ABSTRACT
On April 3, 1939, Paul Grueninger, the chief of police of the canton of Sankt Gallen, Switzerland, was suspended from his job and charged with helping refugees enter Switzerland illegally. These refugees were fleeing the persecution of the Nazis, but by assisting them Grueninger had defied the explicit instructions given by the Swiss federal authorities to all the police chiefs of cantons located along the Swiss border. Thus Captain Grueninger stood accused of disobeying legitimate orders, as well as of violating federal law. He was summarily tried and convicted in 1940 and, at the age of 48, was stripped of both his job and his pension. These actions committed him to a life of poverty until his death in 1972 at the age of 80. Paul Grueninger was officially exonerated of all wrongdoing in 1995, but only after a long legal struggle waged by his daughter.
