View source for Maurice Papon

{{Short description|French policeman, politician, and Axis collaborator (1910–2007)}}
{{Infobox officeholder
| name                = Maurice Papon
| image               = 11.12.67 Présentation officielle du Concorde (1967) - 53Fi1793 (Maurice Papon).jpg
| caption             = Papon in 1967
| office              = [[List of Budget Ministers of France|Minister of the Budget]]
| term_start          = 6 April 1978
| term_end            = 13 May 1981
| president           = [[Valéry Giscard d'Estaing]]
| primeminister       = [[Raymond Barre]]
| predecessor         = [[Pierre Bernard-Reymond]]
| successor           = [[Laurent Fabius]]
| office2             = [[Assemblée nationale (France)|Deputy]] for [[Cher's 3rd constituency]]
| term_start2         = 11 July 1968
| term_end2           = 6 May 1978
| predecessor2        = [[Laurent Bilbeau]]
| successor2          = [[Berthe Fiévet]]
| office3             = [[Paris Police Prefecture|Prefect of Police]] of [[Paris]]
| term_start3         = 15 March 1958
| term_end3           = 18 January 1967
| predecessor3        = [[André Lahillonne]]
| successor3          = [[Maurice Grimaud]]
| office8             = Mayor of [[Saint-Amand-Montrond]]
| term_start8         = 1971
| term_end8           = 1983
| predecessor8        = Robert Lazurick
| successor8          = Serge Vinçon
| office9             = Mayor of [[Gretz-Armainvilliers]]
| term_start9         = 1955
| term_end9           = 1958
| predecessor9        = Georges Travers
| successor9          = Anatole Gaucherot
| birth_date          = {{Birth date|1910|09|03|df=yes}}
| birth_place         = [[Gretz-Armainvilliers]], [[Seine-et-Marne]], France
| death_date          = {{Death date and age|2007|02|17|1910|09|03|df=yes}}
| death_place         = [[Pontault-Combault]], Seine-et-Marne, France
| nationality         = French
| occupation          = Civil servant
| party               = [[Union of Democrats for the Republic]]<br/>[[Rally for the Republic]]
| module              = {{Infobox criminal| child = yes
| conviction = [[Crimes against humanity]]
| conviction_penalty = 10 years imprisonment
| conviction_status = [[Deceased]]
| imprisoned = [[La Santé Prison]]
}}
}}

'''Maurice Papon''' ({{IPA|fr|mɔʁis papɔ̃, moʁ-|lang}}; 3 September 1910 &ndash; 17 February 2007) was a [[French people|French]] civil servant and Nazi collaborator who was convicted of [[crimes against humanity]] committed during the occupation of France. Papon led the police in major [[Prefectures in France|prefectures]] from the 1930s to the 1960s, before he became a [[Gaullist]] politician. When he was secretary general for the police in [[Bordeaux]] during [[World War II]], he participated in the deportation of more than 1,600 [[History of the Jews in France|Jews]]. He is also known for his activities in the [[Algerian War]] (1954–1962), during which he [[torture during the Algerian War|tortured insurgent prisoners]] as prefect of the [[Constantinois]] department, and ordered, as [[préfecture de police|prefect of the Paris police]], the [[1961 Paris massacre|1961 massacre]] of pro-[[National Liberation Front (Algeria)|National Liberation Front]] (FLN) demonstrators for violating a curfew that he had "advised".

In 1961, Maurice Papon was personally awarded the [[Legion of Honour]] by French President [[Charles de Gaulle]], whose government had been struggling with the FLN insurgency. Papon also commanded the Paris police in the [[Charonne subway massacre]] and the [[1961 Paris massacre]], during which between 200 and 300 Algerian demonstrators were deliberately killed by the Paris police. Forced to resign in 1967 after the suspicious [[forced disappearance]] of the Moroccan Marxist [[Mehdi Ben Barka]], with de Gaulle's support he was named as president of [[Sud Aviation]], the company which co-developed [[Concorde]].

After [[May 1968]], Papon was elected as a member of the [[French National Assembly]] and served several terms. From 1978 to 1981, he served in the cabinet of Prime Minister [[Raymond Barre]] under President [[Valéry Giscard d'Estaing]]. Between the [[1981 French presidential election|two rounds of the May 1981 presidential election]], where Giscard d'Estaing was running for a second term, details about Papon's past were leaked in {{lang|fr|[[Le Canard enchaîné]]}} newspaper. Documents signed by Papon were made public that showed his responsibility in the deportation of 1,690 Bordeaux Jews to [[Drancy internment camp]] from 1942–44. After a long investigation and protracted legal wranglings, he was eventually tried.

In 1998, Papon was convicted of crimes against humanity. He was released from prison early, in 2002, for ill health. He died in 2007.

