**The Polish soldiers worked on various sections of pathways and roads in the Safien Valley.** The Polish Museum, Rapperswil

Safien Valley’s roads: built by Polish soldiers

Polish and French internees built pathways and roads in many parts of Switzerland during the Second World War. They were especially busy in the Safien Valley – living under the most basic conditions.

Dominik Landwehr

Dominik Landwehr is a cultural and media scientist and lives in Winterthur.

In summer 1940, 12,500 soldiers from the 2nd Polish Rifle Division and 20,000 French soldiers were interned in Switzerland. They had been cornered by German forces close to the Swiss border. On arriving in Switzerland, they were disarmed and interned. The soldiers were then dispersed all over the country. The Swiss government restricted the soldiers to working in agriculture, construction and path and road maintenance to protect the domestic labour market from an influx of cheap labour. The French soldiers were allowed to return home in early 1941, whereas the Poles stayed in Switzerland until the end of the war. Large camps were set up at various sites in the canton of Graubünden, including in Chur, Rodels and Cazis. The soldiers usually stayed in camps onsite while working, as in the Safien Valley for example.

French and Polish troops crossing the border. From the army film archives, June 1940. YouTube / Swiss Federal Archives

There are 54 documented roads in Switzerland that were improved or newly built with the help of the internees: 15 of them are in the canton of Graubünden. No fewer than six are in the Safien Valley, one of Switzerland’s most remote valleys at the time. Entry was blocked by a prehistoric landslide from Flims, meaning the valley was only accessible via some alpine passes at the rear until the end of the 19th century. Why was so much work done on the Safien Valley’s roads during these years? Historians point to two reasons: the cheap labour was an opportunity to finally make the area more accessible, not least for military purposes as the Italian border was not far away. Another plus point was the fact that the valley was so sparsely populated, as the authorities didn’t want the soldiers to mix with the locals.

**Roadworks at the end of the Safien Valley.** The Polish Museum, Rapperswil

Not all the routes were new: the oft-trodden, centuries old Stäga road from Safien to Glaspass was repainted in 1940 by French internees. They lodged in Safien Platz and Thalkirch from 20 July to 9 November 1940. The best-known Polish-built road in the Safien Valley leads over the 2,411-metre high Tomülpass connecting the Safien and Vals valleys. This pass was only of regional significance, as the two Walser valleys of Safien and Vals had mainly traded to the south for centuries. The farmers attended cattle markets in Thusis as well as in Ticino. There was only a bridle path over Tomülpass to the Vals side. Polish internees built the road from Turrahus over Falätscha Alp at pass altitude in 1942/43. Before the war, the municipalities didn’t have the funds for the project, during the war they got the road practically free of charge. Restoration work on the trail between the Alp Falätscha and Alp Tomül alpine buildings has been ongoing since 2018. The project may well continue for one to two more years as the work can only take place in summer. The trail is a prominent example of path construction by the Swiss army, wrote the historian Cornel Doswald.

Working in the mountains was hard and required discipline. The Polish Museum, Rapperswil

Lodging in a barn

The authorities were keen to keep contact between the soldiers and locals to a minimum. They did not succeed. The Poles received a warm and hospitable welcome in the Safien Valley; love affairs blossomed – as evidenced by the resulting 500 or so offspring throughout Switzerland after the war. By contrast, the soldiers working from 1941 on the Grossalp at the rear end of the Safien Valley were completely isolated. They arrived in the summer of 1941 after a long march from Bonaduz. To their surprise they encountered a snowstorm on arrival at Grossalp. The soldiers protested about their accommodation in a barn without sanitary facilities and wrote a letter, stored in the Federal Archives, to the International Committee of the Red Cross ICRC in Geneva. The camp commander later called the letter «impudent, whining and unmilitary». Their protests didn’t make much difference: only officers and non-commissioned officers received better accommodation.

**The Polish soldiers on Grossalp lived in very basic conditions without sanitary facilities.** The Polish Museum, Rapperswil

As well as the mountain trail, the internees built an access road on Grossalp to the valley station of a funicular built to supply the armed forces on Safierberg. The mountain station is still visible today. A series of memorial stones and plaques at Tomülpass, Güner Lückli and the trail to Grossalp in the Safien Valley commemorate the work done by the Polish soldiers. A working group comprising former internees added a bronze plaque to some of the inscriptions in 1995. Students from the tertiary education institutions set up for Polish soldiers in Fribourg and Winterthur also contributed to the work. There was even a big mural in a common room for Polish students in Winterthur depicting the situation at the rear of the Safien Valley. The painting was destroyed during renovation work, but there is still a photographic record of it.

**A common room for the Polish internees attending the tertiary education institution for Poles in Winterthur. The mural depicts a scene from the Safien Valley. The mural has not been preserved.** Winterthurer Bibliotheken, Sammlung Winterthur, Foto: Leszek Bialy

More of: 20th / 21st century Transportation War/battle Article

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