A Hero’s Redemption

Police chief Paul Grueninger Photo courtesy Radio Netherlands

By RENEE GARFINKEL

WASHINGTON, D.C. --- Before the word hero became confused with celebrity, it was generally understood that a hero is a person who puts his own well being, even his very life, at risk for a noble and altruistic purpose.  Most people would agree that there are few purposes nobler than saving another person’s life.

Paul Grueninger was that kind of hero.

Paul who?

Paul Grueninger was a police chief in the canton of St. Gallen in Switzerland during World War II.  In 1938, when Hitler’s annexation of Austria caused thousand to flee for their lives, Switzerland closed its borders to refugees.  Grueninger disregarded those orders and saved more than 3,000 Jewish people by falsely backdating their papers to indicate that they had entered Switzerland earlier.

Grueninger suffered the outcome that often happens to those who do the right thing while all around them people are going along to get along.  In “neutral” Switzerland he was punished for his altruism. First he was fired from his job, and stripped of his rights to any compensation and to his pension.  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.   Grueninger died in poverty in 1972, without ever having his heroism recognized.

But his daughter never ceased her efforts to clear his name and his criminal conviction for what was probably the greatest act of courage performed by any Swiss citizen in the Nazi era.  With the help of American diplomatic pressure, and pressure from Jewish groups as well, she finally succeeded in1995.

That’s right, 1995.  That’s not a misprint.  In1995, 55 years after his criminal conviction, 50 years after the war, a St. Gallen’s district court finally exonerated Grueninger of criminal fraud for having backdated records and falsified papers in order to save people’s lives.

Ever since the time of cave paintings, in folklore and in myth, heroes have been recognized and honored by their society. The society shares the hero’s values.   For example, we all recognize that a firefighter who goes back into a burning building to save a life has the courage to act on a value deeply shared by the rest of us.   That is heroism: having the courage to do what we all know is right.

However, when someone rises to self-sacrifice in defiance of his own society, risking himself socially as well as materially and physically, that is an even higher degree of heroism.  That kind of hero inspires the rest of us by demonstrating the strength of character and potential for good that is inherent in our species.  Our potential for goodness knows no bounds.

Last week, in Israel, a ceremony was held to honor the courage and morality of Paul Grueninger. He was a hero who sacrificed both his social standing and his livelihood to save innocent refugees. A street in Jerusalem was named after him. Finally, his heroic actions were appreciated in a public forum.

The Swiss ambassador did not attend.

(Dr. Renee Garfinkel is a clinical psychologist in private practice in Washington, DC, a syndicated columnist, and a member of the faculty of the Institute for Crisis, Disaster and Risk Management, George Washington University.)