998 US State Department report helped dispel the myth that there was a standard form of neutrality, citing that neutral countries continued to trade with Allied and Axis forces, sent troops to offer military assistance and allowed one side or the other access to its territory.
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The Nazis exchanged looted gold for Swiss francs
Workers inspect gold bars hidden by the Nazis in the Heilbron salt mines in Germany. (Credit: Getty Images)
Perhaps the most important finding of the report is that the Nazis bought essential war material from neutral countries using Swiss francs earned in exchange for gold looted by the Nazis from occupied countries and individual victims of the concentration camps. These materials included tungsten from Portugal and Spain; ball bearings and iron ore from Sweden; and chromite ore from Turkey, all essential to the German war effort.
Although neutral countries often cited fear of German reprisals as a motivation for maintaining trade with Germany, the report found that many continued until 1944, while Switzerland continued to trade until the end. of the war in 1945.
The report also noted the military assistance offered by neutral countries. Spain, whose civil war had just ended at the start of World War II, sent troops to the Russian front to help the German armed forces. Portugal granted the British access to its bases in the Azores. Sweden allowed German troops to pass through its territory to reach Finland in order to fight against the occupying Soviet forces, as well as to facilitate the occupation of Norway. It also protected German shipping in the Baltic.
Some nations swayed on either side, helped Jewish refugees
Jewish refugees in Malmö, Sweden, in October 1943, after fleeing from Denmark in small boats.
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Decisions and actions, even by one country, were often inconsistent. Argentina traded more with the Allies than with the Axis powers, but its wartime rulers leaned toward fascism; it was a center of espionage, smuggling and Axis propaganda; and it has long been suspected of being the destination of property looted by the Nazis.
Despite these contradictory actions, neutral countries offered sanctuary to 250,000 Jews fleeing the Holocaust, although each country’s response was unique. The authors wrote, “Acts of humanity and even heroism overcame the harshness or callousness of wartime refugee policies and reflected well on their governments and peoples.
The report concluded that neutral countries were able to maintain their status because of their history, geography, previous wartime relations with belligerents and, with Sweden and Switzerland, their historical traditions of neutrality. They all faced similar pressure from Allied and Axis powers, but their responses varied widely. As the report concludes, “In short, there was no uniform or absolute neutrality during World War II.”
