{"id":5175,"date":"2026-11-09T07:00:48","date_gmt":"2026-11-09T06:00:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/swissmemorial.ch\/?p=5175"},"modified":"2026-11-09T07:01:12","modified_gmt":"2026-11-09T06:01:12","slug":"an-associate-member-introduces-itself-the-paul-grueninger-foundation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/swissmemorial.ch\/en\/an-associate-member-introduces-itself-the-paul-grueninger-foundation\/","title":{"rendered":"An associate member introduces itself: the Paul Gr\u00fcninger Foundation"},"content":{"rendered":"

In 1938\u20131939, St. Gallen police commander Paul Gr\u00fcninger saved hundreds, perhaps thousands, of refugees from Nazi persecution \u2013 in breach of instructions from Bern. For this he was dismissed, convicted and forgotten. The Paul Gr\u00fcninger Foundation keeps his memory alive, along with the memory of those who were not lucky enough to come across him.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Paul Gr\u00fcninger Foundation was founded in 1998 by his descendants. In 1938 and 1939, the St. Gallen police commander and captain Paul Gr\u00fcninger (1891\u20131972) saved several hundred \u2013 perhaps several thousand \u2013 refugees, mostly Jewish, from Nazi persecution and extermination. Despite Swiss border closures, he allowed them into St. Gallen, disregarding federal directives and even transgressing laws. In 1939, Paul Gr\u00fcninger was dismissed without notice by the St. Gallen authorities. In 1940 he was convicted by the District Court of St. Gallen for breach of official duty and forgery of documents. He was ostracised at the time, and later forgotten for many years. He lived in poverty until his death.<\/p>\n

Late recognition<\/strong><\/p>\n

In 1993, Paul Gr\u00fcninger was politically rehabilitated by the St. Gallen government. In 1994, the Swiss Federal Council issued an Ehrenerkl\u00e4rung [Declaration of Honour] for Paul Gr\u00fcninger. In 1995, the District Court of St. Gallen legally rehabilitated Captain Gr\u00fcninger with the resumption of his 1940 trial and a posthumous acquittal. In 1998, the Grand Council of the Canton of St. Gallen approved material compensation and compensated Gr\u00fcninger\u2019s descendants for the loss of salary and pension caused by the captain\u2019s dismissal without notice. The entire amount was turned over by his descendants to the Paul Gr\u00fcninger Foundation.<\/p>\n

The foundation today<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Paul Gr\u00fcninger Foundation cherishes the memory of Gr\u00fcninger and other people who acted in the same spirit. The foundation also commemorates those people who did not come across a Paul Gr\u00fcninger, but were abandoned and chased back to their persecutors. It also supports projects aimed at researching and communicating historical and current efforts in the service of human rights.<\/p>\n

The Paul Gr\u00fcninger Foundation is a member of the Swiss Memorial network for the victims of National Socialism. Would you like to become part of the network? Further information can be found here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In 1938\u20131939, St. Gallen police commander Paul Gr\u00fcninger saved hundreds, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":5174,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[65],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5175","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-network"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/swissmemorial.ch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5175","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/swissmemorial.ch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/swissmemorial.ch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/swissmemorial.ch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/swissmemorial.ch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5175"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/swissmemorial.ch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5175\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5189,"href":"https:\/\/swissmemorial.ch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5175\/revisions\/5189"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/swissmemorial.ch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5174"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/swissmemorial.ch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5175"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/swissmemorial.ch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5175"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/swissmemorial.ch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5175"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}