Bruno Bernhard Gröning (1906 in Danzig – January 26, 1959 in Paris) was a German mystic who performed faith healings and lectured. He was active in Germany in the 1940s and 1950s after World War II. Early life Gröning was born into a Catholic family in Danzig in 1906. He was the middle child of seven and was raised in the suburb of Oliva. He did not finish school; he began training as a carpenter and worked in a variety of jobs. During the Nazi era, his family changed their last name to the more German "Gröning" from Grönkowski, Grenkowski, or Grzenkowski, and he, his father, and his brother joined the Nazi Party. Wartime In March 1943 he was conscripted into the Wehrmacht as a Panzerjäger (an army support service); after stating that he would not kill another human being, he came close to being executed for this stance at a court martial. He was captured by the Soviets in Köslin and from March to October 1945 was in a POW camp in Frankfurt an der Oder, where he argued with his captors for better conditions in the prison. Career Gröning came to public attention in 1949. In Herford, the father of a young boy named Dieter Hulsmann, claimed that Gröning had healed his son of muscular dystrophy and told many people of his belief. News of this story circulated and soon crowds gathered in front of the Hulsmann residence, seeking healing. In May 1949, the state of North Rhine-Westphalia (where Herford is located) prohibited Gröning from acting as a healer, and he relocated to the city of Rosenheim in Bavaria, where authorities were more supportive, with the state's minister president Hans Ehard opining that legalities shouldn't impede the activities of such an "extraordinary phenomenon". With intense media coverage in magazines, radio and Wochenschau newsreels, soon tens of thousands of people were filling the horse paddocks near the inn where Gröning was lodging at the outskirts of Rosenheim, hoping that his "healing rays" (Heilstrahlen) would cure them of war injuries, blindness, and other handicaps and ailments. Gröning spoke to them from a balcony and had small tin foil balls (allegedly charged with his healing powers) distributed to those that he was unable to touch in person. While he did not demand money, he is assumed to have received a substantial amount of donations. After six months Gröning was forced to