Sydney Short’s family retraces his wartime escape to Switzerland

The family of Sydney Short, a New Zealand pilot who fled to Switzerland during the Second World War, has retraced his route through the mountains to Ticino. His son and two granddaughters travelled from New Zealand to learn more about his escape, SRF reported.

A photograph taken on 4 April 1944 in Cortaccio, above Brissago, shows seven refugees being met by a Swiss soldier. Short is crouching at the front, making a victory sign.

Letters and photographs found after Short’s death prompted the family to investigate his story with historian Raphael Rues. Short rarely spoke about his experiences. His plane was shot down by the Nazis in North Africa, and he was taken prisoner in the Modena region. After the armistice of 8 September 1943, he escaped, reaching Milan and later the Cannobina Valley. With help from partisans, he eventually reached the Swiss border in Ticino after a 15- to 16-hour trek through the mountains.

Refugees often made the journey without suitable equipment. Short’s son Grant said the steep mountains they had to cross at night and the cold left him “really speechless”.

Between September 1943 and August 1945, authorities recorded 263 refugee crossings in the stretch between Gridone and Cortaccio. There were about 30,000 crossings across Ticino. Admission was not guaranteed: former Allied prisoners of war and Italian or German deserters generally had an easier time entering Switzerland, while many partisans, civilians and Jewish families were turned away, Rues said.

Carlo Bava also recounted how his father and uncle fled after fascist forces reoccupied Cannobio in September 1944. They were initially turned back and hid in a barn. The owner gave them food and later helped them escape to Switzerland. “If my father had not had this chance of rescue, I would not exist,” Bava said.

Short was registered in Bellinzona in April 1944 and then interned in Bern for about six months. He was later able to return to the Allies and continue fighting. Grant said the journey had revealed a previously unknown part of his father’s life: “For me, he was always just my father. I knew nothing about this part of his life. It felt like opening Pandora’s box.”