Paul Grüninger
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Paul Grüninger (1891-1972) was the commander of police in the Canton of St. Gallen in Switzerland[1].
In August and September, 1938, following the Austrian Anschluss (annexation) of March, he saved some 3,601 Jewish refugees from the Nazis in Austria, permitting them to enter Switzerland. At that time, Switzerland had closed its borders to refugees. He backdated passports to indicate that they had entered earlier. One year later he was convicted of fraud, and sentenced both to a prison term and to pay a fine. As an ex-convict, he found it hard to get a job, and struggled to make a living. He died in poverty in 1972, without ever having his heroism recognized[2].
American diplomatic pressure and pressure from Jewish groups were used by his children to clear his name and his criminal conviction from what was probably the greatest act of courage performed by any Swiss citizen in the Nazi era[3]. The St Gallen district court exonerated him in 1995; he also received official honors in Israel: he is one of over 20,000 gentiles remembered as the Righteous Among the Nations by the Yad Vashem official Israeli holocaust memorial. In honor of his sacrifice, a street, located in the northern Jerusalem neighborhood of Pisgat Ze'ev is named after him[4].
