Paul Grüninger

Paul Grüninger (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. 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.

Late life
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: "It was basically a question of saving human lives threatened with death. How could I then seriously consider bureaucratic schemes and calculations". 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". 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.

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.

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

Honour in Switzerland

• 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.
• Paul Grüninger-Weg in Zürich-Oerlikon