==Early life and education==
{{unreferenced section|date=September 2015}}
Papon was born in [[Gretz-Armainvilliers]], [[Seine-et-Marne]], the son of a [[solicitor]] who became an [[industrialist]]. In 1919, when Papon was nine years old, his father was elected mayor in the ''commune'' and held that office until 1937. His father was also local representative (''conseiller général'') of [[Tournan-en-Brie]] and president of the canton's council in 1937.

Papon studied at the [[Lycée Louis-le-Grand]], in Paris.  Fellow students at the elite school were [[Georges Pompidou]], later President of France, and René Brouillet, who would join [[Charles de Gaulle]]'s cabinet after the war. Papon entered [[Sciences-Po]], the specialty university for future civil servants and politicians, and he studied law, psychology and sociology.

==Early career==
After entering [[public service]] at the age of 20, Papon was quickly promoted. During the second ''[[Cartel des gauches]]'', in February 1931, he worked in the cabinet of the Minister of Air, Jean-Louis Dumesnil.<ref name="Monde">[https://www.lemonde.fr/societe/article/2002/09/19/maurice-papon-une-carriere-francaise_291060_3224.html Maurice Papon, une carrière française], ''[[Le Monde]]'', 19 September 2002. {{in lang|fr}}</ref> He was named in the Ministry of Interior in July 1935 before he became chief of staff of the deputy director of departmental and communal affairs, in January 1936, under Maurice Sabatier.{{citation needed|date=September 2015}}

In June 1936, during the [[Popular Front (France)|Popular Front]] government, he was attached to the cabinet of Radical-Socialist François de Tessan, the vice-state secretary to the presidency of the council as well as a friend of his father. He became a member of the ''Ligue d'action universitaire républicaine et socialiste'', a Radical-Socialist youth group; [[Pierre Mendès France]] was also a member.<ref name="DatesFig">[http://www.lefigaro.fr/france/20070212.WWW000000448_les_dates_clefs_de_la_vie_de_maurice_papon.html Les dates clefs de la vie de Maurice Papon], ''[[Le Figaro]]'', 12 February 2007. {{in lang|fr}} Archived at [https://web.archive.org/web/20070221220743/http://www.lefigaro.fr/france/20070212.WWW000000448_les_dates_clefs_de_la_vie_de_maurice_papon.html archive.org] (retrieved 21 February 2007).</ref>

==World War II==
Mobilised on 26 August 1939 in the 2nd colonial infantry regiment, Papon was sent to [[Tripoli, Lebanon|Tripoli]], [[Greater Lebanon|French Lebanon]]. He was assigned to direct the [[French secret services]] in [[Ras al-Ayn|Ras-el-Aïn]], in the north of [[Mandate for Syria and the Lebanon|French Syria]].<ref name="Monde"/> Following the [[fall of France]], he was demobilized and returned to France by October 1940. Papon opted to serve the [[Vichy France|Vichy government]], his mentors, Jean-Louis Dumesnil and Maurice Sabatier, having voted on 10 July 1940 to grant all power to [[Philippe Pétain]].<ref name="Monde"/>

Papon was appointed as the vice-chief of bureau to the central administration of the Ministry of Interior, before he was named, in February 1941, as vice-prefect, 1st class. The next month, he became Maurice Sabatier's general secretary and general secretary of the administration for the Interior Minister. While Papon chose Vichy, 94 civil servants were dismissed at the end of the spring of 1941, 104 pensioned off and 79 moved. Now, as ''[[Le Monde]]'' put it in 2002, "neutrality is no longer an option."<ref name="Monde"/>

In May 1942, his chief, Sabatier, was named prefect of [[Aquitaine]] by [[Pierre Laval]], the head of the Vichy government. Papon was appointed as general secretary of the prefecture of [[Gironde]] in charge of Jewish Affairs.<ref name="DatesCarreer">[http://tempsreel.nouvelobs.com/actualites/societe/20070217.OBS3027/les_grandes_dates_de_sa_carriere.html "Les grandes dates de sa carrière"], ''Le Nouvel Observateur'', 17 February 2007. {{in lang|fr}}</ref>

Papon later claimed he had Gaullist tendencies during the war. A confidential report from the [[Nazis]] at the time shows that in April 1943, he identified himself as a "[[collaborationist]]" during "personal or official conversations." Another document from July 1943 called him a "good negotiator."<ref name="Monde"/>

During [[World War II]], Papon served as a senior police official in the Vichy régime. He was the second official in the [[Bordeaux]] region (the secretary-general of the [[prefectures in France|prefecture]] of [[Gironde]]) and the supervisor of its Service for Jewish Questions. With authority over Jewish affairs, Papon regularly [[Collaboration with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy|collaborated]] with [[Nazi Germany]]'s [[Schutzstaffel|SS]], which was responsible for the extermination of Jews.{{citation needed|date=September 2015}} Under his command, about 1,560 Jews were deported. Most were sent directly to the [[camp of Mérignac]] and then they were transported to [[Drancy internment camp]], near Paris, and finally to [[Auschwitz]] or other [[Nazi concentration camps|concentration camps]] for extermination.{{citation needed|date=September 2015}}

