2018

Stamp of the NSDAP’s Foreign Organization in Davos, Seized by the Police in the Wilhelm Gustloff Murder Case

Davos, 1932–1936

On 4 February 1936, the German National Socialist Wilhelm Gustloff (born 1895) was shot dead in Davos by the Jewish student David Frankfurter. This stamp with a small swastika was confiscated by the police along with other personal effects of Gustloff. The ensuing trial made the public aware of how the NSDAP had established itself in Switzerland.

Based in Davos, Gustloff led the well-connected Foreign Organization’s Swiss branch, whose purpose was the ideological and financial support of the Nazi Party in Germany. He spread anti-democratic and anti-Semitic propaganda.

The «Gustloff Affair» led to the NSDAP’s central leadership bodies being banned from Switzerland. Frankfurter was pardoned after the war.