according to the Rights and Duties of Neutral Powers outlined in the Hague Conventions. The rest were foreign civilians and were either interned or granted tolerance or residence permits by the cantonal authorities. Refugees were not allowed to hold jobs. Of the refugees, 60,000 were civilians escaping persecution by the Nazis. Of these 60,000, 27,000 were Jews. The official Swiss narrative on this subject was largely focussed on Switzerland’s generosity and tolerance, while refugees were portrayed as a burden. This attitude can clearly be seen in an article by Ella Maillart for the “Weekly” magazine in London, 1938. Between 10,000 and 24,000 Jewish civilian refugees were refused entry. These refugees were refused entry on the asserted claim of dwindling supplies. Of those refused entry, a Swiss government representative said, "Our little lifeboat is full." At the beginning of the war, Switzerland had a Jewish population of between 18,000 and 28,000 and a total population of about 4 million. By the end of the war, there were over 115,000 refuge-seeking people of all categories in Switzerland, representing the maximum number of refugees at any one time. A refugee help network operated from the Polish embassy in Bern; the Ładoś Group. This initiative saved thousands of Jews from certain death by issuing them with Latin American identity papers. Not all efforts were successful though, and the network was eventually discovered and dismantled by the Swiss authorities. Switzerland's treatment of Jewish refugees has been criticized by scholars of the Holocaust. In 1999 an international panel of historians declared that Switzerland was "guilty of acting as an accomplice to the Holocaust when it refused to accept many thousands of fleeing Jews, and instead sent them back to almost certain annihilation at the hands of the Nazis". Switzerland also acted as a refuge for Allied prisoners of war who escaped, including those from Oflag IV-C (Colditz). Protecting Power mandates In war time each belligerent nation relies on an independent neutral third party to protect its diplomatic interests through “mandates” as specified in international law especially the Hague Conventions of 1899 and 1907. In World War II, Switzerland, and to a lesser extent Sweden and the United States, performed these roles for both sides. When the US entered the war in late 1941, Switzerland took over its mandates. In terms of major roles Swiss diplomats had the mandate to protect Germany's interest in Britain, the United