From July 1942 to August 1944, 12 trains left Bordeaux for Drancy; about 1,600 Jews, including 130 children under 13, were deported; few survived. Papon also implemented the [[antisemitic]] laws voted by the Vichy government. By July 1942, he had "dejudaised" 204 companies, sold 64 land properties owned by Jewish people and was in the process of "dejudaising" 493 other businesses.<ref name="Monde"/>

==Rehabilitation under the Fourth Republic==
{{Further|French Fourth Republic}}
Some ''résistants'' questioned his activities, but Papon avoided being judged by the [[Comité départemental de libération]] (CDL) of Bordeaux for his role during Vichy, as he was protected by Gaston Cusin.<ref name="Monde"/> He presented a certificate attesting that he had taken part in the Resistance, although its authenticity was later rejected.<ref name="DatesFig"/>

The CDL were in charge of the ''épuration'', the [[Pursuit of Nazi collaborators|pursuit of collaborators]]. During the [[Liberation of France]], the Resistance in Bordeaux was very weak. It lacked members because of internal dissensions and German repression. Maurice Sabatier, Papon's mentor and chief, was accused by the CDL of having "boasted" that his prefecture was one of the most efficient concerning the "percentage" of "deportations." He was sentenced only to a suspension of several months during which he was paid half his salary. In 1948, he was awarded the [[Légion d'honneur|Legion of Honour]] for general wartime service.<ref name="Monde"/>

Papon became chief of staff of the ''[[Commissioner of the Republic (Provisional Government)|commissaire de la République]]'', a high civil servant that replaced Vichy's prefects.<ref name="DatesFig"/> He effectively retained the same functions as during the war. [[Charles de Gaulle]] and others "perfectly knew his past," according to [[Olivier Guichard]].<ref name="Roussel">Éric Roussel, ''Charles de Gaulle'', éd. Gallimard, 2002, p. 460 {{in lang|fr}}{{ISBN?}}</ref> De Gaulle had received him personally after the liberation of Bordeaux in September 1944.<ref name="Monde"/>

Papon was first named [[prefectures of France|prefect]] of the [[Landes (department)|Landes]] department in August 1944 and then chief of staff of the commissaire of the Republic of Aquitaine, under Gaston Cusin. When Cusin left Bordeaux, his successor, [[Jacques Soustelle]], a Gaullist [[Résistant]], confirmed Papon into his functions. A few months later, [[Maurice Bourgès-Maunoury]] also confirmed him there.{{citation needed|date=September 2015}}

In October 1945, Papon was appointed as [[French rule in Algeria|vice-director of Algeria]] at the Minister of Interior. A year later, he became secretary of state to the Ministry of Interior [[Jean Biondi]] of the socialist [[French Section of the Workers' International]] (SFIO). Eric Roussel, a De Gaulle biographer, wrote that to the general and president, who was concerned with the survival of the Republic against undemocratic movements:<blockquote>"the authority of the state is so sacred, the danger constituted by the communists so intolerable, that he is disposed to accept without too many problems of conscience men who may have, for a fairly long time, worked on behalf of Vichy."<ref name="Roussel"/></blockquote>

Papon was named prefect of [[Corsica]] in January 1947 by [[Léon Blum]]'s government and, in October 1949, prefect of [[Constantine, Algeria|Constantine]] in Algeria by Radical [[Henri Queuille]]'s government (with SFIO member [[Jules Moch]] at the Interior). He went to [[Morocco]] in 1954 as general secretary of the protectorate, where he helped repress Moroccan [[nationalism|nationalists]]. He returned to Constantine in 1956 during the [[Algerian War]] (1954–1962), where he actively participated in the repression, including the use of [[torture during the Algerian War|torture against the civilian population]].<ref>[[Raphaëlle Branche]], [http://www.mfo.ac.uk/Publications/comptesrendus/branche.htm The French Army and Torture During the Algerian War (1954–1962)] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071020184243/http://www.mfo.ac.uk/Publications/comptesrendus/branche.htm |date=2007-10-20}}, mfo.ac.uk (2004); accessed 1 September 2015. {{in lang|en}}</ref>

==Prefect of Police of Paris==
{{more citations needed section|date=September 2015}}
In March 1958, Papon was appointed [[prefecture of police|Prefect of Police]] for Paris by the government of Radical [[Félix Gaillard]].

