Operation Sunrise
작전 선라이즈
Operation Sunrise was a series of secret negotiations held in Switzerland from February to May 1945 among the U.S. Office of Strategic Services (OSS), Swiss intelligence officials, and German representatives. The talks arranged the surrender of German forces in northern Italy, while the exclusion of Soviet representatives provoked suspicion of a separate peace and sharpened tensions within the Allied coalition.
In depth
Negotiations and surrender
Karl Wolff, the SS and Police Leader in Italy, and Allen Dulles, chief of the OSS station in Bern, were the principal negotiators. Swiss intelligence officer Max Waibel and school director Max Husmann helped arrange the meetings. The German side initially sought to move Army Group C toward Austria to continue fighting the Soviet advance, while Dulles sought an orderly surrender in northern Italy under Allied control.
The Soviet government was informed of the talks in March 1945, but Soviet military representatives were not allowed to participate. The final instrument was signed on April 29 and took effect on May 2. The negotiations helped end the fighting in Italy, but the treatment of German participants implicated in war crimes, and the intelligence services' cooperation with them, remained a contested part of the episode's postwar interpretation.