Operation Tannenbaum Operation Tannenbaum Operation "Tannenbaum ("Fir Tree"), known earlier as Operation "Grün ("Green"), was a planned but cancelled invasion of Switzerland by Nazi Germany and Italy during World War II. For tactical reasons, Adolf Hitler made repeated assurances before the outbreak of the Second World War that Germany would respect Swiss neutrality in the event of a military conflict in Europe. In February 1937, he announced that "at all times, whatever happens, we will respect the inviolability and neutrality of Switzerland" to the Swiss federal councillor Edmund Schulthess, reiterating this promise shortly before the Nazi invasion of Poland. These were, however,
Elhanan Tannenbaum Elhanan Tannenbaum Elhanan Tannenbaum, (, born 12 August 1946) is a former reserve colonel in the Israel Defense Forces and businessman, who was kidnapped in 2000 and held for more than three years by the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah. Elhanan Tannenbaum was born in Poland, the son of Holocaust survivors. Most of his relatives had been killed in the Holocaust. In 1949, Tannenbaum and his parents and sister immigrated to Israel and moved to Holon, where Tannenbaum grew up and attended high school. He was also active in the local scouts movement. At the age of 18, Tannenbaum enrolled in