===May 1958 crisis===
Papon thus had an important role in the [[May 1958 crisis]], which brought de Gaulle to power and led to the founding of the [[French Fifth Republic|Fifth Republic]]. He took part in the secret [[Gaullism|Gaullist]] meetings that assured the use of the crisis to prepare de Gaulle's nomination as President of the council and to grant him special powers.<ref>See, in particular, Eric Roussel, ''Charles de Gaulle'', op. cit., pp. 598–99</ref> On 3 July 1958, he managed to get what, according to ''Le Monde'', he could "never have dreamed of" a ''[[Médaille de la Résistance|Carte d'Ancien Combattant de la Resistance]]''.<ref name="Monde"/> On 12 July 1961, President de Gaulle bestowed on him the French [[Légion d'honneur|Legion of Honour]] for service to the state.<ref name="ChronoFig"/>

===October 1961 massacre===
Papon oversaw the repression during the [[1961 Paris massacre]]: on 17 October 1961, a large peaceful march, organised by the Algerian [[National Liberation Front (Algeria)|National Liberation Front]], broke a curfew that had been "advised" by Papon because of ostensible "concerns" on the group's sponsoring of a series of bombings throughout France. The police arrested 11,000 persons, who claimed that it was simply because of their appearance.<ref name="Bataille">{{in lang|fr}} Jean-Luc Einaudi: "La bataille de Paris: 17 octobre 1961", 1991; {{ISBN|2-02-013547-7}}</ref><ref name=":0">{{Cite book|last=Fenby|first=Jonathan|title=The History of Modern France: From the Revolution to the War on Terror|publisher=Simon & Schuster UK|year=2015|isbn=978-1-4711-2930-8|location=London|pages=374–376|language=English}}</ref>

They were mostly people from the [[Maghreb]] but also included [[Spanish people|Spanish]], [[Portuguese people|Portuguese]] and [[Italian people|Italians]]. They were sent, in a tragic echo of the Vichy regime, on public buses to the [[Parc des Expositions]], the [[Vélodrome d'Hiver]] and other such centres that had been used under Vichy as [[concentration camps in France|internment centers]]. A massacre occurred in the courtyards of the Prefecture of Police, and the detainees were held without specific charges. In the following days at the Parc des Expositions, detainees were subject to inhumane treatments. Arrests continued throughout October 1961. Meanwhile, bodies were found floating in the river [[Seine]].<ref name=":0"/>

Up to 200 people were killed during the events, according to a prominent historian, Jean-Luc Einaudi.<ref name="Bataille"/> Because some archives have been destroyed and others remain classified, the exact number of the dead remains unknown. At the time, the French government, headed by de Gaulle, with [[Roger Frey]] as Interior Minister, admitted only two of the dead. A government inquiry in 1999 concluded 48 drownings on the one night and 142 similar deaths of Algerians in the weeks before and after, 110 of whom were found in the Seine. It also concluded the true toll was almost certainly higher. According to ''Le Monde'', Papon "organized the silence." It was only in the 1990s that historians began to speak out.<ref name="Monde"/> The French government reluctantly recognized 48 deaths, but the Paris Archives, consulted by historian [[David Assouline]], note 70 persons dead. Papon never acknowledged responsibility for that massacre.{{citation needed|date=September 2015}}

===February 1962 massacre===
Papon was also in charge during the [[Charonne subway massacre|8 February 1962 demonstration]] against the [[Organisation armée secrète|OAS]]'s violent campaign for "[[French Algeria]]." Organised by the [[French Communist Party]] (PCF), the demonstration had been banned by the state. Nine members of the [[Confédération Générale du Travail]] (CGT) trade union, most of them communists, were killed at [[Charonne métro station]] by the police, directed by Papon under the same government. The funerals on 13 February 1962 of the nine individuals killed (one being Fanny Dewerpe) were attended by hundreds of thousands of people.<ref>{{cite news|title=Charonne, passé au scalpel de l'historien (interview with historian Alain Dewerpe, member of the École des hautes études en sciences sociales)|date=6 February 2006|newspaper=[[L'Humanité]]|url=https://www.humanite.fr/journal/2006-02-07/2006-02-07-823528}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|title=Charonne et le 17 octobre enfin réunis|date=11 February 2006|newspaper=[[L'Humanité]]|url=https://www.humanite.fr/journal/2006-02-11/2006-02-11-823808}}</ref><ref>Alain Dewerpe, ''Charonne, 8 février 1962, anthropologie historique d'un massacre d'Etat'', [[Gallimard]], 2006. {{ISBN?}}</ref>

On 8 February 2007, the [[Place du 8 Février 1962]], a square near the metro station, was dedicated by [[Bertrand Delanoë]], the [[mayor of Paris]], after bouquets of flowers were deposited at the foot of a commemorative plaque installed inside the metro station in which the killings occurred.{{citation needed|date=September 2015}}

===Ben Barka affair===
Papon was forced to leave his functions after the October 1965 kidnapping, in Paris, of [[Mehdi Ben Barka]], a Moroccan dissident and leader of the [[Tricontinental Conference]], in October 1965. Two French police agents and French secret agents participated in the [[forced disappearance]] that was at least ordered by Moroccan Interior Minister [[Mohamed Oufkir]]. It is still an unsolved case, involving various international intelligence agencies.

De Gaulle was forced to ask for Papon's resignation in early 1967;<ref name="Monde"/> Papon's successor was [[Maurice Grimaud]].

