Otto Lutz discusses his time in the Swiss Army during World War II. He talks about growing up in Uster, Switzerland, ten to fifteen miles outside Zurich and how he was fourteen when World War II broke out. In 1944, he joined the Swiss Army, as all able-bodied people did in Switzerland as young adults. While in the Army, he patrolled the Swiss-Italian border and looked out for smugglers. He describes how Switzerland, a neutral country during World War II, never engaged in combat with German forces, but the Swiss soldiers feared that there might be a confrontation. Mr. Lutz also talked about rationing, getting news from Germany through the radio, and writing letters to his family in Germany during the war.
