Paul GrüningerBy: Bennett Harbour

“For the dead and the living, we must bear witness.” ― Elie Wiesel

Paul Grüninger

• Paul Grüninger (27 October 1891 - 22 February 1972) was the commander of police in the Kanton of St. Gallen in Switzerland and a football player in his home town in Switzerland, Kanton

Paul Grüninger Impacts…….

• In August and September, 1938, following the Austrian Anschluss (annexation) of March, he saved some 3,601 Jews from the German Nazis concentration camps.

• He made a big difference as he gave other non Jews and Jews courage to save their brothers who took the punch of the Holocaust

Post Rescue

• AFTER HE RESCUED THE ALMOST 4,000 JEWS FROM BECOMING EXTERMINATED, HE WAS RELEASED OF ALL OF HIS POLICE RIGHTS AND WAS THEN HIS ACTIVITIES WERE DISCOVERED, HE WAS DISMISSED IN DISGRACE, CONVICTED OF FRAUD AND SENTENCED TO PRISON.

After Prison Life

• After a punishing 26 years in prison he was released and had to pay a large fine.

• After the fine he had to pay with his remaining money from before he was fired from his police duty, he had virtually no money.

Jobs

• After his record was recorded after the Holocaust he found it very tough to find a job at all to make money and get the daily essentials to live a full life.

• He did not have enough money to provide food or clean running water for himself.

Paul Grüninger Dies.At the age of 81 of (February 27th 1972)

Paul Grüninger died of poverty and starvation.

Convicted or Not?????

• In 1995, fifty years after the war had ended and twenty-three years after his death, in the same court room where he had been condemned, other judges decided to re-open the trial and absolved him from the charges. In 1996 Grüninger was completely "rehabilitated" by the Swiss government.

• His case was released…………

Links• http://

www.yadvashem.org/yv/en/righteous/stories/grueninger.asp

• http://www.jfr.org/pages/rescuer-support/stories/switzerland-/-paul-gruninger