==Company president and government minister==
[[File:11.12.67 Présentation officielle du Concorde (1967) - 53Fi1800.jpg|thumb|Maurice Papon shaking [[Tony Benn]]'s hand during the presentation of the [[Concorde]].]]
De Gaulle helped Papon become president of the company [[Sud Aviation]] (1967–1968). The firm, which later merged into ''[[Aérospatiale]]'', built the first [[Concorde]] plane in 1969. During May 1968, he wrote: "Is it the return of the Occupation? The young German [[anarchy|anarchist]] [Daniel] [[Daniel Cohn-Bendit|Cohn-Bendit]] is freely arranging the riots."<ref>French "Est-ce le retour de l'Occupation ?", ose-t-il demander. Le jeune anarchiste allemand Cohn-Bendit règle librement l'émeute (...) " in ''Le Monde'', "Maurice Papon, une carrière française", ibid.</ref> The new chief of the Paris police managed to take care of the situation without a single death.{{citation needed|date=September 2015}}{{Ambiguous|date=April 2025}}

Papon was elected deputy of [[Cher (department)|Cher]] as candidate of the Gaullist [[Union of Democrats for the Republic]] (UDR) in May 1968. He was re-elected in 1973 and again in 1978, now for the neo-Gaullist [[Rally for the Republic]] (RPR). He was elected mayor of [[Saint-Amand-Montrond]] in 1971 and 1977. Papon was director of the ''Verreries mécaniques champenoises'', a [[glass art]] firm in [[Reims]].<ref>{{Base Mérimée|IA51000178|Verrerie dite Verreries Mécaniques Champenoises, puis Verre Mouvement Création.}}</ref>

On the evening of 4–5 June 1977, a commando shot at workers on [[strike action|strike]], killing CGT trade-unionist Pierre Maître and severely injuring two others. Four of the five members of the commando, members of the CGT were arrested by the police.<ref>Jean-Paul Piérot ''[https://www.humanite.fr/2007-06-04_Politique_L-assassin-etait-chez-Citroen L'Assassin était chez Citroën] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070911033949/http://www.humanite.fr/2007-06-04_Politique_L-assassin-etait-chez-Citroen |date=2007-09-11}}'' L'Humanité, 4 June 2007.</ref> The leader of the commando and shooter, who received a 20-year sentence, and the driver were members of the [[Service d'Action Civique]].

From 1968 to 1971, Papon was treasurer of the UDR. He became President of the Finance Commission of the [[National Assembly of France|National Assembly]] in 1972 and was the deputy presenting the budget (''rapporteur général du budget'') from 1973 to 1978. He served as Budget Minister under [[Prime Minister of France|Prime Minister]] [[Raymond Barre]] and President [[Valéry Giscard d'Estaing]] from 1978 to 1981, before finishing his mayoral term in 1983 and renouncing further political activity.{{citation needed|date=September 2015}}

==Trial, prison and release==
{{more citations needed|section|date=March 2018}}
Evidence of his responsibility in the [[Holocaust]] emerged in 1981 and throughout rest of the 1980s, he fought a string of legal battles.

===The ''Canard enchaîné'' leaks===

On 6 May 1981, ''[[Le Canard enchaîné]]'' newspaper published an article, "Papon, aide de camps. Quand un ministre de Giscard faisait déporter des juifs" ("Papon, [[Aide-de-camp|aide of camps]]: When one of Giscard's ministers deported the Jews"). It also made public several documents that had been signed by Papon and showed his responsibility in the deportation of 1,690 Jews of Bordeaux to Drancy from 1942–44.<ref name="ChronoFig">[http://www.lefigaro.fr/france/20070217.WWW000000083_les_grandes_dates_de_l_affaire_papon.html The important dates of the Papon Affair], ''[[Le Figaro]]'', 17 February 2007. {{in lang|fr}}</ref> The documents had been provided to the newspaper by one of the survivors of Papon's raid, Michel Slitinsky (1925–2012). Slitinsky had received them from historian Michel Bergés, who had discovered them in February 1981 in the department's archives.<ref name="Express">[http://www.lexpress.fr/info/france/dossier/papon/dossier.asp?ida=408819 Les Français et Vichy] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070109021241/http://www.lexpress.fr/info/france/dossier/papon/dossier.asp?ida=408819|date=9 January 2007}}, ''[[L'Express (France)|L'Express]]'', 2 October 1997. {{in lang|fr}}</ref> The publication of the 6 May article occurred four days before the second round of the [[1981 French presidential election|presidential election]], opposing candidate [[François Mitterrand]], who would win the race, and incumbent president Valéry Giscard d'Estaing under whom Papon was a cabinet minister.{{Citation needed|date=December 2023}}

