Paul Gruninger Chapter Summary

During World War II, during the persecution of Jews, the Nazi and Axis Powers were banning Jews from crossing borders into other countries. Switzerland at the time was neutral and decided to side with Germany to stay on their “good side”. This led to Switzerland’s border security getting a major revamp, on Germany's orders. The passports of Jews everywhere were now marked with a “J” on them, this meant that they were to he detained. But in every plan, there is a flaw, and for this plan, it was Paul Gruninger. Paul was a Swiss border security guard, who had helped to smuggle many Jews who were looking for refuge, across the Austrian and German borders. This leads up to the major plot of the story, a man who disobeys the law, in order to save the lives of others from persecution and death. That begs the question, was it worth it? …show more content…
When the news came around that all Jews were given a “J” on their passports, Gruninger was given a new assignment, “Don’t let any Jews in”. This is where things start to get complicated. As the chapter progresses, the situation starts to get worse, with Gruninger being under suspicion for smuggling Jews, which is true. He basically decided that he was going to oppose one of the strongest world superpowers, which was literally the neighboring country and accept his fate. This resulted in the “Gruninger Case of 1938” and the verdict was that as a state official, he had to respect and uphold the law, which he didn’t. The consequences of his actions were that he was dismissed from the police force, never being allowed to serve again, and a loss of government benefits and he had to pay the court for a fine and a pension. He never regretted helping those Jews, because he knew in his heart that it was the right thing to do. Now to return to the question, was it worth it? I believe that it