![A sandstone relief in the Töss Valley above Rikon features Polish motifs.](https://blog.nationalmuseum.ch/app/uploads/Das-zweite-Sandstein-Relief-im-Toesstal-oberhalb-von-Rikon-zeigt-polnische-Motive-300x225.jpg)
Eloquent witnesses to World War II: the sandstone reliefs in the Töss Valley
More than 100,000 soldiers from foreign armies were interned in Switzerland during World War II. Reminders of their presence can still be found today – in the Töss Valley in the Zurich Oberland, for instance.
![The Sennhof sandstone relief in the Töss Valley.](https://blog.nationalmuseum.ch/app/uploads/das-sandstein-relief-von-sennhof-im-tosstal-300x169.jpg)
![Polish-Swiss sculptor Romuald Polachowski is convinced that Polish internees created these figures. His father was one of the interned Polish soldiers.](https://blog.nationalmuseum.ch/app/uploads/der-polnisch-schweizerische-bildhauer-romuald-polachowski-300x172.jpg)
![Polish-Swiss sculptor Romuald Polachowski in his studio.](https://blog.nationalmuseum.ch/app/uploads/der-polnisch-schweizerische-bildhauer-romuald-polachowski-in-seinem-atelier-300x200.jpg)
![The interned soldiers were mainly used for agricultural work, so as not to compete with local businesses. This photo is from Langenhard near Rikon in the Töss Valley.](https://blog.nationalmuseum.ch/app/uploads/rodungen-internierte-1941-in-langenhard-300x193.jpg)
![he family of Ursula Vetter from Turbenthal in a picture from summer 1944.](https://blog.nationalmuseum.ch/app/uploads/die-familie-von-ursula-vetter-aus-turbenthal-auf-einem-bild-aus-dem-jahr-sommer-1944-300x194.jpg)
![Contacts between the interned soldiers and the local population were not allowed, but that didn’t stop people from socialising, as this photo with British soldiers from Bauma shows.](https://blog.nationalmuseum.ch/app/uploads/britische-soldaten-aus-bauma-300x201.jpg)
![A photo from World War II shows interned French soldiers posing on the mosaic floor at the Hirsgarten schoolhouse in Rikon.](https://blog.nationalmuseum.ch/app/uploads/internierte-franzosische-soldaten-vor-dem-mosaikboden-beim-schulhaus-hirsgarten-in-rikon-300x171.jpg)
![At the Reformed Church in Bauma, two plaques commemorate the presence of French and British soldiers in 1940 and 1944/45 respectively.](https://blog.nationalmuseum.ch/app/uploads/gedenktafeln-kirche-in-bauma-300x104.jpg)
![Towards the end of the war, British soldiers also came to Switzerland.](https://blog.nationalmuseum.ch/app/uploads/60-britische-soldaten-in-uniform-vor-einem-haus-in-bauma-300x165.jpg)