===Legal battles===
Noted [[Nazi hunter]]s [[Serge Klarsfeld|Serge]] and [[Beate Klarsfeld]] helped bring him to trial, where Serge and his son, Arno, represented the families of the victims. Other important collaborators, such as [[René Bousquet]], head of the French police under Vichy, did not go to trial. Bousquet himself would be assassinated in 1993, shortly before his trial was to start. His adjunct, [[Jean Leguay]], died of cancer in 1989 before he could go on trial, a decade after he had been indicted for crimes against humanity for his role in the [[Vel' d'Hiv Roundup]] in July 1942. In 1995, President Chirac recognized the French state's complicity in the roundup.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1995/07/17/world/chirac-affirms-france-s-guilt-in-fate-of-jews.html|title=Chirac Affirms France's Guilt In Fate of Jews|last=Simons|first=Marlise|date=1995-07-17|work=The New York Times|access-date=2019-10-11|language=en-US|issn=0362-4331}}</ref>

Papon had begun writing his memoirs before his death; he criticised Chirac's official recognition of the involvement of the French state in the Holocaust.<ref name="Memoirs">[http://www.lefigaro.fr/france/20070220.WWW000000360_les_memoires_secretes_de_papon.html "Les mémoires secrètes de Papon"], ''[[Le Figaro]]'', 20 February 2007. {{in lang|en}}</ref>

Charges of crimes against humanity, complicity of assassination and abuse of authority were first brought against Papon in January 1983. Three months later, Papon sued the families of the victims for [[defamation]] but eventually lost.<ref name="DatesFig"/> The slow investigation was cancelled in 1987 because of legal technicalities (such as a mistake by the [[inquisitorial system|investigating magistrate]]). New charges were laid in 1988, in October 1990 and in June 1992.<ref name="DatesFig"/> The investigation was finished in July 1995.

In December 1995, Papon was sent to the ''[[Cour d'Assises]]'' and was accused of organising four deportation trains (later increased to eight trains). The French press contrasted Papon, the Bordeaux official who was "[[just following orders]]" in the commission of murder, to [[Aristides de Sousa Mendes]], the Portuguese Consul in Bordeaux at the time, who defied his government's orders and saved lives.<ref>Daniel Gervais, [http://www.liberation.fr/tribune/1996/03/22/bordeaux-1940-l-honneur-d-un-fonctionnaire-aristides-de-sousa-mendes_165097 "Bordeaux, 1940: l'honneur d'un fonctionnaire. Aristides de Sousa Mendes"], Libération.fr, 22 March 1996; retrieved 18 March 2014.</ref>

===The trial===
Papon finally went to trial on 8 October 1997, after 14 years of bitter legal wrangling. The trial was the longest in French history and went on until 2 April 1998. Papon was accused of ordering the arrest and deportation of 1,560 Jews, some children or elderly, between 1942 and 1944.{{citation needed|date=March 2018}}

As in [[Adolf Eichmann]]'s [[Eichmann trial|trial]] 30 years earlier, one of the issues of the trial was to determine to what extent an individual should be held culpable in a [[chain of responsibility]]. Papon's lawyers argued that he was a mid-level official, not the person making decisions about whom to deport. His lawyers argued that he had done the most good he could in the circumstances and had ensured that those to be deported were treated well while in his custody. The prosecution argued that the defence of following orders was not sufficient and that he bore at least some of the responsibility for the deportations. Calling on assistance from the best historians of the period, they dismantled his arguments of having tried to "humanise" the conditions of deportations of the Jews.{{citation needed|date=March 2018}}

While Papon claimed that he had worked to grant humane conditions of transport to the Camp of Mérignac, historians testified that his concerns were motivated by efficiency. Although Papon claimed that he had used ordinary trains and not livestock trains, as had been used by the [[SNCF]] in numerous other transfers, the historians asserted that he was trying to prevent any demonstration of sympathy toward the Jews from the local population.{{citation needed|date=September 2015}}

Leading historians of the period who testified as experts during the trial included [[Jean-Pierre Azéma]], [[Henry Rousso]], [[Maurice Rajsfus]], [[René Rémond]], [[Henri Amouroux]] and American historian [[Robert Paxton]].<ref name="Express"/> The defence tried to exclude Paxton's testimony by claiming the international and national context was irrelevant, but the magistrate dismissed that argument and said that "crimes against humanity" necessarily imply a larger context.{{citation needed|date=September 2015}}

Paxton, an expert in Vichy history, dismissed the "preconceived ideas" according to which Vichy had "hoped to protect French Jews" by handing "foreign Jews" over to the Germans: "From the start, at the summit, it was known that their departure [of the French Jews] was unavoidable.... Italians had protected the Jews. And the French authorities complained about it to the Germans.... The French state, itself, has participated in the politics of extermination of the Jews." In his 36-minute final speech to the jury, Papon rarely evoked those killed during the Holocaust. He portrayed himself as a victim of "the saddest chapter in French legal history." He denounced a "[[Moscow Trials|Moscow Trial]]" and compared his status to that of the Jew [[Alfred Dreyfus]] in the 19th century.<ref name="Express"/>

