Paul Grüninger was a Swiss police commander who saved about 3,600 Jewish refugees during WWII by backdating their visas and falsifying other documents to indicate they had entered Switzerland when legal entry of refugees was still possible.
For his actions, he was dismissed from the police force, convicted of official misconduct and fined.
When reflecting back later in life, he said “It was basically a question of saving human lives threatened with death. How could I then seriously consider bureaucratic schemes and calculations.”
—
“Paul Grüninger Helps Save Jewish Refugees” sources: The Policeman who Lifted the Border Barrier”. Yad Vashem. / Portrait of Paul taken sometime in the 1930s, likely 1939 – Wikimedia Commons
