Paul Grüninger

Paul Grüninger


Police Commander of St. Gallen
In office 1 January 1925 – 12 May 1939

Personal details
Born	Paul Grüninger (1891-10-27)27 October 1891 St. Gallen, St. Gallen, Switzerland
Died	22 February 1972(1972-02-22) (aged 80) St. Gallen, St. Gallen, Switzerland
Spouse	Alice Federer (m. 1920)
Children	1
Occupation	Police commander, teacher and football player
Awards	Righteous Among the Nations by Yad Vashem

Paul Grüninger (German pronunciation: [paʊ̯l ˈɡʁyːnɪŋɐ] ^ⓘ; 27 October 1891 – 22 February 1972) was a Swiss police commander in St. Gallen. He was recognized as one of the Righteous Among the Nations by the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial foundation in 1971.^[1] Following the Austrian Anschluss, Grüninger saved about 3,600 Jewish refugees by backdating their visas and falsifying other documents to indicate that they had entered Switzerland at a time when legal entry of refugees was still possible. He was dismissed from the police force, convicted of official misconduct, and fined 300 Swiss francs. He received no pension and died in poverty in 1972.^[2]

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In the case of Paul Gruninger this Swiss police captain I just mentioned uh who saves hundreds possibly thousands of refugees before he is caught allowing them into Switzerland against the law at the risk of his career uh you know no one who knew Gruninger no one who looks back on yhis case sees him as this kind of heroic type uh to the contrary he was an ordinary guy he uh he didn't stand out he seemed to be a rule follower and a rule enforcer uh I met his daughter and his daughter repeatedly described him to me as normal he was normal in terms of his politics he wasn't outspoken he wasn't uh specially religious so there is this mystery that I begin the book with and I want to figure it out because uh you know these people are not uh these heroic figures and further more I think I think in that sense uh the book should be both a challenge and an inspiration to readers because on the one hand when we put people up on pedestals it sort of uh we think we're honoring them but at the same time we separate them from us you know they are these heroes and we are not and part of the message of the book is well you know these are flawed people just like you and me uh so maybe we shouldn't separate their example from ourselves so much and also the standard they set the book uh in affect says that these people are idealists who just cannot believe what they're seeing so to speak cannot believe their institutions would do this kind of thing and think that they're acting in the finest traditions of and are saving the institutions on which they're blowing the whistle or to which they're dissenting and so forth uh bottom line is in some way that maybe they didn't even realize they are idealists aren't they absolutely uh the the uh we tend to think of dissenters or these sort of whistleblowers uh as rebellious types uh the characters I wrote about are not rebellious types they are as you say idealists so if we turn to Gruninger briefly uh you know here's this normal guy uh why why does he do this well one of the important reasons one of the key factors is that Paul Gruninger was a Swiss patriot uh he believed very much in this Swiss tradition uh this Swiss ideal of letting of of his country serving as a safe haven and a refuge for the persecuted uh which is very much part of Swiss national identity Gruninger as a consequence when he learns of this law to bar refugees in nineteen thirty eight he is remember he's in a part of Switzerland that borders the German Reich that borders Austria he's watching refugees come across the border every day and he cannot square this with this tradition this Swiss uh uh you know national uh value and so what he assumes is well I won't enforce this law and when the Swiss people learn of this someone my superiors learn of this I'll be everyone will forgive me because they'll understand that I was doing the Swiss thing uh in a sense so you can call it naivety you can call it idealism a kind of wide eyed belief in these traditions of course one Swiss uh journalist I met who investigated Gruninger's case said you know of course this is a myth that we have this open you know that we were always this safe haven but Gruninger really believed it and because he believed it he acted on it of course he then realized when he was caught that the Swiss the authorities andthe people would not forgive him uh he was fired he was uh disgraced he uh lived the rest of his days in penury he could not find a job uh so that idealism came crashing up against the reality uh unfortunately in his case and many of the others I tell uh ultimately after he was dead he became a Swiss hero didn't do him any good that's right uh he became a Swiss hero in nineteen ninety three uh when the when he was finally officially rehabilitated and as I tell the story in the book of just how long that took the first plea the first public plea that I describe to rehabilitate this man came in nineteen sixty eight uh he Gruninger was still alive at that time now he had he had sort of live out these difficult years but uh you know if he had been exonerated or uh officially recognized then then he would maybe have lived out his last days with this heroic with this status not so uh the uh Swiss authorities uh denied this effort to rehabilitate him five separate efforts to rehabilitate him were all brushed aside and as I investigated this I thought well why is this why in the eighties uh you know by which time most people in Switzerland looked back at this law with shame uh you know there's no question in most people's minds that barring refugees from fleeing Nazi Germany was wrong by the eighties so why reject this effort to rehabilitate this guy and then it became very clear when I sort of dug in a little deeper if you recognize Gruninger if you say well here was this guy and he did the right thing what does it say about everybody else what does it say about Swiss neutrality about the record of our country during this war during this period when there were moral choices to be made and unfortunately that's the the story in most of the chapters I tell is that uh the people who stand by their principles serve as very uncomfortable reminders to everyone else of what could've been done uh and that makes it very hard for them to get the recognition they deserve This excerpt is brought to you by the Massachusetts School of Law

