Nazi-era collaborator Maurice Papon, 96, dies

Well-educated
Born Sept. 3, 1910, in Gretz-Armainvilliers, where he returned after leaving prison, Papon was the son of a notary public. He attended Paris' prestigious Louis-le-Grand high school and graduated from the Sorbonne University with a degree in law and economics.

He entered the French administration in 1936 and served the leftist Popular Front government of Leon Blum.

After the French capitulated to the Germans in 1940, Papon served Marshal Philippe Petain, a World War I hero who headed the Vichy government in World War II, a puppet regime of the Nazis named after the spa-town where it was based.

Papon was promoted five times during the war, becoming police supervisor in the Gironde from 1942-44.

After the war, he became Cabinet director of Gaston Gusin, named by de Gaulle to administer Bordeaux when the Germans pulled out in August 1944.

He later headed Algerian affairs in the Interior Ministry and went on to head prefectures in Constantine, in eastern Algeria — then part of France — and in Corsica.

Papon would have slipped quietly into retirement after President Giscard's defeat in 1981 were it not for the perseverance of Bordeaux historian Michel Slitinsky, who narrowly escaped a Papon-ordered roundup.

Slitinsky, whose father perished in Auschwitz, stumbled on documents revealing Papon's role and gave them to a newspaper for publication. Klarsfeld, the Nazi hunter, then fought to bring Papon to trial.

Because of Papon's impeccable credentials, and efforts at the highest levels to shield him, the case dragged through France's complex legal system.

In 1994, President Francois Mitterrand admitted in a television interview that he had intervened to stall the case.

Refused to back down
Following his conviction, Papon was stripped of his prestigious Legion of Honor award. He nevertheless wore the Legion of Honor decoration, and was photographed wearing it, in a 2004 interview with newsmagazine Le Point. He was later fined for donning the decoration.

Another shadow from France's past haunted Papon even after his conviction with the publication of a book charging that he had been behind the drowning of perhaps several hundred Algerians in Paris.

Algeria was fighting a brutal independence war with France at the time. During an Oct. 17, 1961, demonstration, Algerians were beaten, shot and thrown into the Seine River. The incident was evoked at Papon's trial, but he blamed infighting among Algerians.

However, an Interior Ministry study concluded that French authorities hid the scope of the crackdown and said Papon issued a memo saying flagrant offenders "should be shot on sight."

Papon filed a defamation suit in 1999 against the book's author, Jean-Luc Einaudi, but a court dismissed it.

Papon is survived by his three children. His wife died in March 1998 during his trial.

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