‘Akte Grüninger’

Thanks to the Denver Jewish Film Festival, I finally had the opportunity to see a movie that’s been on my list for some time. My former boss, Sacha Wigdorovits, a journalist turned crisis PR manager, helped produce a very important film that went a long way to rehabilitating the reputation of Paul Grüninger, a Swiss police captain who let in thousands of Jewish refugees — contravening direct orders from his federal government. For his heroism, he was not thanked. On the contrary: Grüninger was stripped of his position and died penniless. My German proficiency notwithstanding, I prefer to see German-language movies with subtitles, so I didn’t see “Akte Grüninger” [“One Step to Freedom”] when it was released in Switzerland. Instead, this week I saw a […]