Early life

Grüninger attended a teacher preparatory school from 1907 to 1911. He also played football semi-professionally. In 1913 he joined SC Brühl and was part of the squad that won the 1915 Swiss first division title. Following completion of the military service, in 1919 he joined the police corps of the canton of St. Gallen.^{[citation needed]}

Rescue of Jews

Grüninger was police commander of the Canton of St. Gallen that borders Germany and Austria. Following the annexation of Austria by Nazi Germany, Switzerland had closed its border to Jewish people arriving without proper entry permits, and in October 1938 negotiations between Switzerland and Germany led to the stamping of a 'J' in passports^{[clarification needed]} issued to Jewish people.

As the number of refugees who tried to enter Switzerland illegally increased, Grüninger decided in the summer of 1938 to not send them back, facing the consequence of breaching explicit government instructions. To legalize the refugees' status, he falsified visas so that their passports showed that they had arrived in Switzerland before March 1938, when immigration to Switzerland had been restricted. This enabled newly arrived Jewish refugees to be taken to Diepoldsau camp to await permits for a temporary stay. Grüninger falsified reports about the number of arrivals and status of refugees in his canton. He also used his own funds to provide some of them with winter clothing.^[1]

The Swiss federal government initiated an investigation, whereupon Grüninger was dismissed by the government without notice in March 1939. Grüninger's trial at the district court of St. Gallen opened in January 1939 and dragged over two years.^[3] In March 1941 the court found him guilty of "breach of duty", "official misconduct and forgery to a fine". His retirement benefits were forfeited, and he was cashiered, fined and had to pay the trial costs. The court recognized his altruistic motivations, but found that nevertheless, as a state employee, it was his duty to follow his instructions.^[1]^[3]

Later life

Righteous Among the Nations

The Holocaust Rescuers of Jews Righteousness Seven Laws of Noah Yad Vashem
By country
Austrian Croatian German Hungarian Lithuanian Norwegian Polish (list) Romanian Serbian Ukrainian
v t e

Ostracized and forgotten, Grüninger lived for the rest of his life in difficult circumstances. Despite the difficulties, he never regretted his action on behalf of the Jews. In 1954 he explained his motives:^[4]

Whoever had the opportunity, like me, to witness those heartbreaking scenes, the victims' collapse, the cries of mothers and children, the suicide threats as well as suicide attempts – that person could no longer comply.

I am not ashamed of the court's verdict. On the contrary, I am proud to have saved the lives of hundreds of oppressed people. My assistance to Jews was rooted in my Christian world outlook… It was basically a question of saving human lives threatened with death. How could I then seriously consider bureaucratic schemes and calculations. Sure, I intentionally exceeded the limits of my authority and often with my own hands falsified documents and certificates, but it was done solely in order to afford persecuted people access into the country. My personal well-being, measured against the cruel fate of these thousands, was so insignificant and unimportant that I never even took it into consideration.^[5]