===Verdict, appeals and escape===
Having proved that Papon had organized eight "[[Holocaust train|death trains]]," the plaintiffs' lawyers recommended a 20-year prison term, as opposed to [[life imprisonment]], which is usually the norm for such crimes. Papon was convicted in 1998 as having been complicit with the Nazis in crimes against humanity.<ref name="nytimes.com">{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/18/world/europe/18papon.html|title=Maurice Papon, Convicted Vichy Official, 96, Dies|first=Craig R.|last=Whitney|newspaper=The New York Times |date=February 18, 2007|accessdate=November 7, 2021}}</ref> He was given a ten-year sentence but served less than three years. His lawyers filed an appeal in the [[Court of Cassation (France)|Court of Cassation]], but Papon fled to [[Switzerland]] under the name of [[Robert de La Rochefoucauld]], in violation of a French law that requires one to report to prison before the beginning of the appeal hearing. He was recaptured in 1999, but was required to serve little time because of his advanced age and medical problems.<ref name="nytimes.com"/>

The real Robert de La Rochefoucauld, a hero of the French Resistance who maintained that Papon had worked with the Resistance, had given Papon his passport to enable him to escape.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/9365640/Count-Robert-de-La-Rochefoucauld.html|location=London, UK|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120709150150/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/9365640/Count-Robert-de-La-Rochefoucauld.html|archive-date=9 July 2012|title=Count Robert de La Rochefoucauld}}</ref> Papon's appeal, scheduled for 21 October 1999,<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/1999/oct/21/paulwebster?INTCMP=ILCNETTXT3487|title=French justice on trial as Papon flees|newspaper=[[The Guardian]]|author=Paul Webster|date=21 October 1999|access-date=13 September 2011|location=London, UK}}</ref> was automatically denied by the Court because of his flight.

===Prison and release===
[[File:La-Sante-Prison-MCB.jpg|thumb|Papon was incarcerated at [[La Santé Prison]], in [[Paris]], in 1999.]]France issued an [[Interpol notice|international arrest warrant]], and Papon was quickly apprehended by the Swiss police and extradited.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/1999/oct/23/jonhenley|title=Swiss extradite Nazi collaborator Papon|newspaper=The Guardian|date=23 October 1999|access-date=11 September 2011|location=London, UK|first=Jon|last=Henley}}</ref> On 22 October 1999, Papon began serving his sentence at [[La Santé Prison]] in Paris.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/news/2007/feb/19/guardianobituaries.france?INTCMP=SRCH|title=Obituary of Maurice Papon|newspaper=The Guardian|date=19 February 2007|access-date=11 September 2011|location=London|first=Douglas|last=Johnson}}</ref>

Papon applied for release on the grounds of poor health in March 2000, but President Jacques Chirac denied the petition three times. Papon continued to fight legal battles while he was in prison. His lawyers appealed to the [[European Court of Human Rights]], where they argued that the French court's denial of his appeal on a technicality, rather than on the merits of the case, constituted a violation of Papon's right to appeal his conviction. The Court agreed in July 2002, admonishing the Court of Cassation and awarding Papon 429,192 [[French francs]] (about 65,400 [[euros]]) in legal costs but no damages.{{citation needed|date=September 2015}}

Meanwhile, Papon's lawyers pursued a separate action in France and petitioned for his release under the terms of a March 2002 law, which provided for the release of ill and elderly prisoners to receive outside medical care. His doctors affirmed that Papon, now 92 years old, was essentially incapacitated. He became the second person released under the terms of the law and left jail on 18 September 2002, less than three years into his sentence. Former Justice Minister [[Robert Badinter]] expressed support for the release, prompting indignation from relatives of the victims as well as Arno and Serge Klarsfeld.<ref>[http://www.ina.fr/archivespourtous/index.php?vue=notice&from=fulltext&mc=Badinter,%20Robert&num_notice=1&total_notices=259 Film interview of Robert Badinter, Arno Klarsfeld and Gérard Boulanger], ina.fr; accessed 1 September 2015.</ref>

Relatives of Papon's victims and human rights [[nongovernmental organisations]] pointed out that many other detainees did not benefit from that law (including detainees in the terminal stages of [[AIDS]] as well as [[Nathalie Ménigon]], a member of ''[[Action directe (armed group)|Action Directe]]'' who was still imprisoned {{As of|2007|lc=on}} despite suffering from partial [[hemiplegia]]).

