Filmscreening in German language
Director: Richard Dindo | Switzerland 1997 | Documentary | 100 min
With: Felix Bauer, Erich Billig-Bannwart, Hilde Billig-Bannwart, and others
The story of Paul Grüninger, a police captain from St. Gallen, who saved the lives of hundreds of Austrian Jews fleeing from the Nazis to Switzerland before the war by forging their entry documents. He was arrested, discharged and put on trial.
The film takes place in the same courtroom of the St. Gallen district court where Grüninger was sentenced in October 1940. The original trial is reconstructed, with the presence of some Jewish emigrants who owe him their lives and who appear in the film as "witnesses". They have travelled from the USA, France, Austria and Switzerland to pay their last respects to Grüninger and recount their memories. They watch the images of their lifesaver filmed by Swiss television on a screen in the courtroom with tears in their eyes.
A film screening accompanying the exhibition "End of Testimony?"