In December 1970 as a result of protest in the media, the Swiss government sent Grüninger "a somewhat reserved letter of apology, but refrained from reopening his case and reinstating his pension".^[1] Ostracized and accused and slandered as a womanizer and corrupt fraudster, even as a Nazi by some people in the 2000s, the former chief of police for the rest of his life was no longer fixed point: Grüninger died in 1972, nearly forgotten in Switzerland, without rehabilitation by the Swiss authorities.^[3] Two months before his death, West German President Gustav Heinemann gave him a color television.^[6]

Rehabilitation and Righteous Among the Nations

After his death, Grüninger's fate was brought back partially into the public memory by some publications beginning in 1984, and steps to rehabilitate him were set into motion. The first attempt was rejected by the Swiss Council, and only as late as 1995, the Swiss federal Government finally annulled Grüninger's conviction: the district court of St. Gallen revoked the judgment against him and cleared him of all charges. Three years later the government of the Canton of St. Gallen paid compensation to his descendants, and in 1999 also the so-called Bergier Commission's report took part in Grüninger's rehabilitation, as well to rehabilitate the surviving people who had been convicted during the National Socialist period in Switzerland for their assistance to refugees – 137 women and men received public rehabilitation up to 2009.^[3]

In 1971, the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial foundation in Israel honoured Grüninger as one of the Righteous Among the Nations.^[3]^[1] A street located in the northern Jerusalem neighbourhood of Pisgat Ze'ev has been named after him.^[7]

Legacy

The stadium of the association football club Brühl St. Gallen is named in his honour.
The Rhine bridge between Diepoldsau (Switzerland) and Hohenems in Austria, which was one of the locations in the film Akte Grüninger, was in summer 2012 named after Paul Grüninger.^[8]
Paul-Grüninger-Weg in Zürich-Oerlikon

In literature, film and television

Irma C. Erman: A Dream Drama with Justitia, a 1976 unpublished play in English.^[9]
Grüningers Fall, a 1997 Swiss documentary film based on Stefan Keller's book Grüningers Fall. Geschichten von Flucht und Hilfe.^[10]
Akte Grüninger,^[11] a 2013 Swiss-Austrian film
Stefan Keller: Grüningers Fall. Geschichten von Flucht und Hilfe. Rotpunktverlag, Zürich 1998, ISBN 978-3858691576.
Wulff Bickenbach: Gerechtigkeit für Paul Grüninger. Verurteilung und Rehabilitierung eines Schweizer Fluchthelfers (1938–1998). Böhlau, Köln 2009, ISBN 978-3-412-20334-4.

References

^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e "The Policeman who Lifted the Border Barrier". Yad Vashem. Retrieved 30 July 2015.
^ Who was Paul Grüninger? (in German)
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e Stefan Keller (23 January 2014). ""Akte Grüninger": Der Flüchtlingshelfer und die Rückkehr der Beamten" (in German). Die Wochenzeitung WOZ. Retrieved 30 July 2015.
^ "The Courage to Defy". yadvashem.org.
^ "The Courage to Defy". yadvashem.org.
^ "Edle Motive". Der Spiegel (in German). 26 June 1994. ISSN 2195-1349. Retrieved 4 December 2023.
^ "Naming of Street in Jerusalem after Paul Grüninger"
^ Ingrid Bertel (29 January 2014). ""Akte Grüninger": Filmpremiere in Hohenems" (in German). ORF (broadcaster). Retrieved 30 July 2015.
^ Manuscript, 52 pages. Leo Baeck Institute Archives. Irma C. Erman Collection, 1939-1992. Folder 3. Identifier: AR 4106. Retrieved 30 May 2022.
^ "WOZ Shop: Grüningers Fall" (in German). WOZ Die Wochenzeitung. Retrieved 30 July 2015.
^ Jörg Krummenacher (23 January 2014). ""Akte Grüninger" – Fiktion und Fakten". Neue Zürcher Zeitung (in German). Retrieved 30 July 2015.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Paul Grüninger.

Authority control databases
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National	France BnF data Germany Israel United States
People	Deutsche Biographie
Other	Historical Dictionary of Switzerland SNAC IdRef

This page was last edited on 1 May 2024, at 21:07

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