The ''[[Ligue des droits de l'homme]]'' (LDH, Human Rights League) criticised the inequality before the law, as Papon was freed but not other prisoners.<ref name="Last">[http://www.rfi.fr/actufr/articles/086/article_49780.asp Maurice Papon: la dernière polémique], ''[[Radio France Internationale|RFI]]'', 20 February 2007 {{in lang|fr}}</ref>

==Later life and funeral==
In March 2004, the chancery of the Legion of Honour accused Papon of illegally wearing his decoration, which had been stripped of him after his conviction, while he was being photographed for a press interview for ''[[Le Point]]''. He was tried and fined €2,500. In February 2007, Papon had heart surgery for [[congestive heart failure]]. While the surgery was initially thought to be successful, he died a few days later on 17 February, at the age of 96.<ref>[https://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/6357541.stm Surgery for French collaborator], ''[[BBC]]'', 13 February 2007. {{in lang|en}}</ref>

His attorney, Francis Vuillemin, declared that Papon should be buried with insignia of Commander of the Legion of Honour. That triggered public expressions of indignation from all French political parties except [[Jean-Marie Le Pen]]'s [[far-right]] [[National Front (France)|National Front]].<ref name="Last"/>

[[Bernard Accoyer]], head of the [[Union for a Popular Movement]] group in the French National Assembly, suggested that as the high chancellor of the Order of the Legion of Honour, Chirac might personally intervene to prevent that, but Chirac did not do so. Papon was buried, with the insignia, on 21 February 2007.<ref>''[[Le Figaro]]'', 18 February 2007, [http://www.lefigaro.fr/france/20070218.WWW000000046_maurice_papon_sera_t_il_enterre_avec_la_legion_d_honneur_.html "Maurice Papon sera-t-il enterré avec la Légion d'honneur?"], lefigaro.fr; accessed 1 September 2015.</ref><ref>[http://www.lefigaro.fr/france/20070221.WWW000000397_papon_enterre_avec_sa_legion_d_honneur.html "Papon enterré avec sa Légion d'honneur"], ''[[Le Figaro]]'', 21 February 2007. {{in lang|fr}}</ref><ref>''Maurice Papon, enterré décoré'', [[Libération]], 21 February 2007 ([http://www.liberation.fr/actualite/societe/236528.FR.php read here])</ref> A son of one of Papon's victims observed of Papon, "Besides being a remorseless dead man, he also wishes to remain a vengeful one."<ref name="Last"/>

After his death, The ''[[Irish Independent]]'' wrote in an article: 'Have no doubt Hitler would have wiped out Arabs after Jews':<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20181121205350/https://www.independent.ie/unsorted/features/have-no-doubt-hitler-would-have-wiped-out-arabs-after-jews-26277585.html Have no doubt Hitler would have wiped out Arabs after Jews, ''Irish Independent'', 24 February 2007]</ref><blockquote>Maurice Papon, lowered into his grave along with his precious Legion d'honneur last week, proved what many Arabs have long suspected but generally refuse to acknowledge: that bureaucrats and racists and others who worked for Hitler regarded all Semitic people as their enemies and that – had Hitler's armies reached the Middle East – they would ultimately have found a "final solution" to the "Arab question," just as they did for the Jews of Europe. Papon's responsibility for the 1942 arrest and deportation of 1,600 Jews in and around Bordeaux – 223 children among them, all shipped off to the Drancy camp and then to Auschwitz – was proved without the proverbial shadow of a doubt at his 1998 trial. Less clear were the exact number of Algerians murdered by his police force in Paris and hurled into the Seine in 1961.</blockquote>

==See also==
{{Portal|France|Biography}}
*[[Klaus Barbie]]
*[[Paul Touvier]]
*[[René Bousquet]]
{{Clear}}

==References==
{{Reflist|30em}}

==External links==
*[[Simon Kitson]], (University of Portsmouth French History Interview series)
* [http://www.port.ac.uk/special/france1815to2003/chapter8/interviews/filetodownload,27676,en.pdf "Bousquet, Touvier and Papon: Three Vichy personalities"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110520113939/http://www.port.ac.uk/special/france1815to2003/chapter8/interviews/filetodownload,27676,en.pdf |date=2011-05-20 }}
*[http://www.ina.fr/archivespourtous/pop.php?id=f2b1f3baa0666e91abb26a782cdbb9b1 Video of the opening of the Papon trial], [[Institut national de l'audiovisuel|INA]] archive website
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20071021113857/http://www.trial-ch.org/no_cache/fr/trial-watch/profil/db/facts/maurice_papon_188.html "Maurice Papon's trial"], ''Trial'', video
* [http://www.yadvashem.org/odot_pdf/Microsoft%20Word%20-%205701.pdf Yad Vashem :Papon trial]
*[http://www.legifrance.gouv.fr/WAspad/UnTexteDeJorf?numjo=PREX9903836A Decision by the chancellor of the Legion of Honour], related to Papon's conviction and the stripping of his decoration {{in lang|fr}}
*[http://cmiskp.echr.coe.int/tkp197/view.asp?action=html&documentId=698510&portal=hbkm&source=externalbydocnumber&table=F69A27FD8FB86142BF01C1166DEA398649 ECHR judgment]

{{Vichy France}}
{{Holocaust France}}
{{Sud Aviation}}

{{Authority control}}

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